Chris Jericho's Return : One Of The Biggest Letdowns

[ProWrestlingFan]

Chris Jericho returned to WWE in 2012 after a 1 1/2 year hiatus. Jericho's return was good but WWE ruined it by having him turn heel. All he did was remain silent for weeks then in his buildup with CM Punk all he did was run his mouth for 2-3 weeks via titantron and then after a mediocre performance at Wrestlemania he lost to CM Punk.

Jericho's return was a huge letdown in my opinion. Jericho isn't that all of a great. Never been the top guy for the company and has only a few decent title reigns in 2008.

He has ok mic skills and on 4/2/2012 RAW he slipped on live TV

What do you think about Jericho's return this year and his legacy overall ?

 

[rge2010]

I agree. Jerichos return has been appalling in my opinion.

The video packages were cool, but they didnt make any sense. This dominant force they were talking about failed to win at the Rumble and failed to beat Punk for the Title. Not only that, we never found out who 'she' was and 'the end of the world as you know it' stuff looks utterly pathetic now!!!

Moving on to the silence promos - utter crap. Then losing the Rumble made him look weak. His promos with Punk leading up to Mania were very good, as was the match but he lost, which again made him look bad.

Compare The Rock and Brock Lesnars return to that of Jerichos? It makes Jericho looks second rate, which effectively he is. Jericho has and never will be 'that guy', he is a solid mid/main eventer with very good in ring ability and very good promo skills but he just doesnt have 'it'.

He is an IWC darling aswell. Which I dont get? Because these fans dispise The Rock for turning his back on 'their' precious business but Jericho gets a pass for sing for his crap 'Rock band', host crap game shows and Dance with the stars...lolol

 

[titan83]

The Rock also slipped on TV once.. he then came back and hit a peoples elbow. Nobody was talking about 'the slip' but about the ass kicking after it. Much like no one cares if Jericho slipped, because what he did after that made for fantastic televsion.

It doesn't matter if he had a few 'ok' title runs here and there because his popularity speaks for itself. The audience was chanting 'Y2J'.. not CM Punk. Why? because Jericho did what he does best. Okay, granted.. he may not be THEE best in the world, but he's in there somewhere. Besides, the Undisputed title run was gold. They picked Jericho for that because they knew he would make it just that!

His return wasn't exactly The Rock's triumphant comeback, and perhaps they didnt pop as hard as they did for Lesnar. But you need to remember, Jericho had all that in '07, and i think even Jericho knew that lightning wasn't going to strike twice for him. Personally, i'm glad he's back. I'm a Jericho fan of old.. from the begining of his career, and i'll continue to be a fan up until he decides to hang it up for good.

And for Mania, his match might have been slightly mediocre, but then Steel Chairs and such aside.. when you think about it, his match with Punk was probably the best pure wrestling match of the night.

 

[hoffman40]

Firstly, I love Jericho and always have. So the rumblings that he isn't a top tier talent and not one of the best are greatly misinformed. When he was in ECW he was a showstopper, when he went to WCW his matches were saving terrible monday night and ppv cards, when he first came to WWE he had easily the greatest character debut of all time and then IMO surpassed the hype by being the first Undisputed Champion, then after a 2 year hiatus he comes back reinvented and better than ever. Jericho has always had the mic work and promo skills of one of the greats, he's right up there with Rock, Flair, Austin, Freebird, and Dusty. So crapping on his career for this latest "return" isn't necessarily fair.

However, it seems that WWE had a plan for this whole thing and then they deviated from the plan. I never understood why WWE/VKM change plans in mid program?!? The IWC has affected things yes but the program is still the program and deviating stops it in its tracks. I think Jericho should've come back the exact same way, WON the Royal Rumble, jawed with Punk about being the BITW, and WON at Wrestlemania. That sets the stage for Punk to rally and beat a very strong looking Jericho sending him into another hiatus. What shouldn't have happened is the deviated Rumble outcome, Jericho talking about Punk's family, and a clean loss for Jericho at Mania. This has made Jericho look weak, CM Punk look stagnant, and the WWE to look completely incompetant and depleted with options for Punk's Championship.
Jericho and Punk are two of the best "Off-The-Cuff" mic workers in the business, WWE should've just let them go off and not try to script a "family" angle. There is no doubt Punk would've fired some shots and Jericho would land some verbal hay-makers as well.
Rehabing Jericho's image is a pretty easy fix. Just have him get into an angle with The Miz or maybe even Kofi Kingston and have them call Jericho out for being a phony and being a phony since his return in 07, maybe say he(Jericho) forgot how to be Y2J. This should give Jericho the fuel he needs for character reinvigoration and possibly some shades of the Y2J we all love and miss.

