First flair, then austin, now jericho?

[Guest Loss4Words]

As much as I prefer Jericho's heel character to his face one, I'm starting to wonder if the problem the past few months hasn't been that Jericho's not over, but rather that the crowd doesn't want to boo him. He was far too over going into the heel turn for anyone to say the crowds just don't care about him. Part of it I think is that he was typecast because he was kept in the midcard so long, part of it is that his heel character is so drastically different from what he was doing just a few months ago that it admittedly comes across as forced in some ways and I think the last part of it is that the crowd would rather cheer him than boo him. He was genuinely liked as Y2J and what made his babyface character so successful (even if it was a tad shallow) was that he didn't win against everyone, but you'd never be surprised to see him win against anyone.

 

So I guess what I'm asking is if the WWF should turn Jericho face, but have him play the tweener character he was playing in late 2001? He didn't really overvamp his character in the same way he did between Survivor Series and Vengeance, but he added *a lot* of depth and pride to an image that seemed perfectly content to just rot away in the midcard and make Stephanie McMahon jokes.

 

Either way, yeah, he may not have gotten as much heat as he should have, but I think it's fairly obvious he was set up to fail. And he does deserve a tremendous amount of credit for totally reinventing himself, going a 45 minute stretch to take the title, putting anyone and everyone over as much as possible, bumping his ass off and not blowing any spots like he had in months prior.

 

Hats off, Chris. I just hope your career isn't ruined.

[Guest Some Guy]

Jericho did briefly get over as a heel during the Rock feud.  Booking him to look weaker than Michael Cole on a hunger strike and being placed on the outskirts of the Steph and HHH feud despite the fact that he was the freaking world champ is what killed his heat.  

 

Plus he needs a haircut and new clothes IMO.  He doesn't look like the rest of the main eventers.  The padded boots and his stringy long hair make him look bush league.  When HHH turned heel, he changed his whole look and gimmick.  Jericho still looks almost exactly the same as when he was WCW Cruiserweight champ.  He has added muscle which is good for his future in WWF but he needs a look change.  It seems superficial but it does make a difference IMO.

[Guest Daredevil21]

I have to agree with Loss here. It seems to be the same as the Steve Austin heel turn last year. Much like Austin, Jericho added much depth to his somewhat stale character when he became a face, almost as if he was a completely different person. While this is great to the smarks, the dumb marks a.k.a. the majority of the fans, want to see Y2J with the nonsensical SMH jokes and very little character depth that they loved for nearly two years.

 

As much as it pains me to say it, a face turn may be the only way for Jericho to go at the moment if he doesn't want to see his career completely crash and burn. Much like Austin's heel turn, I think Jericho did a fantastic job, but since wrestling fans for the most part are not very open minded I think we will being seeing a Jericho face turn very soon, as the fans seem to be incapable of letting go of something like a stale face. I do like the idea of a tweener Jericho, but I see them taking the full face route if anything.

[Guest Tony149]

I always felt Jericho should of mixed his bitchy WCW character from '98 (With all the mannerisms he did) with the way he was acting like a heel in late 2001. In my opinion, it would of made Jericho Rock-like with the fans in a few months. What I mean by that is...he would of acted like an asshole to everybody, but got tough when he had too. I think the fans would of been begging to cheer him if he did that.

[Guest Loss4Words]

That's true. I mean, aside from Rock and possibly Austin, Jericho is probably the most charismatic guy in the company. The fact that promoters only halfway see the potential that's there for a major crossover media creation is alarming. Just because he's not huge doesn't mean he can't draw. It's like Vince knows that, but can't quite ACCEPT that.

[Guest Some Guy]

Does anyone know if Jericho came up with the "larger than life" line or was it a rib on him Vince made him say?

 

I don't think Jericho has Rock/Austin like potential but HBK/Hitman cross-over potential is there.