01-08-2012, 07:05 PM
After weeks of build-up, the series of bizarre inexplicable promos airing on Monday Night Raw were finally paid off with the return of Chris Jericho. As quite possibly my favorite wrestler of all time, whatever Jericho did, I was pretty much guaranteed to be delighted, but his appearance on Raw was even better than I had hoped, as he made steps to becoming a fascinating, brilliant and largely new kind of wrestling villain in an absolutely stunning blast of genius post-modern meta-wrestling.
For those who missed it (shame on you), the best segment from Raw this week began with the final wackadoo school kid promo, promising the coming of a familiar force, a type of rebirth, someone reclaiming what is his, and other generic return-type language coupled with creepy, ominous imagery. Then, things got interesting, as Jericho entered the arena, not in the angry, monotone, Anton Chigurh mode we last saw him in, but in his glitzy, glammed out rock star gimmick, soliciting applause and basking in the crowd's ebullient adulation (it's a Jericho article - I'm legally obliged to bust out the vocab). But don't just take my word for it, watch it now, through the magic of the Internet:
As fans, we were so excited to have Jericho back that we went along with the seeming incongruousness between the promo videos and the wrestler's actual return. In fact, despite my better judgment, knowing that Jericho always works best as a heel, I was still beside myself with excitement about him returning as a fan-favorite. But then, from a wrestling point of view, things got really nuts: after a legit ten minutes of charging around the ring, banging on the announce table, high-fiving fans and soliciting cheers from the audience, all the while screaming "COME ON, YEAH!", "EVERYBODY!", "OH YEAH, BABY!" and my personal favorite, "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" Jericho, instead of delivering the triumphant return promo absolutely everyone watching wanted, left. He just left.
I'm not alone in being impressed by Jericho's new gimmick. As soon as it became clear that Jericho was playing the bad guy by bating the audience and punishing them for being so excited for his return, Twitter immediately started to light up with people praising the apparent heel turn. But still, some poor misguided souls were confused, frustrated and even angered by Jericho's non-promo, all the while failing to realize that was exactly the reaction that Jericho wanted from them. Jericho wanted you to cheer for him, but most importantly, he wanted you to be angry about it afterward.
A quote that has stuck in my head ever since first reading it on the back of an Eros Comix collection of Black Kiss (by one of my all-time favorite cartoonists, Howard Chaykin), comes from Sam Hamm, the screenwriter of the Tim Burton Batman film. Hamm refers to Chaykin as "a perennial Bad Boy who, like all good gladiators, seeks only to give the people what they want."
I think about the quote often in the context of wrestling, because what are professional wrestlers if not gladiators? They habitually put their bodies and health on the line in order to get a reaction out of the crowd and give them what they want to see, whether it's a triumphant hero or a vanquished villain. But when Chris Jericho made an amazingly well received return and subsequently left without cutting any kind of real promo, he committed one of wrestling's most unforgivable sins: he refused to give the people what they wanted.
Jericho's return was going to be a hard thing for the wrestler to navigate, largely because of how much people were aching for it. Not only were expectations absurdly high, but outside of simultaneously kicking a puppy and urinating on the grave of Lou Thesz, there was no real way for Jericho to come out as a heel, due to fans' desire to see him as well as the increasing difficulty wrestlers have in garnering and maintaining heel heat as they transition into the "elder statesman" part of their career (See: Edge). Sure, Y2J could have just come out as a straight-up face and beat up Jinder Mahal or whatever other no-consequence midcard heel was hanging around backstage, but where do you go from there? That kind of easy pop yields drastically diminishing returns, as evidenced by when Jericho returned as a face back in 2007.
No, Jericho needed to be a heel, not just because Raw is sorely lacking a top-tier villain, but because thatâs how heâs best utilized. When it comes to retaining his heat even in the face of countless losses, keeping people booing him even while theyâre dying to hear him speak, Jericho is, in the words of the bard, the absolute swinging dick. And with his 1/2/12 non-promo, he proved it once again.
Using no real dialogue, Jericho got an entire audience to continually cheer him for 10 straight thrilling minutes, earning himself one of the biggest and without a doubt longest pops of the night. Then, in an even more impressive feat, still without delivering any kind of message, Jericho turned those cheers into boos, as the audience realized that their returning hero was going to leave without even so much as a single âRaw is Jerichoâ or joking âparasiteâ reference. This isnât like going to a Lynyrd Skynyrd show where they donât play âFree Birdâ â itâs like going to a Lynyrd Skynyrd show where the band nails the noodling slow open but cuts the amps before the bitching guitar solo kicks in. In other words, itâs completely, utterly reprehensible and despicable.