 

[Defekt]

I think Jericho is one of the all times greats, but I agree his return was kinda mishandled.

Jericho is a natural heel, and one of the best. But he's been around a long time, and is great in the ring, so fans will always kinda like him no matter what he does. Having him come back and remain silent might have been a good idea on paper, but realistically, it would have been a long time before fans quit being happy just to see him. Especially when he remained a sort of enigma, who only walked out to the ring.

The WWE could have done more to build Jericho once he returned. In retrospect now, there was no reason for Sheamus to win the Royal Rumble. The main event roster of Smackdown is so thin, he would have been the front runner for a WM title shot anyway. Jericho winning the Rumble would have given credence to his "best in the world" tagline, and re-established him as a real contender. Instead, the guy hasn't won a meaningful match since his return.

It also didn't help that Cena vs Rock, and Undertaker vs HHH made every other match seem unimportant. But that is more of a long term problem, in the way the WWE has positioned everyone else on the roster.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I don't think Jericho has lost anything from his personality or in-ring work. In fact, his body looks a hell of a lot better than it did during his last go-around several years ago, when I found myself wishing he'd wrestle with a shirt on to hide the "middle age" that was taking over his appearance. Now, he looks as if he has ab muscles again.

As for his psychology, he's still probing for personal weaknesses before delivering the message in the ring. I believe he's a victim more of a lukewarm program with Punk than for having lost any pizazz himself.

As I see it, C.M. Punk isn't that interesting a subject to go after on a personal basis. Yes, I like watching Punk in the ring, but attacking his straight-edge lifestyle was inevitable, wasn't it? I thought Creative would go at it by having Jericho (or someone else) with filmed evidence of Punk tossing down shots at a local bar or keeping company with people of ill-repute. Instead, the attack is on Punk's family, which just doesn't sound very inspiring as a program since it can't be construed as a personal weakness in Punk. The two guys tried hard to make it interesting, but it just isn't.

Still, starting Jericho off with Punk was probably the right move. Punk is the champion and we expected to see Jericho go after the best; it would have been disappointing and wasteful to see Y2J start off with a program against Big Show or someone else of a non-main event status.

Chris Jericho hasn't lost anything. Give him a better program and we'll find he's the same incisive, scheming troublemaker he's always been. Try again.

 

[Jerichoholic]

as you can tell with the name i am a Jericho mark, and i fully agree that his return has been mishandled, but to Question Y2J's ability is way of the mark, no doubt about it he had the greatest debut in WWE history and the second coming was pretty damn epic also, his mic skills are up there with the best and his in ring skills are amazing Jericho has the ability to put on a great match even with the poorest of in ring performers and when you put him in with a great in ring performer like HBK at WM19 he steals the damn show, when he feuded with Mysterio a few years back over the IC title those were some of the best matches i have seen in WWE tv for a long time. Hopefully this Feud with punk will lead to a title reign cause if anyone deserves it Jericho does!

 

[ProudJericholic]

Even though I may have a biased opinion, I do think that his return was not a waste nor letdown.

I think it was a different return for Jericho. Of course he was a face once he returned, but his transition to a heel was really different and interesting. Sure, you expect him to win a title, but he doesn't have to. Maybe he'll win it during the summer, but I think it that Vince wants him to put Punk over for the time being. Now, I do believe that Jericho and Punk's match at WM 28 was actually very good. If you want to call a return a letdown, call Kane's return a letdown.

 

[kingofkings01013]

I agree. Jerichos return has been appalling in my opinion.

The video packages were cool, but they didnt make any sense. This dominant force they were talking about failed to win at the Rumble and failed to beat Punk for the Title. Not only that, we never found out who 'she' was and 'the end of the world as you know it' stuff looks utterly pathetic now!!!

Moving on to the silence promos - utter crap. Then losing the Rumble made him look weak. His promos with Punk leading up to Mania were very good, as was the match but he lost, which again made him look bad.

