Chris Jericho : How big an oppourtunity did they miss?

[seabs]

[size=xx-small]The millenium man.[/size]
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How often could you class a record 9 time intercontinental champion, 6 time world champion and a 7 time tag team champion a missed oppourtunity? Can you at all? Normally I'd venture it being the latter but even though Jericho was given may accolades he was never given the oppourtunity to run with the ball, he had everything you'd want to be mentioned in the same breath, his look was marketable at the turn of the century, people were invested in him even before his debut and that grew further into his WWE career, he was always capable of carrying a match and segment too.

Now when was it applicable for Jericho to be at the pinnacle of the mountain?

Mid 2000 during his feud with HHH, he was on a roll as a face and Trips was in the midst of his best year ever. WCW had hit the selfdestruct button, Austin was injured and Rocky was never harmed being out of the title race for a while. Giving Jericho the rub from HHH as the companies next top face would be an interesting concept.

Another was in 2002 after Jericho was crowned undisputed champion, would there have been a better way to cement a megaface than have him beat Austin cleanly, Rock cleanly then HHH cleanly at WM? I know HHH was running the return story so it's possible he goes over at WM dirty (he turned later in the year anyway) before Jericho picks it up again later in the Summer, possibly pushing Brock's push back a bit and having him pick up the strap at WM 19 for the first time. It could have been the passing of the guard rather than the HHH era we saw.

Questions:

Did Jericho have the potental to be the top face for the WWE?

If not why, if so how would you have established him there?

 

[Saylor]

Chris Jericho is one of my favorite superstars as he can most certainly work as a face and a heel, is extremely talented on the mic and in the ring and is most defiantly one of the experienced wrestler on the roster. Could Chris Jericho have been the face of the company? My question is, why wasn't he?

He has all the accolades and has done nearly everything there is to do in the wrestling business. Chris also very much loves the business and isn't afraid to lose to the younger guys as he isn't an ego-maniac. I think he's a great superstar and could most defiantly have became the face of the company, if they decided to make him that guy.

I understand that he has interests outside of the business, but who doesn't? Everyone would love to do something else, but my answer is that he most defiantly could have became the face of the company.

 

[Lockard 23]

I think his main event push would have been better capitalized on if it had happened in 2000. Imagine if they actually went with Jericho winning the title on that Raw in April of 2000, or at least winning the rematch against HHH at Backlash and then ran with Jericho as world champion for a short while. It might have given him a bigger aura as a main event star in the long run than his botched push in 2001/2002 did, the latter which led to Vince calling Jericho two weeks before Wrestlemania X-8 "the biggest flop as world champion ever." Just listen to the huge reaction that Jericho got that night when people thought he actually won the title from HHH. Can't blame them for continuing the Rock/HHH program, though. 2000 was the chance for The Rock to be the headline superstar now that Austin with out with an injury, and Rock was able to show he was a viable long term investment once Austin was gone for good (they knew he was on borrowed time because of the neck injury, and had no idea Rock would end up being lured away by Hollywood.)

His 2002 push was botched in all kinds of ways, so much so from the get go that I don't think beating Rock and Austin cleanly (which I wouldn't agree with anyway) or defeating Triple H by cheating (the problem with this scenario is the build leading up to it was disastrous for Jericho) would have really made much of a difference. If booked differently from the get go, it would have been interesting to give Jericho the long title reign treatment that CM Punk got recently, only it'd have more effect because of there being only being one title for the majority of the reign, and because the reign would have began with the two world titles being unified. But even this would have been flawed, as it would have interfered with the Brock Lesnar monster push.

All things considered though, I don't really have a problem with how Jericho has ended up in wrestling.

 

[Leo C]

I think he really had the potential, but the thing was that they had other guys they wanted to give the rub to at the time, I suppose.