What made Jerichoâs return non-promo such a smart piece of work is that it managed to get absolutely everyone against him. No matter what Jericho did, there were going to be some people (OK, me and people like me), who were going to cheer for him just because weâre so glad to have him back. By first getting everyone on his side and then ignoring their wishes, Jericho managed to alienate even the smarkiest of internet commentators, because even while we respect and admire what heâs done, truth be told, we still would have really liked to hear that guy speak, even if it was just to insult us.
Jericho's bizarre, promo-less face-to-heel return makes a lot of sense when you take it in the context of both his last run as a villain, which constituted the best work of his career, as well as more recent comments he has made both in interviews and on Twitter. A couple years ago, with the help of a three-piece suit and a cadence and approach obviously inspired by the villain of No Country for Old Men, Jericho became one of WWE's top, most reliable heels, and one of its most watchable stars of any alignment. Since then, however, what started as a fascinating, unique counterpoint to the types of cackling villains frequently seen in WWE has become just another cliché.
Jericho harnessed the natural hatred that WWE's audience has for guys in suits using big words, and numerous wrestlers, most notably the Miz and Cody Rhodes, have drawn from that well since. Having discussed this fact in the past, Jericho has claimed that if/when he returned to WWE it would be with something new, and as you might expect from one of the best, most intellectual wrestling minds currently working, he made good on the promise.
While shades of what Jericho is doing have been seen before (such as wrestlers failing to realize that they're letting fans down), in the past, wrestlers would generally take the easy way out, grabbing the microphone and whipping up some cheap heat or maybe even attacking a fan-favorite midcarder before disappearing into the back. Jericho didn't go that route though, and instead fully embraced a new, completely untested gimmick.
What if he came out to crickets? It had been years since a WWE audience saw Jericho as a face, and months since they had seen him at all - what if the audience didn't particularly want to cheer when he pointed at their section? As an artist and performer at the peak of his powers, these weren't concerns of Jericho's and as a result, he was completely fearless
The fearlessness of Jericho's wrestling performances is nothing new, however, with numerous examples cropping up in his last WWE run alone. Jericho screamed like a bitch when he lost, he got down on his knees and apologized to the WWE fans when commanded to and as World Heavyweight Champion he let midcarder Goldust and even utter newbie Daniel Bryan push him to the limit in competitive matches. Most impressively, however, when he was last seen in WWE he was getting punted in the head and subsequently carried out on a stretcher, not on a big pay-per-view befitting one of the most talented wrestlers of the current age, mind you, but on a regular old episode of Monday Night Raw.
For those who missed it (shame on you), the best segment from Raw this week began with the final wackadoo school kid promo, promising the coming of a familiar force, a type of rebirth, someone reclaiming what is his, and other generic return-type language coupled with creepy, ominous imagery. Then, things got interesting, as Jericho entered the arena, not in the angry, monotone, Anton Chigurh mode we last saw him in, but in his glitzy, glammed out rock star gimmick, soliciting applause and basking in the crowd's ebullient adulation (it's a Jericho article - I'm legally obliged to bust out the vocab). But don't just take my word for it, watch it now, through the magic of the Internet:
As fans, we were so excited to have Jericho back that we went along with the seeming incongruousness between the promo videos and the wrestler's actual return. In fact, despite my better judgment, knowing that Jericho always works best as a heel, I was still beside myself with excitement about him returning as a fan-favorite. But then, from a wrestling point of view, things got really nuts: after a legit ten minutes of charging around the ring, banging on the announce table, high-fiving fans and soliciting cheers from the audience, all the while screaming "COME ON, YEAH!", "EVERYBODY!", "OH YEAH, BABY!" and my personal favorite, "YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" Jericho, instead of delivering the triumphant return promo absolutely everyone watching wanted, left. He just left.
I'm not alone in being impressed by Jericho's new gimmick. As soon as it became clear that Jericho was playing the bad guy by bating the audience and punishing them for being so excited for his return, Twitter immediately started to light up with people praising the apparent heel turn. But still, some poor misguided souls were confused, frustrated and even angered by Jericho's non-promo, all the while failing to realize that was exactly the reaction that Jericho wanted from them. Jericho wanted you to cheer for him, but most importantly, he wanted you to be angry about it afterward.
A quote that has stuck in my head ever since first reading it on the back of an Eros Comix collection of Black Kiss (by one of my all-time favorite cartoonists, Howard Chaykin), comes from Sam Hamm, the screenwriter of the Tim Burton Batman film. Hamm refers to Chaykin as "a perennial Bad Boy who, like all good gladiators, seeks only to give the people what they want."
