Jay’s Ways – Hypocrisy Is Jericho
Let’s forget about the concert and touring stuff for a minute. We all already know that is nonsense.
Let’s forget about the recent WWE Network interview for a minute. We all already know that is nonsense.
Let’s forget about getting Luther a job and featuring him in a national televised main event. We all already know that is nonsense.
Heck, let’s just forget about the teleportation garbage with Matt Hardy, taking a Mimosa Bath, dancing to show tunes in the middle of a dinner promo and even the disastrous EXPLODING BARBED WIRE DEATH MATCH from All Elite Wrestling a couple of weeks ago. Although, to be fair, that mess was not from Chris Jericho. The others were him.
All him.
However, we are going to skip all of those points and focus solely on his latest quote. Courtesy of Busted Open Radio, from WrestlingInc via NoDQ.com:
“Why does Blood and Guts have to happen four months down the line when it really demands to happen now? And trust me, we have a long way to go. There’s a lot of twists and turns in the pipeline between the Inner Circle and the Pinnacle. And I think Blood and Guts, if we do it the way I think we’re going to do it, it’s just going to kick it off at the highest of levels to where people are just going to want to see more and more and more and more.”
This was in reference to comparing WWE with their HIAC pay-per-view each year and to how AEW is doing Blood And Guts.
First off, I agree with WWE pretty much just doing Cell matches at this point ‘just to do them’ because it’s on the calendar. Pretty difficult to argue that part. However, here is where Chris Jericho (again) shows his backside and is (again) wrong.
In WWE, HIAC has a legacy. Is every single bout well built and hyped? No. Is every bout amazing and some kind of historic showdown? Clearly not. However, the company has the aura and history to bank off whenever in doubt and guess what? There are indeed classic Cell matches and wonderful memories throughout the years inside that demonic structure. Even in the ThunderDome or in front of a smaller audience or whatever, it is still the devil’s playground.
Blood And Guts is sure to be a great match. I have zero hesitation in saying that. It should be freakin’ awesome and if ‘blood’ and ‘guts’ is your thing in 2021, congrats. Funny coming from a company that heralded treating their performers great and offering insurance at launch. How is that one going by the way? In no way, shape, or form should a huge gang warfare kinda battle begin with a gimmick match to this magnitude. This goes against everything Khan, Jericho, and well respected veterans preach. You can’t now back off that notion just because TNT wants to pop a number and can’t wait anymore after the original bout was canceled last year.
That is not even mentioning the fact it is on TNT and not pay-per-view. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised though, when you read in between the lines as to what is going on. More on that another day. None of this passes the smell test. If Jericho was just honest for a second (haha) and told us AEW/TNT wanted a big match and it’s going to be such a huge main event, that’d be one thing. To try and explain it away and make up all the excuses in the world while pointless bashing WWE in the process, okay. Whatever. I got it. I see you. Not clever and not cool.
My advice that nobody asked for: I would have just built up the match and told everybody to tune in! I think there will be a ratings bump, and I do think the match will deliver. The issue was Chris Jericho tends to think he is the smartest man in the room more often than not. Just watch his Stone Cold interview where he tried to rank himself amongst the all-time greats in an embarrassing five minute speech. Once he brought up WWE, ripped his former company, and tried to defend the typical spotty AEW match planning, he lost all credibility. Again.
By Justin Watry (Follow me on Twitter: @JustinWatry)