10 Stupidest Decisions By WWE In 2007

Chris Jericho left WWE on the post-SummerSlam 2005 Raw, temporarily ending a largely successful six-year run with the organisation. Y2J had become unsatisfied with his role and realised that after so long on television, it was probably best that he go away for a while in order to freshen up his character for his inevitable return.

And besides, he had other outside-the-ring interests he wanted to pursue, including acting and doing more with his rock band, Fozzy.

After witnessing the Shawn Michaels/John Cena one-hour classic on Raw in April 2007, Jericho started getting the bug back and wanted to wrestle. In the wake of the Benoit tragedy, he made some media appearances and defended the company and by the early Autumn it was common knowledge that the Highlight of the Night was on his way back in.

Vignettes began airing in September, asking viewers to 'break the code' and on the November 19th episode of Raw he showed up for the first time in over two years, interrupting WWE Champion Randy Orton. Regrettably, Jericho's smiling babyface act was stale from the get-go. His viral marketing campaign was a poor retread of the 1999 version when he debuted in the then-WWF and his return fell flat.

The shiny blazers, catchphrases and nicknames just didn't scream 'return of a WWE main eventer', even if that was how he was positioned. The next week on Raw, Jericho beat Santino Marella in a rusty comeback match during which he sold far too much for the Milan Miracle. Then a few weeks later, he lost to Orton in a so-so outing at Armageddon and it was clear his comeback was rapidly running out of steam.

He didn't start hitting his stride properly until the spring of 2008 with his heel turn and epic feud with Shawn Michaels. In late 2007, he was considered DOA and a major letdown after all of the hype. Perhaps it was a mistake for WWE to bring him back as the wise-cracking, good guy Y2J.