Y2J Club: A New Direction For Jericho

Chris Jericho is Tyler Durden

If you’re a wrestling fan watching today’s product, you no doubt have noticed one thing: Chris Jericho’s character since his feud with Shawn Michaels has been the best heel persona in the WWE in years. His promos are cold, calculating and intelligent.

While occasionally his “you people” shtick gets old, he makes it work because of his commitment to the bit; he has obviously totally bought into his holier-than-thou persona and created an almost frighteningly sociopathic villain.

You hate him, but you love to hate him.

He has become, therefore, an almost movie-caliber villain. The most obvious comparison is Hannibal Lecter, but I can do you one better; Chris Jericho is quite reminiscent of Brad Pitt’s Tyler Durden character in Fight Club.

The monotone with which he delivers his menacing monologues, combined with the sneer and willingness to kick your ass on a second’s notice (for the most part), make the comparison quite compelling.

The WWE could do well to capitalize on the possibilities presented here. So how would you plan an angle with Jericho as a Durden-esque character? The most obvious choice would be to give Jericho his own charge (a la Ed Norton’s Narrator) or even a faction to lead around and influence.

I know they already tried this with Lance Cade and it failed, but that is not Jericho’s fault; Cade’s own mistakes cost him a potential main event run, since I believe that riding Jericho’s coattails was taking Cade in the right direction.

So let’s say we take Jericho and give him his own faction (hard to argue that he deserves one more than someone like Randy Orton). Let’s do it.

First we have to give Jericho a young, up-and-coming protégé, a young superstar who has lost his way and needs guidance from someone like Jericho, a five-time world champion and crossover star. It doesn’t have to be fantasy-driven (like Norton and Pitt) but this wrestler needs to make it clear that he wants to climb the ladder and sees Jericho as an idol.

Who are we looking at, then? It should be someone knocking on the door of the midcard that shows willingness to work and some potential. An obvious choice would be Shelton Benjamin, but they already tried that angle with him and HBK (and, just from what I’ve seen from Shelton recently, it doesn’t seem like he wants it enough).

My personal favorite, if WWE is serious about pushing him (and that’s a BIG if), is Santino Marella–he has great in-ring ability and a similar style to Jericho.

Now that we’ve picked a wrestler (or perhaps a faction of wrestlers) we get started on the storyline aspect. The wrestler in question, let’s say Santino here, keeps coming close to winning big matches but can’t get over the hump.

Enter Jericho, the voice in his head, who fills the Tyler Durden role; Jericho looks like Santino wants to look and fights–and wins–like Santino wants to fight. Santino follows Jericho to his matches and watches him win, night after night.

Then, the roles flip and Jericho stands in Santino’s corner as he starts to win matches and move up the ladder into the upper-midcard picture.

Jericho holding onto the Intercontinental Title (or US Title, if a move is necessary) is essential in this storyline because of the ultimate direction. Over time, Jericho picks up an increasing number of followers (like in Fight Club), people like Dolph Ziggler and perhaps Matt Hardy, and leads them to success in their matches. Eventually, though, the protégé wrestler starts to show signs of wanting to break out on his own, but gets held down by Jericho.

Ultimately the protégé revolts and attacks Jericho, turning face in the process, and defeats him for the Intercontinental Title, ultimately creating a new upper-midcard competitor and allowing Jericho to move up to the main event.

A new future main eventer is therefore created in Jericho’s protégé, a new stable of rising star performers is created, and in the end Jericho can end up fighting for the World Title (where he belongs).

Chris Jericho as Tyler Durden. Book it.

Random Thoughts From This WWE Week:

-   The WWE needs to make a decision with Randy Orton. First it seems like they want to push him as a dominant heel but then they have him get beat up by Shane McMahon and Ric Flair and squashed by Batista. Then they switch and have him (kayfabe) put Batista out of action only to have HHH come back and positively murder him. It’s decision time: fish or cut bait.

-   I think that, as rising stars go on Raw, there are two guys that I absolutely love: The Miz and Kofi Kingston. The Miz has become one of the most entertaining antagonists that I’ve seen in quite some time; is he really the same guy who debuted as the “host” of Smackdown a few years back? As for Kingston, he’s taken a ludicrous, stereotypical gimmick and gotten massively over with it. He’s great fun to watch in the ring and his promos are improving.

-   Since Vickie Guerrero has legitimately quit the WWE, we’re looking at yet another new GM for Raw. Rumor mill has it that it’s going to be Ric Flair, which could be good. Maybe they’ll put Regal back there what with his kiss-up storyline.

-   Dear The John Cena vs. Big Show feud: get the hell off my TV. Thanks, bye.

-   Why is Evan Bourne being wasted feuding with Tony Atlas and Mark Henry? Before he got hurt he main evented Raw with Rey Mysterio. Now this?

-   Tommy Dreamer as ECW Champion? Really? Even JBL’s rise to the main event was more believable. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tommy and I get the sentimental storyline here, but with potential stars in Christian and Jack Swagger on the brand there is no reason to screw around with the title unless Christian and Swagger are moving to other brands.

-   Seriously, how good has John Morrison gotten recently? Have you seen him? If he gets better on the mic this guy could find himself in the main event picture really soon.

-   Was it just me, or was JR totally heel-ing it up on this past Smackdown? Interesting to see from him and how he kept praising both CM Punk’s sneak-attack on Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules and Dolph Ziggler’s strategy against The Great Khali. I wonder if this is going anywhere.