Unnecessary Additions... *RAW SPOILERS*

[Stone Cold Jane Austen]

Punk/Jericho kind of needs it though; with The Rock, Cena, HHH and Undertaker all guaranteed higher placing on the card, and all likely to have great matches, fighting over the 'Best In The World' moniker looks even more ridiculous than ever.

[ColinBollocks]

Jericho needs all the help he can get. His re-re-debut bombed spectacularly (it made no sense and didn't lead to anything) and now nobody is really reacting to him. I feel sorry for Punk, he's worked hard all year and he gets saddled with Jericho at 'Mania. At least this is something that adds another layer to the CM Punk character.

 

I'm a Jericho fan too. He just isn't that good at the minute and he usually always seems out of his depth in the title scene.

[Oliver]

I see this as a necessary addition.

 

I was a huge Punk fan last year, then he got more smarmy and unlikable and now he's becoming dull. Now we're getting a new side to the character. We're seeing his vulnerability, and presumably he's going to get serious and the match will be a revenge grudge match.

 

I'm more interested now in the match and feud than before when they were just having word exchanges and Jericho was repeating the same shit he always repeats. Now I wonder what details Jericho will bring forward next time. Or heck, he may try and force some beer down his throat.

[Dirty Eddie]

I'd really like to know what the full plan was for Jericho's latest return. I imagine we'll find out in his next book or the next time he takes time off to go on tour. The arse must have fallen out of it somehow.

 

The plan can't have been: Spooky Videos full of messages and talk of a mysterious woman => debut and don't talk for three weeks => generic Heel.

 

Can it?

[dopper]

The Orton vs Triple H angle in 2009 was electric to start with when Orton RKO'd Stephanie and then a week later DDT'd her with HHH handcuffed to the ropes and forced to watch.

 

But WWE found themselves with 2 or 3 more weeks until WM25 and insisted on doing more, so we ended up with Triple H scaring Orton & one of his fake wives by taking a sledgehammer to his balsa-wood fake house.

[JohnnyChimpo]

I'd really like to know what the full plan was for Jericho's latest return. I imagine we'll find out in his next book or the next time he takes time off to go on tour. The arse must have fallen out of it somehow.

 

The plan can't have been: Spooky Videos full of messages and talk of a mysterious woman => debut and don't talk for three weeks => generic Heel.

 

Can it?

Why not? His last return was weeks of cryptic videos about Saving_Us => debut looking like Gordon Ramsay => generic babyface lost in the shuffle 3 weeks later.

 

He has previous.

[Bristol Boy]

I

[UK Kat Von D]

It makes perfect sense for Jericho to talk about this and it is the next logically step in this feud. He has been calling everyone fakes since returning, and now he is taking shots at shots at one of the key aspects of Punk's character. Punk has always been known for being strong willed and now Jericho is saying it isn

[Dirty Eddie]

I'd really like to know what the full plan was for Jericho's latest return. I imagine we'll find out in his next book or the next time he takes time off to go on tour. The arse must have fallen out of it somehow.

 

The plan can't have been: Spooky Videos full of messages and talk of a mysterious woman => debut and don't talk for three weeks => generic Heel.

 

Can it?

Why not? His last return was weeks of cryptic videos about Saving_Us => debut looking like Gordon Ramsay => generic babyface lost in the shuffle 3 weeks later.

 

He has previous.

 

The "Save_us" videos were far more of just a message being sent ("Jericho is blatantly coming back everyone") where as this time it was all about the "she is coming" and "end of the world" stuff. The fact that a lot pf people thought they were for the Undertaker shows how far away from Jericho's character they were.

 

Last time he came back to "save us" from the boredom of Randy Orton. He knew what the plan was the first time he spoke then, where as this one had all that waiting to talk, for weeks building us the fist time he'd speak, all for absolutely no reason! None of that shit went anywhere. At all.

 

Seems like if you've literally got a few years to plan something, you'd plan a lot fucking better than that. It reeks of last minute plan-changing to me.

[King Pitcos]

The spooky videos were spooky videos for the sake of it, as only a thorough moron would have really expected the horror stuff to have any real relevance to wrestling. I suspect Jericho's return was always meant to be a swerve on the creepy videos and on the standard wrestling comeback promo. Which itself is over-egging the pudding.

 

The only questionable part is the bit about the woman, but even that doesn't seem like it could ever have led to anything with Jericho -- he's a longtime main eventer with an ego the size of my gut, his return wouldn't have been centred on establishing a new diva (or elevating a current one). And the time has long gone for a Jericho/Stephanie alliance to mean anything. The "I trolled you all" explanation he came out with makes more sense than any other possible answer I've seen.

