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| Updated: Monday January 5th, 2009 02:36:02 PM PST |
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| Jeuron Dove talks about the Jericho-Michaels feud |
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by Jeuron Dove This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Hello fans. Hope you all enjoyed my last article about honoring wrestling history. I always feel that at the end of the day, that is what makes this business continue to go round and round. Learning from the things that happened yesterday in order to make a better today and an even better tomorrow. Did that sound poetic or what! Then again, it seems that TNA has been constantly ignoring history and they’ve been around for six years. I guess that sheer luck plays an important part too. This week, I wanted to get away from the “historical stuff” that has been the focus of my last few articles and talk about something more current. 2008 has been a pretty eventful year for the WWE thus far. We saw John Cena shock the world by returning way earlier than projected to win the Royal Rumble. Ric Flair was honored in the most emotional non-death related segment in wrestling history and perhaps most important, we witnessed the company wake up out of its eternal slumber to push a slew of new young faces to the top of the cards. There have been many other great moments this year, but there is one that has stood out among the rest and it has been the tremendously well-booked feud between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels. For new fans or those who haven’t kept up for the past five years, this isn't the first time Jericho and Michaels have feuded. They had a pretty good feud from late 2002-early 2003, which culminated in their great match at Wrestlemania XIX. Seriously, that was one of the best matches in Mania history. The storyline of their feud back then was centered on how Jericho grew up admiring Michaels (which is true) and patterned his career after him. Somewhere along the way, he grew to resent him and wanted to get out of his shadow. They had the great match at Mania and another rematch on an edition of Raw sometime later that spring, but it was mostly a one-match feud. Fast forward five years later. Michaels has continued to be a mainstay of the company and has fought all the top guys. Jericho took a hiatus in 2005 and did not return until last fall. He also wrote a New York Times bestselling autobiography in the process. Jericho is 38. Michaels is 44. And both are still among the best and most consistent performers in the game today. Their recent feud started almost immediately after Wrestlemania XXIV and coincided with Michaels’ feud with Batista. Michaels and Batista fought at Backlash with Jericho as the referee. Michaels faked a knee injury in order to distract Dave and get the win. For the next few weeks, Jericho defended Michaels believing that he was not faking until he was superkicked on an edition of Raw. They fought at Judgment Day where Michaels got the win. Even after that match, they were still friendly towards each other even though Jericho was becoming more of a heel each week. Jericho even coached Michaels on during his stretcher match against Batista at One Night Stand. Shortly after that, Jericho attacked Michaels during his Highlight Reel segment and smashed his head through a television screen. Their feud intensified every week as Jericho would cut promos on how dishonest Michaels was in lying to the fans and would be in disgust as he would receive more cheers from them while he was booed. He accused the fans of not having any morals and criticized them for supporting a person who made a career out of lying and backstabbing his way to the top. Things came to a head at Night of Champions when Michaels’ interference cost Jericho the IC belt against Kofi Kingston. Michaels had a severe eye injury by this point and Jericho would exploit it at every chance he got. They also did the promo that set their feud into overdrive and clearly defined both men’s goals. Michaels stated to Jericho that he made mistakes and no matter what he did, he would always be remembered as a legend by the fans and despite what Jericho ever did in his career, he would never be able to reach that legendary status. They met at the Great American Bash this past Sunday in what was one of the more graphic injury angles that the company has done in a while. Jericho totally worked on Michaels’ bad eye and left him a bloody heap. This past Monday on Raw, Jericho cut one of the greatest promos of his career and without a doubt, the best of the year in WWE when it came to advancing a storyline and getting heat from the fans. This promo even topped the awesome one that Edge cut before he lost the world title to Punk and the great one that Flair and Michaels did on the Raw right before their Wrestlemania match. Jericho was totally serious and came across like a true main-event level heel. He discussed how Michaels was paying for the sins of the fans and how he came back to save them, but noting that they didn’t deserve to be saved. My favorite part was when he was talking about how he wasn’t embraced by the fans after he returned and how they wanted the old longhaired guy that told the jokes. He mentioned that he had matured and wasn’t that same man anymore. I have literally watched that promo about a dozen times since Monday night and get goosebumps every time. Yes, Jericho was that freaking good. I always feel that the best feuds in wrestling are the ones which are based on reality. A perfect example would be the initial (1996-97) WCW vs. NWO and Austin-McMahon feuds. The first one was great because they really gave you the idea that some outsiders were coming in and taking over and then you had the biggest babyface in the history of the business turn on the fans. The latter one was just as good because what person hasn’t dreamed at one time or another of sticking it to their boss. Both of these feuds were classics because they helped to greatly turn around the popularity of their respective companies. I’m not saying that Jericho vs. Michaels is going to turn the business around, but it has been an almost perfectly booked angle for the most part. Only in the fantasy world of wrestling, would a person like Jericho be booed, because realistically (if you detach yourself from wrestling logic) he is the good guy. He has been honest with the fans and is trying his best to rid the company of a man who has been a liar (he outright lied to them by faking the knee injury for pete’s sake!) to them. On the other hand, he hasn’t gone about using the best methods to do it. Michaels has also been great in his role as being the man who despite his controversial past, has come to find peace and accept who he was and who he is as a new person. For those who haven’t noticed by now, there are some very Christian-like undertones (salvation) to this feud. That makes it all the better and more believable. The recent promo Jericho did may have been more important for him in the long run than for any short-term heel heat. Jericho has been among the best and most entertaining wrestlers for the past decade. He’s always been able to get it done in the ring, but one of his main hang-ups as to why he hasn’t really ever been effectively used as a main-event level talent in the WWE, has been because of the fact he has never been able to convey pure seriousness in a major program. I think this feud has proven that Jericho is better suited as a heel and that he can indeed cut some awesome heel-style promos. Of course, I don’t feel that is the only reason he’s never been a multiple time world champion. It’s common knowledge that HHH has some type of longstanding grudge against him, because you can count on less than five fingers the number of times Jericho has went over on him. That’s because to the best of my knowledge, he never has (the April 2000 Raw doesn't count). Luckily, since HHH is on a different brand, maybe Jericho can finally get another title opportunity. I am really looking forward to seeing where this feud goes. Not only has it brought the best out of both men, but it’s also given a chance for younger guys like Lance Cade to get a rub. You cannot get a better opportunity at learning the ropes of the business, than by being associated with two of the greatest wrestlers of this generation. This feud has also left the door open for more of Michaels’ protégés to get involved. Paul London has fought against both Jericho and Cade on the last two editions of Raw, and it would be baffling for the company to not associate him with Michaels. There has also been a lot of talk going around as to Ring of Honor standout and Michaels protégé, Bryan Danielson, being brought in to help him. Of course, I don’t know how true this is since he’s still with ROH, but he did have a tryout match with the company a few months back. We as fans should enjoy this feud while it lasts. You have to go back many years to find a feud that has been so emotionally captivating on so many levels. The company just doesn’t do long-term programs anymore, and the ones that they do end up fizzling out due to poor storytelling and even poorer in-ring performances. Jericho and Michaels are two future WWE Hall of Famers, without question. Jericho may be a future Observer Hall of Famer too. They have been telling us one heck of a story for the past four months and we should savor every bit of it. Something tells me that at the end of the year, I am going to look back at the year in the WWE and wish to myself that there could’ve been more programs like Jericho vs. Michaels. Thanks for reading and all feedback is much appreciated and always encouraged. {plug} |
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