"It is time. The end of the world as you know it is here. Now."
These were the last words of a creepy child in a creepy school that had been seen for weeks on WWE television in order to hype somebody...or something or other appearing on Monday Night Raw on January 2nd 2012. It felt strange, it felt mysterious, and it felt big.
And then the motivation and man behind it all was revealed, and for one of the first times in his career, Chris Jericho was a disappointment.
WWE shook the cameras around and turned the house lights off to reveal 'Y2J's new light-up jacket, but the expectant pavlovian pop was all the company and Chris himself were going to get. This was a pleased-to-see-him pop, not a pleased-with-the-payoff one. The raw-throated energy that greeted "JERICHO" flashing up on the TitanTron in August 1999 was absent. The sheer relief and giddy thrill of a genuinely entertaining talker interrupting Randy Orton in 2007 to "Save Us" yet again was replaced by a near-clinical instinctive cheer.
And it was the most they were going to be given. Jericho was back, but he was going to test a method of getting over he'd never eeeeeeeever tried before, and wouldn't, to date, try ag-ayne.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
