Senhor Perfect said:
Kind of, yeah. Well, I don't think it was concrete or anything, but I definitely believe they had planned Punk having quite a long reign for quite some time and eventually they decided to keep it on him until the Rumble. Because firstly, around the time he won, probably a few weeks or months after (but Punk was definitely keeping it to Mania) the reports of longer championships reigns being the direction WWE is heading began surfacing. Granted that not only could've been BS but I could totally be getting the time they surfaced wrong. Secondly, Punk, being the last guy to break through to the media for WWE in years and even topped Cena in merchandise sales (at one point, doubt it's the case now), it was obvious they were going to give him a respectable reign . . . when they finally gave him one. The fact of how much the cock-teased him actually winning and keeping the belt was a dead give-a-way for me that when he did win it and they'd let him keep it, it was going to be a long one. I mean, that just make sense from a narrative point of view, and yeah I'm giving WWE a lot of credit here but whatever. Finally, there really was nobody else to beat Punk. Jericho didn't want to and even so his reign would've been a transitional one and one between two Punk reigns at that which would've just been a stupid move in my opinion doing more good than harm. Bryan? Don't make me laugh. I love the guy, don't get me wrong, but there was like no chance WWE was actually going to give him the belt at that time. Really that leaves just Cena but by the point Cena was free, they've already decided on Rock/Punk so for the most part, I think it was planned. Mostly in the way that they weren't setting Punk up for any feuds that he actually had a legitimate chance of losing the belt too.
As for the topic on hand, do I think WWE messed up Jericho's last run? Nope, I loved his last run. The "End Of The World" promos leading up to his return where absolutely incredibly. One of the coolest things WWE have ever produced. I mean, yeah I had almost no doubt that it was Jericho (the only doubt I had was that WWE might switch who the vignettes were intended for to swerve us despite being created for Jericho - but that was incredibly small doubt), which I guess is a knock against it but meh. Fantastic feud with Punk, even if it started slightly rocky. I loved their Extreme Rules bout and as I've already stated, him winning the belt from Punk would've been stupid since he'd just have to lose it back to him soon and I can't see how that does anyone any good. The not talking thing at the beginning of his run was genius too. Finally, while I actually stopped watching after Extreme Rules more or less, thus missing most of his run, from what I've seen afterwards it was still quality stuff. But then again, I didn't want Jericho back because I wanted to see him win championships and relive his glory days, I wanted Jericho back because he delivers great matches and promos consistently and I felt he accomplished just that.
*Edit*
Correction time! I didn't really stop watching WWE after Extreme Rules but I stopped watching PPV's and since a bulk of Jericho's feuds past Extreme Rules took place on Smackdown! (the WHC stuff did anyway) I missed most of the run due to that. I stopped watching completely after the 1004th show.
