Alternate Reality by Vin Tastic

Archive

The walls are broken down. The man who unified the WCW and WWF heavyweight championship titles is once again a member of the RAW roster, and Chris Jericho’s return came not a moment too soon for my taste. Y2J is here to save us from the boring, unfocused, tired angles and matches on Monday nights, and from the kayfabe scourge of the concussionist WWE Champion Randy Orton.

TODAY’S ISSUE: Y2J7

The Ayatollah of Rock-and-Rolla’ made his much-anticipated return to WWE last Monday night, crashing through the doldrums of RAW and injecting a dose of adrenaline into a show that sorely needed it.

Jericho looked like a million bucks. He was physically in shape, sporting a new ‘do, seemingly refreshed after his two-year hiatus, and clearly feeding off the energy of the Miami crowd. Thankfully for Y2J fans, Jericho splashed onto the scene in his typically flamboyant fashion when he ruined Orton’s stupid “passing of the torch” ceremony and declared his intention to defeat young Randy for the bling-belt the first chance he gets. Jericho quickly put Orton in his place before threatening to take Orton’s belt and strap it around his own “gorgeous waist”.

Surprisingly McMahon had no qualms with inserting the returning “Sexy Beast” directly into the main event. I half expected Jericho to feud with Carlito over who has the best talk show segment, or worse, battling Cody Rhodes or Snitsky in opening matches nationwide. So at least the first feud in Y2J’s second coming is a big one.

I’d say this bodes well for Jericho’s long-term standing, except the cynic in me feels that even though Jericho and Orton may feud over the title, any program Triple H finds himself in (or McMahon himself, for that matter) is the true main event, regardless of where on the card their matches take place. Jericho might even snatch the WWE Championship from Orton at some point in their program, but the real litmus test to determine his actual spot in the hierarchy will come in the form of Jericho/Triple H revisited.

We all remember how Jericho fared in his previous two programs against Hunter Hearst McMahon. One amazing Monday night in April of 2000, Y2J hoodwinked Triple H into defending the old WWF Championship against him and Jericho actually managed to defeat the champ for the gold, only to lose it (and have the win “stricken from the record books”) around an hour later due to the McHelmsley power trip storyline and referee Earl Hebner being “fired”. He was then booked to look weaker than HHHis HHHighness in all subsequent matches, including the phenomenal Last Man Standing match at Fully Loaded 2000.

In round two of Triple H/Y2J, after Jericho unified the two major world heavyweight titles of the day by defeating icons the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin in one night via a mini-tournament at Vengeance 2001 (the fourth man in the tourney was none other than current TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle), the freight train that was Triple H’s heroic return from severe quadriceps injury ran roughshod over Y2J.

Triple H dominated the Royal Rumble and challenged Jericho in the main event of WrestleMania X8 in the “foregone conclusion of the year” match, and what’s worse, the storyline became all about Triple H versus “ex-wife” Stephanie McMahon. Jericho, the undisputed world heavyweight champion, was relegated to sideshow status, taking care of Steph’s dog and carrying her bags before being crushed by the “King of Kings” on the grandest stage of them all. Triple H even had the decency to defeat Jericho once more for good measure in a Hell in a Cell match two months later at Judgment Day 2002. Thanks, Paul.

The following year at WrestleMania XIX, Triple H’s running buddy Shawn Michaels managed to roll up Jericho for a victory after a very good match, although it was completely the wrong decision. This was an ideal opportunity to truly establish Y2J as a big-time player in the WWE landscape, and his loss to HBK made absolutely no sense from a long-term planning perspective. Do you think Jericho was NOT being held at bay by the powers-that-be?

After his title loss to Triple H in 2002, Jericho was shunted directly to the upper mid-card for good. Sure, he flirted with the bling-belt and Cena for a while a few years later, but you could clearly see he was not being treated by the bookers as a major threat to the title. I wonder how much of a part that booking played in Jericho getting “burned out” and stepping out of the wrestling limelight for the past two years.

If Jericho does manage to secure the championship from RKO, the inevitable next battle in his war against “the Game” will be interesting to say the very least. I’d love to see Jericho get at least one clean win over Triple H (who certainly “owes him one”), but I can’t image that being possible. It’s more likely that Y2J would be a transitional champ, moving the strap from Orton to another heel so the mighty Triple H can reclaim his throne at WrestleMania XXIV in Orlando next year.

Sadly, Y2J version 2.0 would then become an afterthought and all the hype for his return would have been blown in one quick run when it could have been spread out over a long, successful, profitable run for Vince McMahon and his WWE.

If booked properly, a rejuvenated Chris Jericho could be a huge shot in the arm for what ails WWE. But it’s more likely he’ll have a strong opening run before finding himself squashed beneath Triple H’s boot. If my prediction is true, I wonder how long it’ll take for Y2J to get burned out this time around. For myself and all the Jerichoholics, I hope I’m wrong.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.

p.s. – “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man.” – Mark Twain

Master Sergeant, United States Air Force