One "She" he even said was the WWE Title.
Two he remaining silent was brilliant. It was the only way to build him as a heel. He has approached at this point in his career were all the fan just want to cheer for him. He still got cheered at mania. The match at mania was my favorite because unlike hell in the cell where taker took a ridiculous amount punishment.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I don't see that Jericho has lost anything at all. As usual, I just think that any percieved shortcomings stem mostly from Jericho's return not being handled in a way that some fans think that it should have been.

I know that a lot of fans always want everything to be this epic feel, that every return should be the stuff that dreams are made of and have people buzzing for weeks on end. Sometimes, it just doesn't happen that way and sometimes, simpler is better. Jericho came back as somewhat different than he was before. He's still an arrogant heel but he's come off as a vindictive heel, one that's a real lowlife that isn't talking just for the sake of hearing himself talk, which is something that most heels tend to do.

Jericho & Punk have delivered some really good promos, they work well off of each other and their match at WM 28 was a 23 minute clinic. His feud with Punk has been based on getting inside Punk's head, probing him for whatever weaknesses he can find and it's been fun. Has the feud had the epic feel of Taker vs. Triple H or Cena vs. Rock? Nope, but that's due to the WWE putting more attention & emphasis on those two feuds.

Jericho has come back, he's found himself putting on great matches, he's in a top tier feud, he's extremely over as a heel and he's got people talking about him. So no, in the grand scheme of things, his return hasn't been a letdown.

 

[JaylisJayP]

I don't know how much say Jericho had in what his return would be or how his character would be portrayed, but in my opinion it's an extension of everything that was wrong with WWE booking in 2011...the worst year in the history of WWE for storytelling and angle development imo.

No direction, no purpose, no follow-through, no interest in really finding out what the audience wants.

Yeah, Jericho's return has been horrible. I did like the intensity of the segment on Monday night with Punk, and Jericho hasn't lost a step with his mic skills or in-ring work, either, but I'm just not very excited to see him on TV that much. Shame.

 

[thrashtastic]

I see nothing wrong with his return. Could it be better? Sure, but, like what others have said, it came at a time when other big feuds were being positioned as more epic or whatever. As far as him losing matches...um, what's wrong with putting over the young guys? It's not like he was jobbed out or anything. Don't we want the older guys to put over the younger guys? I know I want it, and I'm sure Jericho has no problem doing it because, after all, that's how the new generation gets established. Without established stars, wrestling kind of goes down the shitter.

 

[jrichardson25]

What do you think about Jericho's return this year and his legacy overall ?

I have to strongly disagree. Chris Jericho's return has been great. You can't measure a return in wins and losses. Jericho trolled the fans on Twitter and all over the internet for months leading into it. He didn't say a damn thing for weeks after coming back to Raw. He drew in and captivated the audience. Sure, he didn't win the Rumble, Chamber or Wrestlemania. That by no means its a failure of a return. His matches were always his normal level. He never had a subpar match. The match against Punk at Mania was a hell of a match. It was to cool down the audience and build them back up. It was great. It served its purpose and made both men look credible in the process. He did slip on the JD on the mat last week but those mats are slick as it is... any liquid and you'd be on your ass too. I don't think Jericho has had a failure of a return this time around. Its a slow burn and that's great because its continuing to develop and he's a man that doesn't need a title to be talked about. That doesn't mean he's bigger than the title because no matter the star no one is bigger than the title at the end of the day regardless of booking.

 

[Pedigree1]

Yah Jericho's return has been lukewarm at best IMO. We all knew jericho was coming back no secret there! Jericho is a natural heel and a very good one at that. Never has he been that good of a face IMO. Jericho is one of the all time greats and put in a proper feud his hellish tactics will surely shine.

We all thought he was gonna win the RR (which if he did would have made him hot) but having sheamus win IMO kinda blew all the momentum that Jericho had going into WM!! It was a sure thing that he was eventually gonna attack Punks SE lifestyle it was gonna happen.

Jericho is only as good as the Feud or angle hes involved in!! As far as Jericho slipping i dont think anyone is gonna remember that he will be remembered for cracking a bottle of jack Daniels (Full of Tea IMO) on the back of CM Punks head. But when jericho does talk on the mic it seems to me he is searching for the words rather than just flowing!! But Jericho will be ok IMO hes still gold in the ring in amazing shape and has decent mic skills

 

[LittleJimmy]

I was really excited to see Jericho back when he first returned, now I kinda wish he would have stayed away. Some on here have complained that The Rock came back only for money (complete bullshit) and have said that already about Brock (we'll see) but I do think Jericho has come back only for a paycheck. He said the world as we know it is about to end....so when it that going to happen? Hell, he wasnt even at RAW the last 3 weeks before Mania!! I have no interest in him right now.

