Wrestling Wrap Up: Jericho Tags Out, Walks Out

Fine! I'll write the damn Wrestling Wrap Up! You win! Jerks…

But seriously, thank you to everyone who sorely missed this column over the break and told me how much they were in need of a "fix." As if I were a pill pusher. Which I actually happen to be, but that's a different story entirely. A story involving me pushing a lot of pills. On unsuspecting mouths.

IGN took a break over the holidays and then, as I mentioned in my 2011 Wrestling Year in Review, Eric Goldman and I were off to the Winter portion of the Television Critics Association Press Tour to look at all the fancy new, and returning, midseason shows that the networks are currently premiering. I do it every year. And the Wrap Up vanishes during the Press Tour twice a year. Y'all know that. You know how it goes. There's no way I can do the Wrap during the TCAs. I tried it once and it didn't turn out so great…

So, a lot's happened, huh? I'll be playing a teensy bit of catch-up with this column since I've been away awhile. Again, I appreciate everyone telling me that they can't wait to see what I have to say about, say, the "Funkasaurus." To which I say, you guys are perfectly capable of beholding the Funkasuarus spectacle on your own I think. I've taught you well enough. He's a big fat guy in a red suit dancing to Ernest "The Cat" Miller's old theme "Somebody Call My Mama." And it's pretty great.

Yes, it's nothing like all the "Brodus Clay's Gonna Eat Your Freakin' Children" promos that we saw a few months back, but it seems to have taken off pretty quickly judging from all the "Somebody Call My Mama" signs last night. And look, I know that you guys probably expect me to post a picture involving a certain someone's mama calling a certain telephone-answering dog, but now I can't do it because it's too predictable. Well, that and I don't readily have a picture of Brodus Clay's mother on the phone. Not today anyhow.
Ernest "The Cat" Miller at the 2004 Royal Rumble

Plus, I'm just following the WWE here, who seem to be in full-blown trolling mode these days, what with the Brodus Clay switcheroo switchback and all the Jericho "Jeritrolling" that's going on. It's strange to watch what they're doing with Jericho because I feel as though in order for it to work, they need to get everyone to hate him, but not everyone's going to hate him. Jericho made it pretty clear that if he was to ever return to the WWE he'd want to do something that was completely different than he'd done before. Meaning, no more flashy "rock n' roll" guy and no more suit-wearing serious heel guy. Which, honestly, doesn't leave all that much. One thing that was strange (and I'm going back a few weeks now) about Jericho's return was that the announcers hadn't been making any mentions of the "End of Days" 1/2/12 promos during the previous weeks so they really had to act as if they had no idea why Jericho was there at all. Because they supposedly had no idea that anyone was showing up.

And so we didn't get the creepy Mayan-apocalypse persona that the videos portrayed, with empty swings and some poor kid doing long division at his desk. We got a tongue-in-cheek twist on the last time Jericho returned to the WWE. The return that really didn't go so well. When Jericho showed up in that sparkly, sleeveless shirt to confront Orton. So Jericho obviously wanted to play off of that failed return, that fizzled out and landed him into an odd feud with JBL, by coming back bigger, smiley-er and shinier than ever. The problem is that the ones who know what he's trying to do here love him for it and will cheer him and the ones who don't know what he's doing will cheer him because they simply don't know what he's doing. Yes, it's an oddly-layered venture with some subtle notes that might get lost on some fans. I'm not sure if Jericho is going to get boo'd the way he and the WWE might want him to. He actually walked out of the match last night on RAW, but I still don't think he's gonna catch the heat they're looking for.

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