Two years later, Jericho would help elevate another athlete from that original Ohio Valley crop. By July 2004, Batista had shown tons of improvement as a wrestler from even where he was at the start of the year, but much of that greatness was confined to tag team matches alongside a good teacher in Ric Flair. He still had to prove himself in singles bouts. Enter Jericho. At the Raw-branded Vengeance, Jericho worked for 12 strong minutes with Batista, getting over his opponent as a muscular force of nature, allowing Batista to put him away with a powerful finishing sequence. The above animation is actually from a tag team match on Raw, but it's an apt image of what Jericho would do for "The Animal".
Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.
