Jericho's WWF Push
 

As great as it was I am surprised it happened like it did. A super-popular WCW mid-carder gets a monster introduction, gets pushed like crazy and eventually becomes the first Unified World Champion.

How the fuck did that happen? I'm glad that it happened, don't get me wrong, but it seemed like they dropped the ball with every other ECW/WCW guy outside of Booker T and RVD (oh and some jobber who died a while back).

What was Vince thinking doing this? Was it just that Jericho was such a solid guy in and out of the ring or was it something else?

The thing is, I think they made Jericho look like a bit of a bitch for much of his career. He could have been on the level of guys like The Rock and Austin, and they try to fool us into thinking that he is by constantly reminding us that he beat them both in one night, but he's definitely on a tier below them. Sure he grabbed a bunch of Vince McMahon's imaginary brass rings (as CM Punk called them), but he could have been a MUCH bigger deal in the WWE.

Love Jericho, though. His WCW heel character is probably my favorite character in wrestling history, and I've watched a ton of this shit. I'm glad he's doing so well in life, but he's not the wrestling mecca god that he deserved to be.

The things was is that he jumped shipped. the others just floated over in the wreckage.

Jericho played a chicken shit heel every stage of his career. One of the side effects is by being a "bitch."

Yeah, that's a point. He was never a bad ass submission machine.

My point is it wasnt exclusive to his WWE/F run. Outside of Japan were being a chicken wont get you over he always was exactly that.

well vince did good pushing steve austen, triple h mick foley and undertaker they were all wcw guys.

but vince messed up after taking over wcw and only pushed wwe guys.

None of them were anywhere near the level of Jericho when he jumped, nor was it a big deal when they did. You could even dare call them castoffs WCW didn't want or use. Jericho was a prominently featured talent the entire time he was there.

i forgot about ray myesterio vince pushed him post wcw buy out.

His initial push was good but think Jericho stated in his DVD that for a while afterwards, he thought he made a big mistake career-wise. Wasn't until around the push to Undisputed champ that he finally felt like he made the right decision.

On why Vince did it, Destor's right about him jumping ship during the Monday Night War played a big role. Vince was still in the mindset of anyone who jumped over at the time was seen as a big accomplishment by the WWF. Think the Radicalz or Tazz were the last ones to get those benefits.

I remember being disappointed with his big push. His stuff with steph and the IC thing with Chyna was entertaining. But after that and winning the undisputed belt was really uneventful to me.

Jericho was pushed to the moon from the off. A big fucking countdown clock, TV time with the Rock... it went downhill after there because higher ups didn't like him. He was given so much opportunity.

I think Jericho's push in the WWF/WWE was perfect for him. Everything they did with him fit his persona to a T, I had no problem with it.

I did have a problem with it, only because I was such a Jericho mark. I wanted more. In retrospect, I think they handled him perfectly.

It was great that he tried to save the WWF from nothing. It mirrors his entire WCW career when he worked hard and got over for nothing.

Big Show and Goldberg were handled correctly as well.

Jericho's push got slowed quickly when he first debuted because he couldn't live up to the hype. He performances were only average at best, and coming in with a debut like he did against guys who were at their peak, it wasn't good enough.

He got ther eventually though, but was probably lucky Vince invested so much money in him to start with to get the extra chances. I'm guessing a few other guys wouldn't have.

Also, I knjw this doesn't really answer your question Swiss, but still.

Scott Steiner was used properly as well.

Its hard to quantify today. You were able then to bring someone in day one who the audience all knew.

In his case he was mad over in WCW. 5 million people plus a week watched him tear up the mid card and saw him mis used and wanted more...Like Christian today on a lesser scale.

Then WWF smartly took a "mid carder" people liked and gace him his break and Y2J ran with it.

I miss this. This will never happen again.

Yeah, Eddie Guerrero was a glorious jobber.

You don't feel like this applies to Daniel Bryan?

He also came with a shitload of heat just because he was a WCW guy.

Much of Jericho's success can be attributed to the WWE machine. But he did a fair amount for himself.

Much more of his success can be attributed to Lex Luger needing to tan one day.

Not really. He was a WCW Mid carder and came to the WWE and was pushed to the main event pretty much right away. they kind of were up and down on him.

Bryan was really more of a typical ascent from mid card to champion over time.

Wait... what?

the dreaded flying nothing was countered into an RKO

I thought they had asked him to change up the style...the double-triple powerbomb stuff was unexpected and caught me by surprise (I know he did it in Japan NOW, just never remembered it in WCW) and I remember him looking "huge" relatively speaking.

Hmmm, my memory may be faulty during that period.

That reminds me, my favorite move for my CAW in No Mercy was the Multiple Powerbombs into a DVD

I think Del Rio is the only one who has ever successfully pulled off the flying nothing against Orton.

when is that ever typical in wwe now tho?

they gave bryan, a midcarder that people liked, a shot and he hit a home run.