10 Booking Directions Heading Into WWE Payback 2017
5. Break The Walls Down
After ‘The Assault of Jericho’ on RAW this past Monday, Y2J was unable to compete in a tag team match against his attackers, Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe. He was replaced by Finn Bálor, who looks set to take Jericho’s place on the card once he heads back on tour with Fozzy, and while that means the odds of Jericho regaining the United States Championship at Payback are astronomically low, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a decent story to tell here.
Perhaps Jericho returns to RAW each week, injured but with his resolve strengthened, only to be attacked once again by the duo of Owens and Joe. This means Jericho walks into Payback injured, but cleared to compete, perhaps in a similar fashion to Seth Rollins at ‘Mania - whereby Triple H and Owens play off his desire to fight KO. Only this time, the bait works, and Jericho struggles to overcome his injuries due to age and a lack of time to heal.
Jericho gets a sympathetic sendoff, Owens and Joe look like utter monsters, and the United States Championship starts to seem like a belt people will damn-near kill each other to retain.