 

[ProWrestlingFan]

Jericho trolled the fans on Twitter and all over the internet for months leading into it. He didn't say a damn thing for weeks after coming back to Raw. He drew in and captivated the audience.

Jericho didn't spoke anything for weeks but why was he crying and yelling Why ?! Why ?! Why ?! ? And when he started talking he came of as a whiner whining about how everybody copied him and stole his moves etc (half of it was just lies).

Firstly he was all happy then he was crying then all of a sudden became serious after hitting Punk with the codebreaker and started talking. That was a very poor and illogical way of turning heel.

Jericho himself said in interviews before returning that he won't return to the WWE just to do the same thing ...but he returned doing the same whining routine he was doing in 2008-2010.

 

[Philly88]

I dont know about the legacy but I agree the return has been pretty bad. His in ring skills have been a real let down and the mic skills do not seem like anything special anymore either. The CM Punk angle with addiction was kind of entertaining at first but it jumped the shark after he talked about his sister. That was the peak of it now it is just getting dumb. How can he claim to be the best in the world when he does not even wrestle and then comes back after how long? (yeah I know its a angle but I bet he believes it.)

 

[Mr-excitement]

Chris Jericho returned to WWE in 2012 after a 1 1/2 year hiatus. Jericho's return was good but WWE ruined it by having him turn heel. All he did was remain silent for weeks then in his buildup with CM Punk all he did was run his mouth for 2-3 weeks via titantron and then after a mediocre performance at Wrestlemania he lost to CM Punk.

Jericho's return was a huge letdown in my opinion. Jericho isn't that all of a great. Never been the top guy for the company and has only a few decent title reigns in 2008.

He has ok mic skills and on 4/2/2012 RAW he slipped on live TV

What do you think about Jericho's return this year and his legacy overall ?

Jericho's legacy is without question, and everybody slips. Even Piper, Heenan and Flair three of the greatest of all time slipped occasionally on the stick. The problem with Jericho's return, is they telegraphed it. Everybody knew he was coming back, just like everybody knew Brock was coming back - although Cena smiling in the ring and clapping did not help sell it as a shocker - it would have been a lot better, if Jericho just did a run in on a raw before a PPV.

The other problem: there is too much wrestling on TV, Raw, Smackdown and a PPV every month - there is no build up to anything, except the year long buildup to WM which was atrocious. The stuff that happens in April means nothing for the MAY PPV. So Jericho's return was irrelevant very quickly, the night after the Rock pinned Cena it was irrelevant because Brock returned and Brock's return will be irrelevant in a month.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Chris Jericho is one of very few people who can return receiving a face reaction, acting for the first few moments as a face, playing with the crowd before turning heel... by saying nothing! And you think Chris Jericho's return was a "disappointment"?

No, Chris Jericho's return has been exactly what it was supposed to be. They didn't have to bring him back on television and remind you of who he was, they didn't have to run promos showing his career, they didn't even need him to speak for the first four weeks, all they had to do was show him. Since then he has cut some great promos, built one a great feud with CM Punk, one which is actually personal and has been taken to that level, something we rarely see in WWE anymore, they had one of if not the best match of Wrestlemania, if it wasn't the best it was second behind HHH/Taker and there is no shame coming in second to those two, so in essence Jericho's return has been good. Very good, cause it's producing good things.

Then I read some people saying how they knew he was coming back and how it didn't have that surprising feel... Here's a history lesson for you. The Millennium Countdown, from about three weeks into the months the clock was counting down, people knew it was Chris Jericho. The binary rain, from the moment that began everybody suggested it was Jericho and we all knew it was going to be him. End of the world promos begin and we all knew it was going to be Jericho, but what you didn't know is that he was going to stay silent for a month! Every time these things happen and Jericho isn't around you know it's Chris Jericho because it has almost became his calling card, vignettes.

Chris Jericho returned and turned heel by saying nothing. He has had good promos, he is in the middle of a great feud, he put on a great match at Wrestlemania and chances are he'll put on another great match at Extreme Rules. Saying his return has been a disappointment or that "I saw it coming"... well done you ass, you were supposed to see it coming! Jesus some people are morons.

