For the better part of this millenium, I have been a Chris Jericho fan. He's always been a guy I've enjoyed watching in the WWE from his debut in 1999 to the punt he took from Orton months ago. However, not even fandom could make me watch Dancing with the Stars.
I'm sorry, I just couldn't do it.
It's not that I'm afraid of my sexuality or any nonsensical cliche you can come up with, I simply am not a fan of the show. From a distance, I was still rooting for Jericho, but you'l have to excuse me for not tuning in to see him don sequins to do the cha cha.
That said, it still saddened me to hear, from my mother none the less, that the Ayatollah of Tap and Salsa will dance no more. Yes, Chris Jericho was eliminated from Dancing With The Stars tonight (with The Miz in attendance no less!). I guess in this case, he wasn't the best in the world at what he did....
Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise though. With the sudden retirement of Edge, the WWE lost a lot of star power and as such, panicked and ran a draft two months before it planned on doing so. The results were mixed (which you'd know if you read my last two articles!), but no roster shifting can quickly make up for the loss of an 11 time champion. It just isn't an overnight fix. That is, unless you replace him with a 6 time champion........
Jericho has been saying that when DTWS was over, he'd return to the WWE. Being under contract to nobody, it's probably a matter of when at this point. Given the way the roster are broken down, he could be very well utilized on Smackdown at the moment, coming back to gain revenge on Orton and moving forward as a heel with feuds against Christian, Sin Cara, and maybe even Daniel Bryan. In my opinion, this is where he would best be utilized, though a talent of his stature could be used anywhere and it would instantly upgrade the roster.
I know the argument will be made that Jericho has been doing all this publicity and is portrayed as a good dude outside the ring, so how can he come back as anything but a babyface? Perhaps that has some validity, but with the built in program he has, I believe it can work. You probably could bring him back as a face, most likely on Raw, but I'm not sure he's necessary there. Of course, we'd all love to see a feud with The Miz as a battle of the Mouths, sans this one of course, as well as encounters with Punk, Del Rio, and others, but it would seem like Smackdown needs him more. Even with the addition of Randy Orton, Smackdown's talent level seems to be below Raw's and adding a veteran on the heel side of thing would certainly help matters.
Regardless of where WWE would want to put him. the fact remains that he is needed right now. The WWE is in the middle of the famed youth movement, but to make that work, you need veterans willing to build up younger talent. Jericho was doing that on the way out, putting over young talents like Evan Bourne (which I saw live at the Fatal 4 Way PPV last year!), Wade Barrett, and others. This trend would undoubtedly continue and would bring the added bonus of watching an incredibly talented performer.
So while I feel bad that Jericho didn't take out that punk Hines Ward (damn Georgia Bulldog, somebody beat him!), this may be absolutely perfect timing. Jericho is finally free and the WWE really needs him. I think I speak for many in the WWE Universe when I say
COME HOME JERICHO!
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