WWE News: Vince McMahon's Influence on Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk, Inside Scoop

It's always interesting to find out how Vince McMahon thinks, how his creative staff arrives at their plans and why they, as a collaborative unit, make the decisions they do.

The Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk storyline—which is set to culminate in a WWE title bout at WrestleMania 28—offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes.

According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via WrestleZone.com), the feud between Y2J and "The Straight Edge" superstar has taken on a bit of a topsy-turvy landscape as recently as the February 20 edition of RAW:

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Last Monday's battle royal on RAW to decide who would be the number one contender for the WWE Championship was a last minute idea from Vince McMahon himself.

For months WWE creative knew that WrestleMania 28 would feature CM Punk versus Chris Jericho, but there was never a solid decision on how they would get the match made. This became debated even more when WWE decided to have Sheamus win the Royal Rumble and not Chris Jericho.

There was originally an idea discussed where Jericho would insult CM Punk so badly that Punk would demand to have a match, but it was decided that it would be too similar to what is going on with The Undertaker and Triple H. It was also argued that fans just paid to see the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view to determine the WrestleMania main events, so by the match being made due to Jericho insulting Punk, it would have been a huge devalue of the Elimination Chamber to the fans.

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This report indicates that, from a third-party perspective, the WWE's creative process is not only unorganized, but illogical.

How can it be that the company was of the notion that Punk versus Jericho would transpire at WrestleMania months ahead of time, but not have a road map on how to get there? A conclusion, no matter how riveting, is of no value if it is not linked to a beginning and middle.

Simply put, Jericho, who was riding a crest of momentum heading into the 2012 Royal Rumble, should have outlasted 29 of his peers to legitimately earn a crack at CM Punk's armor in Miami.

However, rather than capitalizing on his first uttered words and declaration of a world that would "end" at the Rumble event, his mystique wore off the moment Sheamus "Brogue Kicked" him into the land of defeat.

Then, at Elimination Chamber 2012, the company inexplicably decided against having Jericho, naturally, look like a world-beater with respect to Punk, opting instead to weave a paper-thin "he never beat me" excuse into the "Best in the World" storyline.

To make matters worse, just when we thought the company had an ace up its sleeve in regards to how Jericho would win a title shot after failing at both the Rumble and Elimination Chamber, Vince McMahon pulled rank with the tritest of all solutions—a battle royal on RAW.

Ultimately, while Y2J ended up winning it, it was a drastic come-down from the interest and discussion a Rumble victory would've sparked.

Not to mention, in spite of the company's rationale, the means by which the WWE validated Jericho's No. 1 contendership (the battle royal) actually diminished the prestige of the RAW Elimination Chamber match more so than any incendiary words would have.

In fact, given how articulate and provocative Jericho can be as a speaker, he could've talked his way into a title shot with more plausibility than any cop-out battle royal.

It's not the end of the world yet, though, as the WWE still has ample time to make Punk vs. Jericho a hot ticket in time for WrestleMania.

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