A couple of things:
1) I'm intrigued by the Jericho stuff.
2) In no way do I think the point of his segment was to "get them booing by the end". I think Jericho knew damn well that despite the fact that he left Raw as a pompous heel and despite the fact that his promo videos were eery, dark, and evil, people were going to cheer him the second they saw him. He knew this and there was no avoiding it. If you have enough longevity in this business, you will get cheered upon your return. Hell, even fucking JBL got cheered when he came back for a night, but he garnered boos by what he said after the initial pop. Rather than letting the fans cheer and shutting them down in one night, Jericho let them have their moment and cheer. Next week (presumably), he'll acknowledge it and move forward with why he's back.
No, he wasn't trying to milk the segment so long that he got booed. Not at all. He was giving the fans what they wanted upon his return. Step 1 was the return. All the stuff after his arms out with the jacket lights on was fodder. It was there to make you wonder why he's here and for the live fans to revel in the moment. The darkness will come out and he will change his tune, but the return worked like a charm and I believe it will only get better moving forward. I mean, imagine if he came out and cut a scathing promo about the fans and then about CM Punk and everything he's feeling. If he did that on January 2nd, what the fuck are they supposed to do to build the feud for 3 more months? Jericho is not new so he doesn't need "heat building" segments like a Bobby Roode (sorry to use a TNA reference but he's a new main eventer and a new main event heel so those segments are necessary to garner him heat in general. He needs that AND heat for the feuds he is in, Jericho doesn't). So if he doesn't need those, why burn out on one show?
3) Jericho return = intriguing, Kane Return = fucking atrocious.
I get the explanation, but the mask thing is stupid, the campy, over the top television he is a part of is stupid, and the story itself is ridiculous. I have no interest in Kane being the reason that Cena "turns", nor do I think it's even remotely a good idea to "turn" Cena. And no, that has nothing to do with merchandise or something stupid like that. It has everything to do with the fact that Cena needs to be the Cena that is the poster boy of this generation against Rock. It's poster boy vs. poster boy. Changing his character now takes so much away from the match. Plus, I really believe that John Cena is above the heel/face thing. We've seen him feud this year against heels (Truth, Miz, Del Rio) and we've seen him feud with babyfaces (Rock, Punk). He can do both just as he is, so why mess with that? Doing so won't get you anywhere. More people care about Cena one way or the the other than anyone else in wrestling, period. As long as that's the case, don't mess with it. It's when people stop caring that you think about changing things.
