I think we are all a little guilty of over-analyzing things as they pertain to the world of professional wrestling and specifically to the WWE. They can and will do whatever the hell they want, whether it's logical or not, and we are expected to (and will) just accept it and move on.
The Miz had a match a couple of months ago on RAW as I recall, and the stipulation was if he lost , he would have to leave RAW forever. He lost. And he was back on RAW the very next week, with little or no explanation, at least no plausible explanation that I can even recall.
Didn't Tara lose a match to Madison Rayne a while back and if she lost, she would retire. Now she's back, and teaming up with Rayne in the worst kept secret in a while.
Both organizations are guilty of this, this has always been the case and likely always will be.
I don't know what will happen at Night of Champions, but my guess will be that Jericho will lose, take some time off, and then be back whenever and wherever he and the WWE decide to best utilize his talents. Maybe it will be logical, quite likely it won't be, but that's that. Sure, there are other options which have been discussed in other threads. But let's not make the mistake of applying logic and common sense to professional wrestling, it may or may not be there.