One WWE Match You MUST Watch From Every Year 1984-2024
15. 2009 - Rey Mysterio Vs Chris Jericho, The Bash
When Chris Jericho's career ups and downs are assessed here in the present, his work his often looked at based on the gimmick he was portraying at the time. He made it that way.
A self-styled "Madonna of professional wrestling", Jericho understood the importance of reinvention but has overplayed his hand on occasions to the point where the gimmick he's supposedly playing isn't particularly different from the last one other than a minor aesthetic change he sees as greater than the sum of its parts. For a wrestler that has never wanted to simply be just a wrestler, his eras are often best separated by exactly that - the wrestling. And in 2009, he was something of a wrestling machine.
Having never really had the chance to share much ring-time together despite shared stints in ECW, WCW and their years within the WWE system, Jericho and Rey Mysterio was a fresh-feeling pairing for two wrestlers that had seen and done it all, Their experiences were their gifts to share though, and none more warmly received than an Intercontinental Championship Vs Mask bout at The Bash.
Fresh off a stubborn feud with some legends for WrestleMania this year, Jericho had become obsessed with Mysterio being a phoney idol on account of his treasured mask. He'd stolen the hood to steal the Intercontinental Championship with wonderful sleight of hand in their last big outing, and became obsessed with doing the same again - and this time for good - in a rematch billed as their final battle. Rey was just an old a dog with just as new a trick though - Jericho finally ripped the mask away in the closing stages but Mysterio had obscured a second one underneath. He dethroned a rattled Jericho there and then, much to the euphoria and relief of a wired capacity crowd.