Chris Jericho Defending WWE: Says They Don’t Bury Wrestlers
The walls of Jericho, indeed. Veteran wrestler Chris Jericho is rumored to be a little less than one month out from his return to WWE. In recent years, Jericho has become known for helping up and coming wrestlers get over with WWE fans. He did it most recently with Bray Wyatt.
Wyatt, a heel known for his chilling promos and haunting in-ring persona, gained lots of heat early in 2014 during a feud with John Cena. In the feud, Wyatt relied heavily on psychological manipulation to put Cena at a disadvantage, a tactic that made him a fan-favorite bad guy. Then Cena moved on to a feud with current WWE Champion Brock Lesnar, and Wyatt moved on to a feud with Chris Jericho. The feud with Jericho was not well received, with website The Bleacher Report calling it “meaningless” and “undefined”.
For the WWE Universe, the final straw came just after SummerSlam 2014. John Cena, on the heels of a crushing 16-German-suplex loss to Lesnar, was manhandled Bray Wyatt. Fans cried foul, and accused the WWE of burying Bray Wyatt to benefit the already over John Cena. Rumors that Wyatt’s burial was ordered by none other than Vince McMahon only intensified the WWE Universe’s anger.
If Jericho is to be believed, that anger, while understandable, is misplaced. On the subject of Bray Wyatt Chris Jericho said, “WWE doesn’t drop balls; your career goes in waves, it goes in cycles. I know that more than anybody else. Sometimes you work on top, sometimes you’re not and when you’re not, it’s up to you to make your mark and get back on track again. I think that WWE has a plan and never tries to sabotage anybody on purpose. Why would they do that? It costs them money.”
Jericho may have a point, but that’s of little comfort to fans who have been growing increasingly disenchanted with the WWE product in the past few months, which saw fan favorite Daniel Bryan bow out due to injury, and the dismantling of two major heel stables in favor of giving solo pushes to the individual members. In some cases, like Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, the pushes have been successful. In the case of Bray Wyatt, there seems to be only the beginnings of a plan, and it would involve taking the popular heel, and turning him into a face. Of course, there are also rumors of John Cena going heel, even after the wrestler himself said he will never go heel. This is to say nothing of the perpetual rumors of CM Punk’s return.
Meanwhile, the WWE Universe waits for Vince McMahon and WWE creative to come up with a new storyline for Bray Wyatt, and wonders what up and coming wrestler Jericho will put over when he returns in November.
