Views From The Turnbuckle: The Gift Of Jericho (Drink It In Mannnnnn)

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For a majority of his career, Chris Jericho has been underappreciated. Everyone knows that he was underutilized in WCW and that he had to go to the WWF to become a main event star, but even throughout his time in the WWE he has been consistently shuffled around. For a guy that is as popular as he has been, it is strange to think that he has had so little world championship success. Yes he was the first Undisputed Champion in WWE history, and that is something that can always be put on his resume to stand-out, but really I feel like he only got that shot because he was the perfect guy to lose the championship to a returning Triple H at WrestleMania X-8.

Really Jericho has had the career of an upper-mid carder that occasionally got to dance in the main event with the big names. For most of the big shows he has worked on, he has been relegated to playing second or third fiddle to other big stars. He has still had a more accomplished career than 95 percent of other wrestlers and he will go into the WWE Hall of Fame, probably as the headliner, as soon as he is eligible; but for a guy of his talent, I think WWE has undervalued him a bit.

Jericho has been absolutely fantastic since returning to the company for his latest run. Over his past few part-time runs, Jericho had always gotten a big pop for his return simply because the fans love him so much; but eventually he kind of faded away and became just another guy on the roster by the time that he departed. This time however, since he made a hard heel turn, he has been by far the most consistently entertaining performer in the company, stealing the spotlight from more-heavily pushed wrestlers and turning back the clock to his prime and delivering some of the best work of his career.

In the ring he is still very good. Maybe he isn’t quite as athletic as he was ten years ago, but he still moves around very well for someone that is 45 years old and in year 26 of his career. In addition, the influx of young talent that has cracked the WWE main roster in recent years have given Jericho fresh matchups, like against Sami Zayn or AJ Styles. Chris Jericho vs El Generico or Chris Jericho vs AJ Styles? Those are real dream matches for hardcore fans.

On the microphone and in-character, Jericho might be the best in the world. When it comes to cutting charismatic promos and getting catchphrases over, it is accepted that The Rock is in a league of his own; but take a look at what Jericho has done over this last year. He got the term “Stupid Idiot” an insult that a First Grader would deem to be uncreative, super-over with the audience to the point that it is the most over catchphrase in the company, except for maybe the Enzo and Cass stuff. If that wasn’t insane enough, Jericho went a step-further when he got the two letter word “it” over with the live audience. IT! According to Oxford Online, “it” is the 11th most common word in the English Language. It would be as if a wrestler got “that” or “a” or “the” over as a catchphrase.

That is why the Gift of Jericho is a real …

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