Michaels vs Jericho

could you suggest some links to catch up on this?

Quickly because I'm at work, but I couldn't find the whole whole backstory, so quick recap:

- Jericho refs match between HBK and Batista, which took place 'cause Batista blamed Michaels for retiring Flair. Finish came when HBK got hurt, so Jericho pushed Batista aside to check on HBK. HBK pops up and nails Sweet Chin Music for the win.

- Following weeks, Jericho asks whether HBK was faking his injury or not. HBK denies it, then finally admits that he did what he did to win. Jericho keeps bugging HBK, so he superkicks him.

- Meanwhile, Jericho has been conflicted in not resorting to heel tactics, many times about to blast his opponents with a chair, but thought better of it.

- So Jericho sees that despite him trying to do the right thing whereas as Michaels is a liar and a cheater, but the fans side with him no matter what.

- OK this is where you should try and find this - on the Highlight Reel, Jericho airs his grievances, than attacks Michaels, reminiscent of the latter's turn on Jannetty on the Barber Shop. Michaels now has an eye injury due to the attack.

Jericho taunts Michaels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGoR3dhU8wM

Michaels figures out what's wrong with Jericho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3V2jmMh3T4

Moral ambiguity~! Will check this out, thanks

I am liking the no-frills, even-toned bitterness Jericho is bringing to this. I think maybe by about 2003 the Rock had rendered the brash, humorously antagonistic promo obsolete anyway, as John Cena's continued failed attempts to emulate him have proven

Michaels still gives amazingly good mic for a guy who's been dead for about four years

In other news, the spectacle of a bloated, scarcely mobile Rey Mysterio splashing his way to a win was vaguely poignant, and Barry Windham ain't looking so good these days either, though that is more to be expected. Barry Windham was my favourite wrestler when I was ten.

What John Cena matches do I need to see if I want to become convinced that he became awesome in the past year or two?

also interesting is the possibly unintended undercurrent of SHOOT COMMENT~! to saying "Shawn Michaels is a massive, massive cunt and you people are extremely gullible for believing he is a nice guy for all these years", together with exposing the daft comic book continuity of wrestling by showing like five of his several hundred heel turns over the years in a video package, and holding that up as in some way unusual

I like how Jericho has been getting the upper hand in this feud, often with just one shot to the injured eye (or the low blow before the Jeritron attack). Jericho feels justified in doing the same thing Michaels is known for doing (doing what it takes, take advantage of any situation, etc), because he feels in the "what goes around, comes around" process, he is empowered to play God and dish out the "comes around" part himself.

I feel like Jericho's heel turn was booked by Joss Whedon. I think Michaels should win this feud cleanly, but I kinda hope for a long-term Jericho redemption angle, except wrestling has never been about long-term redemption when fans are ready to immediately accept a wrestler back into the babyface fold.

quick before this goes, their Bash match:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=JbTeVU9_68Q
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=lJEnnwKdYlY
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=dTCH8E1PnQ0
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=UgI8JngFB_M

love the match as the next chapter of the feud, as opposed to 'hey, it's michaels vs jericho, let's have them wrestle a great match'. it could've used JR though.

ta

the ref constantly getting in the way for the last third of the match kind of killed it a bit

Have you seen any similar videos for the Judgment Day match? It looked good.

It upsets me that youtube has given rise to weird basement dwelling nerds giving their opinions on things into a camera for ten minutes

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=AHJRJbWFeOk

This kid isn't even the worst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1z_XmMF5b8

There is something really wrong about describing yourself as "edgemadfan2008" out loud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uq_O8fHW4k

The follow-up promo - I think this is the most credible Jericho has seem in his whole career, a legitimate top guy, capable of convincingly beat main eventers. At this point, I don't think that the blow-off feud will be Summerslam - in fact, I'd even have HBK skip the PPV to sell the beating. Prolonged one-sided taunting has worked for Austin in his initial feud with Bret Hart; I can see this feud continuing for a long time.

dude's on fire

Highlight's from Jericho's book, A Lion's Tale:

1. Goldberg was really, really angry at Jericho over the Greenberg/Dwarfberg stuff on Nitro, and would just do his intense grin face and repeatedly say "I hope it was worth it, Jericho" when Jericho tried to explain that he was being told to do that by the booking team, who were in charge of what happened on the shows.

2. Ralphus got too big for his boots, and Jericho eventually got rid of him for being disruptive at ringside and letting loads of his female fans into the locker room (possibly a lie).

3. Jericho once received a recorded delivery FedEx package from WCW containing nothing.

4. Jericho and Lance Storm both worked as bouncers at a nightclub at one point, where all the bouncers had vaguely exotic nicknames like "Fuji" and "Chang" to reflect their personalities. Lance Storm's nickname was "Lance".

Not big into wrestling books, but heard nothing but great stuff about Jericho's book. Highlight #4 above might push me over.

It stops at his WWF debut, so if you're particularly after post-1999 dirt* you might want to hold off for the next one, otherwise it's pretty good

*obviously there is not a huge amount of actual dirt, but apparently Balls Mahoney used to eat sandwiches in bed and stuff the crusts under the mattress, until the point where the entire underside of his bed was swarming with roaches

the last highlight reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1quR9aPnbR4

he's untouchable at this point

In his book and something else I read recently CJ says he thinks heels should always be cowardly and pathetic, and that he thinks the idea of the "cool heel" is a cop out for dudes like the NwO, who were too up themselves to not always give themselves the verbal upper hand even though they were supposed to be the bad guys

Not really sure how that squares with the fact that a) Jericho's recent promos have been pretty close to being the voice of reason and b) he generally made his name in the US by being "cool", in that he was so funny ("NUMBER EIGHT: ARMBARRR. NUMBER NINE: MUHRMNNGH. NUMBER NINE: ARRRM BARRRR") the fact that he was making himself look absurd at the same time either didn't matter or actually helped

^haven't watched that YT yet so this may contradict what I've said

Jericho was funny but in a really goofy, uncool way what with Ralphus and those 1004 moves ("Moss Covered Three Handled Family Grudunzle!"). A slight difference from Big Kev spray painting like a 16-year-old (OK, so that was never cool or amusing) or HBK putting a banana in his shorts.

Anyway, that promo was him renouncing being the wacky "cool" prankster that made jokes about Mrs. HHH's breasts and was fucking brillance.

Chris Jericho is now YOUR World Champion and a big hello to HHH, whom I believe was mocking Jericho's return to the squared circle just a few months ago.