Ever since Chris Jericho was forcefully escorted out of a WWE arena in what feels like too many months ago, fans of the “The Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla” have been clamoring for his return. There have been more popular and overall entertaining characters in WWE’s history, especially during the Attitude era where everything and anything was fair game, but in the confines of the new PG-era WWE that aims to be more entertainment than wrestling, no one can intrigue fans weeks on end like Y2J himself.
His return on 2January was no coincidence, nor was it really a surprise. Even during last night’s Raw there were several messages reminding the ‘Universe’ of his return and that he was in the building. Many fans were watching the Ziggler vs Punk match closer than normal, knowing very well that it would be an opportune time for the ‘mystery man’ to crash the party. It wasn’t to be. Instead Jericho came out unusually in the mid-show and did so to what looked like a (obviously fake) earthquake. It was probably playing to the ‘end of the world as we know it’ angle that was pushed heavily over the past several months, but still felt a bit strange.
Then the lights went out and ff it wasn’t clear before, the return of Jericho was validated as soon as his silhouette appeared wearing a jacket that would have made Michael Jackson’s wardrobe look bland. It was visibly too large, had blinking lights that even a style-less Christmas tree would refuse to wear, and if that wasn’t enough it had sleeves made out of mail armor. If you thought Jericho’s jacket, or anything else Y2J did in his previous return was overly lavish, then we were witnessing the 2.0 version.
The next 10 or so minutes consisted of the Canadian born wrestler ‘soaking in’ the return into his still six-pack rocking body, or perhaps it was a case of leeching out the excitement from the ‘hypocrite’ fans’ souls. There was a definite air of parody and sarcasm involved, which only became more apparent as the segment aired on and on without a single word. Was it satire, was it a move to turn heel, or was it just a part of something much bigger? It didn’t matter as Jericho left the building with a huge grin on his face and seemed to walk away having accomplished what he came to do.
The joke, it turned out, was on us
No one really knows where Jericho is going with this, and whether it will be worth all the hype and build-up. But at this point, it doesn’t really matter because Jericho has already gotten us hooked to whatever he chooses to do next. Many believe Chris Jericho to be the best speaker on the mic in the WWE, but last night he proved that his command of the crowd and his acting ability was just as equally impressive. Who else could go from the biggest pop in months to boos within 10 minutes without a single word or offensive action AND become the number 1 trending topic on Twitter worldwide. With most returning stars, simply having their music drop, seeing them walk down the aisle, hearing their catch phrase, and witnessing them doing their finisher once again is more than enough. For Jericho, he’s the unique type of performer that innovates, surprises, and sometimes bewilders – but he always does it his unique way and it’s something that is truly amazing to witness when it’s pulled off right.
While watching Jericho’s return for the first time yesterday many different possibilities and scenarios were rapidly shooting inside my head, none of which materialized:
-Jericho is drunk, or high, or both
-Jericho is really really happy to be back in the WWE
-Jericho perhaps just came back one last time to say hi to the fans and then quit wrestling forever
-Jericho wanted to stick it to McMahon and the WWE creative team and create havoc one last time before he would be fired forever
-Jericho wasn’t actually there himself, it was just his doppelganger that showed up
-Jericho would show up later in the evening and bomb the six man tag team match that main-evented Raw
When the RAW credits initially rolled I had a slight sense of disappointment because after months of anticipation, I felt there was something missing. Then it hit me as that overly grand smirk of his replayed in my head…we had been trolled. Chris Jericho performed the WWE version of ‘rickrolling‘ and we watched and cheered for it for 10 minutes before ever realizing it. Classic Jericho – the best in the world at what he does.
Loading ...
Comments