[air_raid]

Lucy VS Jericho being the undercard attraction for HHH VS Steph was the obvious example, as already discussed, and reminds me of an interaction on Twitter, between Jez and myself :

 

Jericho : (words to the effect of) "Metallica played songs from all their albums except St Anger tonight, I wonder why?"

Raid : "The same reason Lucy the dog isn't on your DVD. Some things are best forgotten mate."

Jericho : "Haha great point!"

(self-marking ensues)

 

Other examples I can think of :

 

- Rocco being added to the Legion of Doom package in 1992. Bringing Paul Ellering back, I can understand. This twat, I really can't. Why on Io an intelligent man like Precious Paul or a pair of nutters like Hawk & Animal would take instruction from a ventriloquist's dummy is completely beyond me.

 

- Warrior kidnapping Disciple in the build to Halloween Havoc 1998. You have the rematch to what was previously one of the biggest matches of all time, in a different promotion with a clear face/heel dynamic the original didn't. Did these two huge names in the sport really have to squabble over Zodiac Booty Barber??

 

- Judy Bagwell added to the feud between the Steiner Brothers. Thank Christ the planned Steiner/Bagwell vs Steiner/Bagwell match never happened, I don't think I could have lived with the sight of Rick Einsteiner betrayed YET AGAIN as Judy helps little Marcus and his friend Scott do one over Dog Face. WcW just didn't want to end this feud at all, did they?? Road Wild and Fall Brawl both DEEPLY disappointing, and then they fuck around with the tag belts at Havoc for no apparant reason (Scotty wasn't even champion, it was Giant/Scott Hall), resulting in an even more incongruous addition - (Kenny) Kaos of High Voltage???

 

- The "odd couple" tag team title reign added to a team feuding over a singles title (or even just embroiled in a singles feud). This always seems a cheap, unnecessary way of adding "intrigue" to a spat, and really does nothing for me. It usually comes at the expense of an established, "proper" tag team as well. Notable examples - Cena & Michaels pre-Mana 23, Cena & Batista beating Legacy prior to SummerSlam 2008, Kidman & Rey taking the titles off the Horsemen in 99 while feuding over the Cruiser title... I'm sure there are more. It's just so lazy. The only time it seemed interesting was when Austin & Michaels unseated Owen and Smithers, united in their hatred for the Harts which eclipsed their problems with each other.

[FUM]

Punk/Jericho isn't the match that has the unneccesary addition for me, it's Taker/HHH. That match doesn't need HBK if it's going to be Hell in a Cell, he should only have been involved if it wasn't a gimmick match.

[ShortOrderCook]

The spooky videos were spooky videos for the sake of it, as only a thorough moron would have really expected the horror stuff to have any real relevance to wrestling.

 

Why's that?

 

 

Edit:- air_raid, disagree with your point on the tag titles with Cena and Michaels completely. That added to it brilliantly, became a big part of the story and made the eventual superkick all the more significant. I think that's an instance where that method/tool was used tremendously within the story and the manner in which the titles were dropped and who they went to, I though was handled very well.

[King Pitcos]

The spooky videos were spooky videos for the sake of it, as only a thorough moron would have really expected the horror stuff to have any real relevance to wrestling.

 

Why's that?

 

Because if someone came out doing a Ringu gimmick, all that would happen is Sandman would cane them to fuck for being a stupid idea on an early episode of ECW. There's no way the tone and content of those videos translates to coming out and doing panto for 8,000 hillbillies unless you're some kind of Undertaker rip-off (with a woman involved somewhere), and even then, it'd only be a very tenuous link to the content of the videos at best... And it'd be impossible to hit the right notes. If they had tried to tie it in, it would still have resulted in something stupid like Jericho going "I'm going to end the world... By winning the Royal Rumble!" or whatever the fuck he did say on Raw the week before the Rumble. Because he'd still be a wrestler on a wrestling show, and all that apocalypse bollocks would be Cena-Kane terrible only with even less of a point.*

 

For the sake of fantasy booking -- if there is anyone on here who genuinely thought something akin to the videos could be delivered once it's a wrestler in front of a live crowd, any actual ideas you can think of that you would've been satisfied by?

 

 

 

*Just a thought, maybe they did have something planned then changed their minds because they didn't want to have someone else doing ghost train shite in case it diluted Kane's return.

[air_raid]

Edit:- air_raid, disagree with your point on the tag titles with Cena and Michaels completely. That added to it brilliantly, became a big part of the story and made the eventual superkick all the more significant.

 

I won't lie : I wasn't watching WWE much at the time. In fact, between October 06 and end of April 07 I didnt even have a telly in the flat, and only watched the PPVs via burned discs my mate posted me that I watched on the laptop. I just remembered the feeling of reading Cena & Michaels winning the belts and thinking "oh no, not this again." It just feels lazy and unimaginative, however well executed.