25 Best Chris Jericho Moments
6. Jericho Turns Heel On Shawn Michaels
About six months after Jericho's return to the company, his babyface push was stalling out. Jericho decided he needed to become something totally different than the Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah to elicit a negative reaction from fans as a heel. He turned to his old nemesis Shawn Michaels to make the transition and the result was the Feud of the Year.
Jericho served as special guest referee in a match between HBK and Batista at Backlash 2008. During the match, Michaels faked a knee injury in order to sucker Batista into a superkick and won the match. Jericho accused Michaels of being a cheat and a liar but HBK denied everything. Jericho even went so far as to apologize to Shawn for his accusations but Shawn finally admitted he made the whole thing up and superkicked Jericho.
This signaled a total change in the Jericho character as he was stunned that the crowd actually cheer HBK for kicking him in the face, as he was only trying to do the right thing by asking Shawn about his knee injury.
On an episode of Jericho's Highlight Reel talk show, Jericho finally snapped and brutally attacked HBK, driving him face-first into the obscenely expensive JeriTron 6000 television screen.
It was a fantastic heel turn that totally reinvented Jericho as a character and propelled him back into the main event.