Follow my blog with Bloglovin Our oldest son just turned 18 this month and I was reminded of the early days of my wife's pregnancy and how we as first-time parents prepared for our baby's arrival. My wife started reading What to Expect When You're Expecting and I checked out articles online for tips on being a good dad. Then my mother-in-law bought us a book filled with baby names and the process of trying to figure out what we'd call our child started. An early "pee and Draino" test indicated we were going to have a girl. But an ultrasound and professionals confirmed our DIY test was invalid and we'd be the parents of a baby boy in January 2000. So we threw the name Gracie out the window and started the process over again.
Jericho's WWE debut
Courtesy: WWE
We each came up with 20 names we liked (this included the middle name too as well as input from our families). Because I'm a die-hard wrestling fan I was influenced to include the names of some WWE Superstars on my list. At the top was Jericho, as in Chris Jericho. You might recall Y2J had debuted in WWE a few months prior. I'd been a fan of his in WCW, but his persona in WWE cemented my fandom. As you might imagine, my wife, who is not a wrestling fan at all nixed the idea pretty quickly. She leaned toward Peyton but I balked because I didn't want people to think we named our son after Peyton Manning. We were living in Indiana at the time and he was the star QB for the Indianapolis Colts. I have nothing against Manning, I'm just not a big football fan and knew people would draw the similarities. If they were going to draw a connection with our son's name, I wanted it to be with someone I was a fan of. Makes sense, doesn't it? So I countered with alternatives like Piper and Hunter as well, but I'm not a fan of the "er" ending first and last names as in Piper Hunsperger or Hunter Hunsperger. Needless to say, those ideas didn't make it far either.
Ethan 18 years later
We finally settled on Ethan and there's no real fun or entertaining story as to why. It was one of the names in the book and it caught both of our eyes. This was at a time before everyone under the sun named their son Ethan, but I digress...
Jericho
Courtesy: WWE
The recent hype of Jericho battling Kenny Omega at WrestleKingdom 12 also served as a reminder of how I wanted my first born to be the namesake of one of the all-time greats in the wrestling world. I have never met anyone else with the first name Jericho so it would have definitely been something unique. I still dig the idea all these years later.
In 1999 the world was waiting for the start of the 21st century. The buzz word Y2K (Year 2000) was thrown around to the point that it was annoying. Not to be one to miss a step, the WWF did something similar.
A countdown clock popped up on Monday Night Raw. The thing is the WWF's "Countdown to the Millennium" came to an end on August 9th in Chicago, Illinois. I was watching from a hotel room in Lafayette, Indiana as I was house hunting for a new job in that area.
Anyway, it was an awesome night as the Rock was in the ring cutting a promo on the Big Show when the clock popped up and started counting down with just 10 seconds left. The pyro went off and the video started playing. Rewatching this video, I still got goosebumps when, especially when JERICHO pops up on the screen and the crowd pops like crazy.
Jericho informed the fans and the Rock that he was in the WWF to save the company. The Rock of course didn't take kindly and fired back with a promo of his own. This was a great move to hire Jericho in my opinion as he had started floundering WCW and quite frankly was getting lost in the shuffle. The WWF was a fresh start for him and the company needed a heel who was good on the mic and in the ring. They got both.
I can't think of a better debut for a wrestler in any company. The anticipation had been brewing for months. I think many fans were shocked when he came out, and even the fans who knew or at least suspected that it would be Jericho still popped for his arrival. I'm not sure we'll ever see anything like that again because there are so many ways to spoil the surprise now with Twitter and Facebook.
Honorable Mention: Making amends Photo from WWE
Honorable Mention: For years, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were bitter rivals. It was something that went beyond their time against each in the ring and carried over in to real life. The "Montreal Screw Job" certainly didn't help their already rocky relationship. In fact, it just made things much worse.
But in January 2010, fans of both these amazing superstars witnessed something many thought would never happen. Bret and Shawn buried the hatchet officially in front of a live crowd on Raw. Millions watched at home as the two made amends and embraced in the ring. It was closure for all of us who followed the rivalry which dated back nearly 20 years.
A few months later Bret would wrestle his return bout in the WWE against Vince McMahon while Shawn would have his last match ever with the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 26. Congrats to both hall of famers for putting the past behind them.
Well, 1-2-2012 has come and gone and brought with it the return of Chris Jericho to WWE. As I mentioned on the My 1-2-3 Cents Facebook page before RAW started, I was hoping because of the rumors circulating online for the past month about Jericho being the mystery video person and with a picture of Jericho at the Memphis airport from Monday morning that it was all a ruse by WWE to make fans expect Jericho’s return only to stun them with someone else. In the end the mystery man was who everyone expected and the only surprise was how seemingly pointless the entire segment felt.
I’m going to first say I was really hoping against the return of Chris Jericho. It’s not that I don’t like Jericho. It’s more that as I said in the Brock Lesnar post, I’m more interested in the new stars than the returning old stars. Plus, I’m not a fan of bringing in guys right before Wrestlemania so they end up getting a spot on the show while wrestlers who have been putting in their time week after week get left of the show. That’s part of the reason why I am also dreading the inevitable return of the Undertaker.
From WWE.com
Back to Jericho’s return and why it did nothing for me. For the past month enigmatic videos have been playing during RAW promoting the return of a superstar and how it will bring about the end of the world or some other such prophesying. Instead of getting a return of a calculating, maniacal Chris Jericho, we got cheesy grinning, high fiving, run around the ring like a victorious Santino Marella. Not to mention, Chris’ light up jacket that had me thinking country singing Jeff Jarrett was making his return. The fact Jericho said nothing during his seemingly half-hour in the ring also confused me.
I’ve read opinions online that speculated Jericho was trolling the audience and his new persona is going to be an over the top heel who doesn’t realize the fans hate him. I guess I can see that and once we actually see some substance from the character it may work. For Monday night though, this was easily a "worst segment" of the year contender. The whole build up was wasted on something that could have been done during a commercial break with the fans at home not being upset they missed it.
The other aspect of the return I was surprised about was the seemingly lack of interest from the crowd. At first there was a bit of a Y2J chant but when Jericho got the ring it seemed the crowd was waiting for him to say something and got silent. Then when Jericho was trying to rile the crowd up, the section he started with would cheer than go silent as he moved around the arena. Perhaps the crowd was completely stunned by Jericho’s return they couldn’t manage to cheer. Somehow I imagine Chris and WWE management expected a longer sustained response to his return.
The infamous airport pic (from SE Scoops)
Rome wasn’t built in a day so I won’t be too critical of Jericho’s return. Though he has a long way to go to get me back on the train of being a Jericholic. I am curious to see where this leads to in regards to Wrestlemania. I had been told by a friend with some insider knowledge the plan was for Jericho vs. Undertaker at Wrestlemania. Though it now seems WWE is setting up a Triple H/Undertaker rematch, which for the record I really don’t want to see. Internet speculation is Jericho/Punk at Mania, but to me it wouldn’t surprise me to see Punk battle John Lauranitis in some fashion. I guess that’s one positive about this time of the year is not everything is predictable.
Were you excited to see Chris Jericho return? Do you think the return was enjoyable? Share your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter.
