C.M. Punk vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship:
Nick Paglino:
“While I think the feud between CM Punk and Chris Jericho has heated up over the past couple weeks, and I anticipate their bout at WrestleMania, I can’t shake the feeling that Jericho is only around right now for the big PPV pay day, and will be taking another “hiatus” from the company sooner rather than later.
Jericho’s work during this current “return” to the company has been less than his best, and I somewhat feel like he is going through the motions and biding his time until he can get back to making “glammy” music with Fozzy. I don’t see much of a long-term plan in place for Jericho right now, so it’s for that reason that I’m picking Punk to retain at WrestleMania.”
Josh Isenberg:
The feud really has picked up over the past few weeks, as I said on CSR that there needed to be some sort of personal angle thrown in. We got that, and we finally have gotten a more interesting persona in Jericho. For months, he has muddled around his old character before his last exit, but now he added another element to his game. He is so good at what he does, but I do feel he could only be around for a short period of time. We never really heard of his contract and what he is able to do and not do outside of the WWE, but it is rare a guy comes back for 6 months and then goes away again.
I will take the other side and say Jericho will walk away with the WWE Championship one way or another. I see this match getting a solid 20-25 minutes and really filling a void that WrestleMania usually has, and that is “wrestling.” Jericho went through the motions, like Nick said, but has finally gotten my attention the past few weeks with his personal attacks. It makes sense, and really makes Jericho’s character different than other heels. He may go away again, but I do not forsee that happening until the summer months. Jericho will walk out Miami as the WWE Champion and get a good three months at least.
