Tim's Take 8.19.08: A Contentious Statement

Posted by Tim Livingston on 08.19.2008

Basically, I give you three underlying reasons as to why Chris Jericho is the best wrestler on the planet right now. I always said I'd back up any subjective opinion I had, so here we go.

Chris Jericho is the best wrestler in the world today.

That was a contentious statement, and considering it's subjective, the idea behind a statement is that you back up what you say with facts. It's like I'm teaching editorial journalism 101 or something. So here, good friends, is a lesson in what you need to know, and why Chris Jericho is miles ahead of the pack right now.

Chris Jericho is the best promo in the business right now.

Jericho has never been one to lack in personality or speaking. Ever since he was given a chance to speak, he became a guy who had been one of the wittiest and funniest talkers in the business. His years as WCW Cruiserweight Champion and TV Champion were some of the best the sport had ever seen. Do I even HAVE to mention Ralphus? He had been on a roll for a long time, but once he was given the chance to talk in WWE, it took him a while before he became anything more than just a wall for The Rock to bounce jokes off of. When he finally got his shot to become an equal with the InVasion angle, he got pushed as a heel who was a determined smartass, but in the long run, he wasn't someone who was taken overly seriously. Suffice to say, after his Undisputed title run, he almost became a generic heel and then a babyface, with his less than serious tone becoming more and more apparent. After a while, it seemed as if he was just out there doing his thing, and he wasn't really showing too much interest in the sport anymore. In retrospect, his move to leave WWE gave him a fresh outlook on what to do as a performer. He branched out, did some VH1 "I Love The" specials, worked on Fozzy, and that was that. When about this time rolled around last year, we noticed that someone was coming back, and it was pretty easy to see that Jericho had decided to return to his old stomping ground.

His return, while great because it allowed a lot of people who might have forgotten about him from years past to get used to him again, wasn't what he wanted it to be. It was one of those times where he had to adjust to a new scene. He had a natural folly in Randy Orton because of the "Save Us" angle, but it didn't come off as well because he couldn't go right into a top program right away. He had to ease his way into a situation where he could be successful. It wouldn't be for a while, until after WrestleMania, that Jericho's talking prowess would be put into high gear. After the amazing Ric Flair/Shawn Michaels program that led to one of the most emotional moments in the history of wrestling, Michaels slyly interjected himself into the aftermath that was Batista hating Shawn Michaels for putting his best friend out of the industry. While playing both sides, his Highlight Reel segments showed that as the Devil's advocate, he made a believer out of everyone that both Batista and Michaels were full of it at points, going so far as to calling them both selfish and taking a beating from them. But it was with Michaels that Jericho was allowed to "grow up."

No longer was he the hip smartass. He was a man all of his own, a manipulator who didn't have to brag about how he dispatched of people...but did anyways. His systematic destruction of Michaels was just a way to allow him to talk about his prowess, someone who didn't want to be seen as a joke anymore, but more as a man who was ruthless, and would go to great lengths to see the destruction of Michaels, and not only take it to a personal level, but to a matter of physical safety. His matches with Michaels have bordered on gruesome, with their last match leaving Michaels a bloody mess, with his eye injury the focal point. From then on, the Highlight Reel was no more. No more Jeritron 5000, no more Jericho goofiness. Just him showing no remorse. He'd be coming out in a suit, all business, no play, and as we saw at Summerslam this Sunday, Jericho will go to any lengths at all to get under Michaels' skin. It's been the way he's composed himself and the way he's made himself become so hateful that has allowed him to become the best in the business.

When motivated, he can still bring it as much as anyone in WWE.

Jericho has always been a good worker. While his workrate is not what it used to be, he has worked some very good psychology into his matches, with his recent series against Michaels as his best example. Beforehand, as a face, Jericho had a ton of face spots, and while those could normally cross over into good heel nearfalls, there needed to be an overall change of focus for Jericho in order for him to be a believable heel. His focus on working over an opponent with almost a maniacal determination has led him to become a good heel. Considering how Michaels works so well as a melodramatic face with his superhuman comebacks, the work that Jericho does as a veteran to reel in the overly dramatic Michaels puts over everyone. Michaels has the comeback in his back pocket, Jericho cuts him off to show he's on Michaels' level, and the fans believe that Jericho has a shot at dethroning him. Jericho is not simply working his normal face offense into his heel mannerisms. It's instead leading him into a much more interesting, controlling style that allows him to work well with the faces. A little extra on the Walls of Jericho, a bit more intensity on his strikes and an overall amped-up attitude has allowed him to succeed. That leads to the next point.

His reputation as a top performer has allowed him to become a more believable heel in the eyes of the fans.

Perhaps the most important part of the equation. Jericho came in as the face to replace Cena, regardless of what was reported or not. He was immediately thrust into the title picture with Orton. The overall tendency of Jericho to be a smartass face is not lost on the fans, but even when he was a heel, he had a little bit of The Rock in him: He was almost too cool to be a heel. So when he did act heel, it wasn't exactly enthralling stuff. When he was Undisputed Champion, he played the kind of chicken heel that Ric Flair made famous, but there was just one problem. When Flair did it, he was already such an amzing performer in the eyes of the fans that whether he was heel or face, Flair was able to get his performance over. It might have been formulaic, but it worked.

For Jericho to really become a true heel, he had to show that he really put a lot of heart into it, and that it wasn't just some typical move. He had to turn the fans against him slowly, and do it in a way where he was taken seriously. A slow burn works really well in many cases (see: Batista, Dave) and for Jericho to do it against Michaels made it all the better. While Michaels personified himself as a heel with Ric Flair, his genuine feeling of remorse for being the man to retire him turned him face, and with it, allowed Jericho to pounce and make his move. It was nothing short of perfect timing. And Jericho, being as savvy as he is with 15 years+ of wrestling experience, knew that if he wanted to make himself a great heel, now was as good a time as ever. Summerslam's performance still fresh in the fans' minds, it's going to be great to see where he goes from here. As far as true face vs. heel matchups go, Jericho has turned this into a good old-fashioned blood feud. While The Undertaker and Edge might have had a good run on SmackDown!, it's been Jericho and Michaels who have shown people exactly how the face/heel dynamic should work. Jericho has taken his craft to a new level in his career, and with it, only time will tell if there are legs behind this. If the Michaels program is any indication, Jericho could have one of the great all-time heel runs the business has ever seen.

With these three things in mind, it's pretty damn certain that based on character and ability to get over an angle alone through promos, work in the ring, and general personality, Chris Jericho is the best wrestler in the world today.