Alright, so we've got Punk/Bryan set up for Over the Limit. This seems as good a time as any to ask the biggest question I've had for the past few months...
Why did Jericho come back?
We were all conditioned to think he had some grand plan, but it's ended up being a cluster
of vignettes that went nowhere, baffling booking decisions, and a light-up jacket. I mean, let's be fair, those vignettes that aired were pretty good. They were intriguing, setting up a character that, frankly, never appeared. Oh, and I'm talking about a Jericho persona there, not the 'her' that also never showed up. It's like they had some cool ideas for a series of videos, but never bothered to come up with anything after that.
So, he debuts and has a light-up jacket. He doesn't talk, which really gets people going. Some love it and think it's the most brilliant thing in years, but others despise it. Still, it gets people's attention. No one knows the point of this, but then he speaks. One line. End of the world, all that.
... and then the Rumble happened. To anyone watching the match, it becomes painfully clear that Sheamus is going to win. For ten minutes, these two guys battled, but the outcome seemed obvious. Was it a Russo-eque swerve? Was it planned? What the
was the end of the world as we know it? I'm inclined to believe it was the first option, only because it became pretty obvious that no one had bothered to write a storyline to bring a Punk/Jericho match about for Mania. Sure, those last two weeks of promos were decent, but the weeks immediately following the Rumble were just drifting.
The biggest gripe there, of course, is that he started talking. Once that happened, he instantly just became the same Jericho that had left, just with a light-up jacket. Then, he lost every big match. Everytime there was a chance to get some heat on him, he came up short. He lost the Rumble. He lost to Punk. He lost to Punk again. What should have been a great (albeit recycled) storyline was neutered because the crowd no longer thinks Jericho is going to win. The Punk/Bryan set-up seems to indicate that Punk/Jericho, as a story, is over.
So, again, I ask... what was the point? Was the past few months worth him returning? Has he hurt his 'brand', as it were, by having a disappointing run?
Or, is it a case of him not living up to entirely fan-created expectations? Did we expect too much? I'll speak for myself, but there also seemed to be a large portion of the IWC who assumed that Jericho was coming back because he had a great idea. Something different, something new. Something that wasn't just his heel persona with a light-up jacket. In fairness, his 2007 (2008?) return was awful, but most of that has been erased in people's minds by his amazing heel turn and run. Why did we expect something special this time? Those videos didn't help ease speculation. His non-verbal trolling didn't dispel the notion. His insistence online that people should shut up and just 'wait and see' certainly didn't dilute the thought process. But... there was nothing. It was last-run heel Jericho again, now with light-up action!
Anyway, sorry for the essay, but I've been thinking about this a lot. Am I the only one who doesn't really understand why he came back? Was I expecting too much? Or, maybe a better question is... is anyone *not* disappointed in how his return has gone? I'm honestly curious.
In his last return, a shitty couple of months was then erased by arguably the best work of his career. This time, though, his entire return is already halfway (or more) over. Is that enough time to turn this around? I really don't know. A bigger question is whether this was a misfire on Jericho's part, or was this just utterly derailed by WWE?