[quote name='007']To address that top point... exactly. I think the bottom line is that I held Jericho to a higher standard. Most of what he does/did generally has some kind of purpose behind it, but most of the build-up just seemed like he was just jerking off to cool ideas. The videos and trolling were great ideas, but not having anything behind them was just... disappointing.
See, I think the problem is that there *is* an acknowledgement of what Jericho does, which is why I've been disappointed with this. Like I said above, there always seemed like there was a focus or a goal to what he did. To remove that end marker just makes it feel like every other scattershot WWE idea.
Jericho is, effectively, a 'legend' at this point. The problem with that, though, is that a scrappy face legend (HBK) can do job after job after job without really losing much credibility. In this run, Jericho's inability to put nearly anyone away has killed it for me. The genesis of the Punk/Jericho feud was them bickering over being the 'best in the world', but Jericho wasn't showing any reason for people to back that. As a heel, it's ridiculously important to look like a viable threat, which is the biggest ing problem WWE has now. Sure, Punk gets over, but Jericho desperately needed to win the Rumble or one of the two Punk matches. Even with the status afforded him, the booking needs to reflect the story, especially with a heel character. WWE, however, seems to have completely forgotten how to do that.
As a continuation of my last comments... yeah, I respect Jericho for understanding the 'right' way of doing things. My issue, though, is that I haven't seen that anywhere in this storyline. Getting Cena over by going out kicking and screaming is one thing, but coming back and portraying yourself as a force to be reckoned with while losing every goddamned match is another. I expect people will disagree with this, but I don't feel that this whole thing has gotten Punk over any more than he already was.
That, I guess, is the basic thrust of my argument... it's not the 'why' of him coming back, but the fact that none of it, from a storyline OR business standpoint, has made any sense. Even the best parts of this storyline are lifted from pre-WWE Punk storylines, so he can't even get credit for that. We were lead to believe that there was a plan for his return, but every twist indicates that it simply wasn't the case.
I'm not calling for everyone to suddenly classify this run as a 'failure', but I simply wanted to get some thoughts on a run that has just baffled me. I can't decide whether WWE failed Jericho, Jericho failed Jericho, or Jericho simply failed the completely made-up expectations I had in my mind.[/QUOTE]
You make a lot of good points man. But I have to disagree with you there isn't a focus here to what Jericho is doing. It's clear as day. It's to lose and give the guys who will be around five years from now credibility. Maybe that's not the focus people want it to be, but that's what it is.
Of course, Jericho would never come out and say this. That would ruin the story line proving that CM Punk is the new "BEST IN THE WORLD!". That Jericho can't hang anymore and that's it time to get out. And sure his brand might get damaged doing this, but if his career is winding down, there won't be much of a brand left soon anyways.
I think Jericho has a clearer picture of how we'll remember him in hindsight than we do. The point isn't to have any legitimacy left. It's to have none. It's to leave all his legitimacy in the hands of the guys across the ring from him. And then to head off into the sunset. And that's something a lot of us are really going to appreciate about the guy. He's astonishingly unselfish in that regard.
But your feeling that Jericho's inability to put anyone away has "killed it" for you is missing the point. Chris Jericho, in 2012, at age 41, is in the WWE to lose. Not for any other non-financial reason. And I think maybe it's because the dirt sheets failed to frame his run as such, a farewell run if you will, but I think it's a testament to Jericho's talent that he hasn't allowed this run to be seen like that. You're still blind sighted by the fact that Chris Jericho worked you into believing that this run is anything but a passing of the torch run. Through that perspective, Jericho's current run is anything BUT a failure.