Say it isnt so! Chris Jericho, the future Hall of Famer who changed the landscape for talents outside of the WWE coming into the company, and the first unified champion when WWE purchased WCW, somehow made it on a list of stars who need to go away for a bit. Unlike the majority of the talents on this list, Chris is somewhat to blame for his inability to find relevance, as he has seniority in the company and should raise his voice without fear of reprimand or consequence comparatively to the rest of the roster. Its a little strange to have a part-timer on the roster who needs to go away for a little while, but thats exactly the case with legendary star Chris Jericho. Jerichos been creatively sapped of life ever since his humiliating loss to Fandango at WrestleMania 29. The guy just hasnt changed a thing, wearing the nearly same get-up and stuck in feuds that ultimately lead nowhere for the past few years since his good feud with CM Punk. This tryst with AJ Styles, while fantastic in the ring, is the latest quarrel wed prefer to be resolved sooner than it has been in the storylines. Its time to stop parading around as the old guy on the college campus, or embrace it fully. We get it, Jericho is a rock star, actor, podcast host, and a bevy of other things, so he can easily coast on those achievements and accolades without having to really provide anything new or edgy to the product itself. And hey, the man can still go in the ring, and is consistently putting on great matches whenever hes in the ring with impressionable talent, but thats not how you remain relevant in the land of Sami Zayns and Nevilles. The smartest thing to do would be to reinvent the character the way that Chris Jericho has been known to do, and to not come back until he can think of something worth doing. These occasional, jovial returns are the Will Ferrell comedies of wrestling: perfectly fine and non-offensive to sit through, but they will ultimately leave you unfulfilled. Something with more bite would do Jericho some proper justice. An alternative would be to become the caricature of Chris Jericho. Look, Jericho is in a band. Hes in his 40s. His nickname is still Y2J, even though teenagers who can legally drive werent even born until after the Y2K bug scare. He is outdated by definition, and that's perfectly fine. Be the zany old guy who thinks he is cooler than he actually is! Rock the dad bod with pride, and make pop culture references that are ten years too late. Yammer on about the Black Eyed Peas and how hip they are and so forth. At least it would be more entertaining than Jericho coming out and grinning every week.
David McCutcheon is an American freelance journalist and writing consultant. Over the course of sixteen years, he has written for the likes of IGN, Future US, GamesRadar, PlayStation Magazine, Shout! Factory, and many others in the fields of video games, movies, and more. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife. You can find him on Twitter @ZoopSoul.
