Firstly I would like to apologize. A lot of people asked if I still write for WrestleZone as they haven’t seen any articles recently. I wrote an article on Christmas Eve which wasn't posted due to the holidays, but I hope you all had a lovely time over the Christmas period and I wish you all the best in 2012!
I would personally like to thank you for a wonderful 2011 on WrestleZone. I would like to thank everyone on the site who allows me to express my thoughts and opinions with you all and I would like to thank each and every one of you for taking the time out of your day to read this one fans opinions of the wrestling business. Whether you agree with my opinions or not is irrelevant, the fact that websites like this allows fans to interact with the product we love is a true testament to everyone’s love for the direction that this crazy business takes. So again, thank you and all the best!
It’s been a crazy few hours since RAW went off the air. The world is reeling from a massive night in the wrestling world with Twitter exploding and even Voice of Wrestling's chatroom exploding with over 100 people chatting live! The mystery man was revealed and yet even though we were all praying it would be Jericho we can’t help but feel let down? Jericho returned with a jacket which nearly rivaled Jim Carrey’s Riddler jacket in Batman Forever! Only to say nothing, jump around ringside for 15 minutes like he had been gone for 20 years and then left. Jericho managed to do something which is almost impossible in the wrestling world. He made a massive comeback and managed to turn a crowd on its head by doing absolutely nothing. Jericho is a mastermind when it comes to manipulating a crowd (Just like The Rock) and he managed to pull it off with style. Sure, it felt weird, the crowd was dead before it even started but to be honest can we expect anything less?
The leaked photos of Jericho in Memphis gave the cat out of the bag and ruined what little surprise was left, as is always the case with wrestling surprises these days. Was this a middle finger from WWE because of what was leaked? Or was it the plan all along to get Jericho on the bad side of the crowd instantly? Either way it worked. The main argument that people have is that they don’t feel they got their money’s worth out this. Granted, for one episode of RAW is was pretty lacking. They could have had Jericho involve himself at the end of the show, they could have had another return, and they could have done something bigger with Kane rather than put a fire protective cloth on the end of his hole and set a camp fire off in the ring. But this is wrestling. We have many weeks to go until the Royal Rumble and they are trying to tag you on to next week. Question is, did they give you enough this week to try and make you tune in next week? In my opinion? No. The smart fan will want to see how Jericho will further this but the casual fan who tuned in to see what all the fuss was about will have now turned over and be watching something else that seemingly ‘delivers.’
After thinking about this a lot, the show overall didn’t deliver. Not because of Jericho’s return but because we all expected another swerve before the end of the night and we got nothing. Is that WWE’s fault or because us ‘Fans’ have put way too much hype on something bigger happening? It’s a hard one to call. WWE gave us a return but had him do nothing. In the short term this is fairly flat but in the long term it may become something great. We will have to keep tuning in to see if we are ever going to be satisfied with this. At the moment I’m still sat on the fence because I can see what they are trying to do, yet I can see why people would have turned it off. WWE can never satisfy EVERY fan and to be honest I’ve grown to expect the worst in the product just so that when the special moments come they feel all that much bigger. The biggest moments now have to be things kept secret to even the employees of the WWE, just look at Cena’s Rumble return at MSG and CM Punk’s ‘shoot’ promo. These are things that we never knew were coming. Last night we knew 99% it was likely to be Jericho. WWE tried to give us a swerve but it left us feeling empty. Rather than gain just heat the crowd sapped the energy from the entire show, was this because they were expecting more and if they were was that ‘our’ fault or ‘theirs?’ There was still time for it to be saved at the end but nothing really materialized.
As you can tell I’m still torn on this subject and can’t really give a verdict on how I truly feel because to be honest I’m still not entirely sure. But it’s created a discussion point and I’m glad that Jericho has decided to return to the WWE. Let’s hope that WWE can keep this interesting with reference to the girl in the video and the constant messages we have been fed for the last few weeks.
Have WWE dropped the ball? On the show overall last night, quite possibly yes. Have they dropped the ball on a good idea and telling story? The verdicts still out on that one…
You can reach me at beansontoastuk@msn.com or on Twitter at @BeansOnToastUK.
