9 Wrestling Heels Who Were Totally Justified
4. Stopping The Showstopper
Chris Jericho's peerless series against the Heartbreak Kid in mid-2008 might well be the best feud hes has ever taken part in. The bitter rivalry started oddly, though - during Michaels feud with Batista. Jericho had been named the special guest referee in their match at Backlash, and had counted the pin when Michaels defeated Batista while selling a knee injury sustained after escaping an attempt at a Batista Bomb.
In the weeks following Backlash, Jericho would be convinced that Michaels was faking the injury, until persuaded otherwise by Michaels himself, who was still selling the knee two weeks later. Jericho even took to the ring to issue a formal, very public apology to his childhood hero over it, offering to postpone their upcoming match. That's when it got ugly. Michaels told Jericho flat out that he'd been faking it, that his knee was fine and that he just needed to win the match. Jericho refused to believe him, so to prove it, Michaels superkicked him into the middle of next week and left the ring, no longer hobbling, even flipping over the top rope to the floor to underline the point.
The following Sunday, Michaels defeated Jericho at the Judgment Day event on May 18th, and the two shook hands afterwards. Evidently, the outcome of that match must still have bothered Jericho however or maybe it was the fact that Michaels (the one exhibiting the poor sportsmanship, cheap shots, and blatant disregard for the rules) was being cheered and Jericho (the victim of said cheap shots, who'd been tricked, lied to, and made to feel like a fool for trusting HBK) was booed. Whichever, the next time Jericho and Michaels were in the ring together was for an edition of The Highlight Reel on 9th June, the day after Michaels ended his feud with Batista.
Y2J buttered up the Showstopper first, before calling him out on all his lying, cheating ways, and calling the WWE crowd out for constantly supporting him despite his heelish antics while booing Jericho for pointing them out. Attacking Michaels, Jericho was coming off worst until he caught the older man with a well-timed low blow and then rammed his face through a prop television monitor, causing a kayfabe eye injury, and officially turning heel for the first time in about three years.
Practically speaking, it's very difficult to fault Jericho's reasoning, or say that he had no right to be upset: he was cheap-shotted twice in a row and lied to, and saw Michaels continue to receive overwhelming fan support for his actions. This was the beginnings of Jericho's finest ever heel run - as the only honest man left in wrestling.