That Time Chris Jericho Trolled Wrestling

Jericho got away with two more weeks just like this, though with the fix now in, the crowd control wasn't quite the same even when he flexed the fruits of his acting class labour by rather convincingly bursting into tears.

His Week One troll job had worked an absolute treat, but audiences were wary of him now, holding their emotions back lest he betray them yet again.

Said feelings burst forth like flood on January 23rd when, after using six minutes of a Highlight Reel segment to fire a t-shirt gun and play a tribute video to himself, he finally spoke. "This Sunday at the Royal Rumble..." he began, pausing to absorb the mammoth reaction he'd earned simply by depriving folks of it all those weeks "...it's gonna be the end of the world as you know it."

By uttering just one line in four weeks, Jericho had sold himself as one of the Royal Rumble's biggest threats and finally tried to tie in the original vignettes. But how was the world going to end? Jericho didn't actually have the answer; or at least wasn't allowed to utter it after getting eliminated by Sheamus in the Rumble itself. As it transpired, he was referring to the world now ran by those he considered imposters - chief of all being CM Punk, the WWE Champion and Jericho's subsequent WrestleMania opponent.

Objecting to Punk's inferences that he was the 'Best In The World', Jericho ultimately got his attention and his match. Punk took years and a 'Pipe Bomb' loud enough to shake the wrestling world at its axis. Jericho, a troll, a heel and a brilliant b*stard, had done it by saying virtually nothing at all.