After one heck of a run, Chris Jericho will face Kevin Owens one more time at Payback with the U.S. Championship on the line. The collision between the former best friends will likely mark the end of Jericho’s current run with WWE, and while we do know that we will eventually see him again, it’s still bad news for RAW.
Jericho Has Carried RAW Since The Brand Split
While the red brand has indeed improved since the superstar shake-up, it’s rarely been of the same high standard as SmackDown LIVE. Ever since the roster was once again split for the returning brand extension, RAW just hasn’t been able to compete with its blue counterpart. And the main reason for that is down to its repetitive storylines, familiar headliners and Stephanie McMahon’s Authority-like role. While SmackDown evolved and became the land of opportunity, things on RAW were very much “same old same old”.
But amidst all the controversial storylines, RAW did produce some truly great moments. And many of them were down to one man — Chris Jericho.
From his relationship with his best friend Kevin Owens to the many times he put an unsuspecting superstar on the List of Jericho, it was a pure joy to watch Chris Jericho on TV. His segments were entertaining, genius and downright hilarious and it was worth watching RAW for just them alone. However, despite his age of 45, he continues to back everything up in the ring. This man is still capable of putting on five star matches, and seeing him steal the show in the RAW main events almost made some of those questionable three hour episodes seem worthwhile.
Undoubtedly, RAW has had some great episodes since the brand split, but when times were tough, WWE could always call upon Chris Jericho to deliver — and that’s exactly what he did.
He’s The Best Character At The Moment
While we might indeed currently be part of one of the greatest eras for wrestling matches in history — there have been some incredible matches in recent memory — one of the reasons why the product just isn’t as compelling is due to the lack of real characters. Back in the Attitude Era we had the likes of the Undertaker, Kane, Stone Cold, The Rock and Triple H — all of whom had deep characters that constantly developed. But it just isn’t the same today. While we do see glimpses of greatness from the likes of Alexa Bliss and Bray Wyatt, it just seems like the company can’t produce strong characters anymore.
Of all the superstars in need of a character revitalization, Chris Jericho was not one of them. He was one of those last great characters left from the Attitude Era, and would have continued to thrive just as he was. But changing him up was a big risk. And in many ways, it shouldn’t have worked. During his current run with WWE, the legendary superstar ended up becoming a more whiny, more arrogant, scarf-obsessed rockstar who ended up jotting down his enemies’ names on a list. This was a really risky move. And I’ll admit, at the beginning I was a little apprehensive about this.
But man, what a breath of fresh air he ended up becoming. Between his epic in-ring segments to his hilarious backstage interviews, this new Chris Jericho was so damn good that he got the fans to cheer for him even though he was heel most of the time. All he had to do was say “you know what happens?” and the arena would fill with deafening cheers. And that’s a testament to how well the transformation went down. Jericho gave us his awesomeness, and we drank it in man.
While I’m sure we all wish Chris Jericho luck for his time away from WWE, you know what will happen when he returns. And I can’t wait to see it.