I think about the quote often in the context of wrestling, because what are professional wrestlers if not gladiators? They habitually put their bodies and health on the line in order to get a reaction out of the crowd and give them what they want to see, whether it's a triumphant hero or a vanquished villain. But when Chris Jericho made an amazingly well received return and subsequently left without cutting any kind of real promo, he committed one of wrestling's most unforgivable sins: he refused to give the people what they wanted.
Jericho's return was going to be a hard thing for the wrestler to navigate, largely because of how much people were aching for it. Not only were expectations absurdly high, but outside of simultaneously kicking a puppy and urinating on the grave of Lou Thesz, there was no real way for Jericho to come out as a heel, due to fans' desire to see him as well as the increasing difficulty wrestlers have in garnering and maintaining heel heat as they transition into the "elder statesman" part of their career (See: Edge). Sure, Y2J could have just come out as a straight-up face and beat up Jinder Mahal or whatever other no-consequence midcard heel was hanging around backstage, but where do you go from there? That kind of easy pop yields drastically diminishing returns, as evidenced by when Jericho returned as a face back in 2007.
No, Jericho needed to be a heel, not just because Raw is sorely lacking a top-tier villain, but because thatâs how heâs best utilized. When it comes to retaining his heat even in the face of countless losses, keeping people booing him even while theyâre dying to hear him speak, Jericho is, in the words of the bard, the absolute swinging dick. And with his 1/2/12 non-promo, he proved it once again.
Using no real dialogue, Jericho got an entire audience to continually cheer him for 10 straight thrilling minutes, earning himself one of the biggest and without a doubt longest pops of the night. Then, in an even more impressive feat, still without delivering any kind of message, Jericho turned those cheers into boos, as the audience realized that their returning hero was going to leave without even so much as a single âRaw is Jerichoâ or joking âparasiteâ reference. This isnât like going to a Lynyrd Skynyrd show where they donât play âFree Birdâ â itâs like going to a Lynyrd Skynyrd show where the band nails the noodling slow open but cuts the amps before the bitching guitar solo kicks in. In other words, itâs completely, utterly reprehensible and despicable.
What made Jerichoâs return non-promo such a smart piece of work is that it managed to get absolutely everyone against him. No matter what Jericho did, there were going to be some people (OK, me and people like me), who were going to cheer for him just because weâre so glad to have him back. By first getting everyone on his side and then ignoring their wishes, Jericho managed to alienate even the smarkiest of internet commentators, because even while we respect and admire what heâs done, truth be told, we still would have really liked to hear that guy speak, even if it was just to insult us.
Jericho's bizarre, promo-less face-to-heel return makes a lot of sense when you take it in the context of both his last run as a villain, which constituted the best work of his career, as well as more recent comments he has made both in interviews and on Twitter. A couple years ago, with the help of a three-piece suit and a cadence and approach obviously inspired by the villain of No Country for Old Men, Jericho became one of WWE's top, most reliable heels, and one of its most watchable stars of any alignment. Since then, however, what started as a fascinating, unique counterpoint to the types of cackling villains frequently seen in WWE has become just another cliché.
Jericho harnessed the natural hatred that WWE's audience has for guys in suits using big words, and numerous wrestlers, most notably the Miz and Cody Rhodes, have drawn from that well since. Having discussed this fact in the past, Jericho has claimed that if/when he returned to WWE it would be with something new, and as you might expect from one of the best, most intellectual wrestling minds currently working, he made good on the promise.
While shades of what Jericho is doing have been seen before (such as wrestlers failing to realize that they're letting fans down), in the past, wrestlers would generally take the easy way out, grabbing the microphone and whipping up some cheap heat or maybe even attacking a fan-favorite midcarder before disappearing into the back. Jericho didn't go that route though, and instead fully embraced a new, completely untested gimmick.
What if he came out to crickets? It had been years since a WWE audience saw Jericho as a face, and months since they had seen him at all - what if the audience didn't particularly want to cheer when he pointed at their section? As an artist and performer at the peak of his powers, these weren't concerns of Jericho's and as a result, he was completely fearless
The fearlessness of Jericho's wrestling performances is nothing new, however, with numerous examples cropping up in his last WWE run alone. Jericho screamed like a bitch when he lost, he got down on his knees and apologized to the WWE fans when commanded to and as World Heavyweight Champion he let midcarder Goldust and even utter newbie Daniel Bryan push him to the limit in competitive matches. Most impressively, however, when he was last seen in WWE he was getting punted in the head and subsequently carried out on a stretcher, not on a big pay-per-view befitting one of the most talented wrestlers of the current age, mind you, but on a regular old episode of Monday Night Raw.