 

[dotty_84]

Retrospect is a great thing, from what has been posted on dirt sheets is that it was planned for quite some time for Sheamus to beat Bryan so quick. So now looking back it would have been more sensible for Jericho to win the rumble the win wouldn't seem such a waste now.

And remember how Jericho posted on twitter that he didn't need the rumble win, well if i were him looking back i think he would be thinking that he should have won it.

And he didn't need it as an achievement to his wrestling career but as storylines go, he did need it.

 

[TBK]

It still seems way too early to say. So far, he's only been in one angle, featuring CM Punk, which I feel is hit-or-miss. He's shown the cockiness of his first run in WWE and the psychological torture to his opponents of his second run. I really like how they were able to incorporate two almost completely opposite gimmicks into one. At the same time, I actually can't say I think his matches have been up to par, but that might just be the fact he has taken almost a one-and-a-half year break and might be shaking off ring rust.

I can't say it's fair to judge based on one storyline, let alone one that's even finished. I'd probably wait more to see how this pans out before I can say whether it's good or not.

 

[boywithbluehanger]

Usually I hate the ease of determining a character's return or debut a failure based solely on whether he is a face or a heel. But in this particular case, I think by having Jericho as a heel really hurt the buildup between he and Punk. It would have been more interesting if Jericho, as a face, took on CM Punk. The crowd was far more invested in him when there was a possibility that he was going to be a good guy. I'd say the moment that he finally revealed that he was going to play the antagonist to Punk, the crowd didn't care as much. The crowd went from 80%+ cheers and 20% feeling indifferent, to 50% boos and another 50% not caring.

I've already seen Jericho have 4 heel runs. I get it. He's good at being a heel. But I'd like to see him have another decently-lengthed face run where he can crack jokes about other wrestlers on his Highlight Reel, interrupt confrontations that have nothing to do with him just to be involved in a match to help put over a young face, feud with a young heel to either be a foil or to put him over later. But what I don't want to see is him come back after many teasers, with the same point of view as before, just to lose to someone who's already over.

Call me a crazy, typical, unsatisfied fan but I'm guessing that's at least similar to the reasoning that many others here seem to have when they express discontent in Jericho's current run.

 

[#Zombienatureboy]

Long time Jericho fan here. One of the best. Loved him in ECW and in WCW. But, I don't think he translated well to the WWF/E. Don't know why exactly. Once he lost the Undisputed Championship to HHH and then proceeded to lose again and again to HHH, they moved him down into the mid card and he just became what he was which is an incredible wrestler...just never "the" guy. I think he could have been "the" guy. Tough to figure out why he never was.

 

[GI Cake]

Since Jericho came back, he hasn't lost a step in the business. Well maybe that one step on the latest Monday Night Raw, but that is a different subject. Jericho took a year and a half off of WWE programming to recharge his batteries and collect himself. Which is perfectly fine considering he is getting into his middle age years.

He still has an amazing sense of the business and knows how to toy with the fans. Those weeks of RAW where Jericho would just go out to the ring and say nothing, was absolutely priceless, it made you want to watch next week and continue watching Jericho's antics. And when he finally admitted to trolling the WWE Universe he got a ton of heat. Jericho just simply knows how to work the crowd to hate him.

When Jericho returned, he seemed to be in much better physical shape. I can remember cringing when I saw Jericho's flabby belly in 2009-2010. But now he seems to have gotten in much better shape and is able to perform the way he did back in WCW.

 

[Dynamitekid2012]

I like Jericho, always have, but he's never been a top guy. Outside of his feuds with HBK he's never had a feud that stood out. I vaguely remember his Undisputed title run, vaguely remember his stuff with Malenko in WCW and that's it. I think the internet community is vastly overrating the guy. I remember people making a top ten list of the greatest superstars of all time and half the people said Y2J was one of the top ten of all time... Are you kidding me? No f'n way!

I think his last run is by far the most boring run he's ever had. I wasn't amused the first time he didn't speak and I wasn't the 2nd or 3rd either nor did I find it clever, nor did it get good heat. People didn't suddenly want to watch Jericho get beat up which is what good heat is, they simply didn't want to watch. That's the wrong kind of heat! I changed the channel on every one of those segments. It was a snoozefest. Overall, you can blame it on bad booking, and to some degree I can understand, but blame needs to fall on Jericho's shoulders. I've always liked Jericho but I barely even pay attention to him when he's on tv. I simply have no reason to care for his character right now and that's his fault.