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http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/8861/

It’s pretty sad to see what we’ve ended with after the storyline that started off with such promise. Chris Jericho was doing the tremendous anti-legend promos, all designed to lead to a match with “The Wrestler” star Mickey Rourke. That was Vince McMahon’s grand plan, after initially hating The Wrestler when it first came out. He did a total 180 when he saw all the publicity Rourke and the movie were getting, and he realized he might be able to make a buck. Conflicting reports had Rourke agreeing to the match, and he even cut a promo on Jericho on the red carpet of an awards show. But once his handlers got involved, all of a sudden Rourke was out of the picture.

When that fell through, we got some excellent segments with Jericho and Ric Flair, Piper, Steamboat, and Snuka. They were all supposed to be warm up acts for the big legend coming in to save the day. And to his credit, Vince McMahon did reach out and try to get Steve Austin and later Hulk Hogan for the match. For various reasons, neither one of them could do it. It was reported that he reached out to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and there was even a rumor that The Ultimate Warrior’s name came up more than once. None of those options panned out.

They could have gone with Jerry Lawler, which would have been the best of the realistic options available. As he proved in his all too short match with Jericho on Raw, he can still go, and he would have certainly done a better job in the ring than Snuka, Piper, and Steamboat. But for whatever reason, Lawler was never really seriously considered. And then there were three: The former world class wrestler that hasn’t worked a match in 15 years, a 65 year old man that can barely walk, and a guy in a kilt with two plastic hips. Yeah, should be a great match! Chris Jericho is very talented, but he’s not a miracle worker.

Not only that, but they booked this match, and then didn’t even have Piper, Snuka, or Steamboat make an appearance to hype the match in the final weeks. Piper is one of the best promo guys of all-time, and they couldn’t even make time for him to do a 30 second promo hyping this match. Instead, they had Jericho demolish and bloody up Ric Flair on Raw last week. And Flair isn’t in the match. No promo or mention of Flair on the final Raw this past Monday, either. The whole thing has been so poorly thrown together, and the build in the last few weeks has been about as weak and non-existent as you can get.

Prediction: They did make one good decision about this match, and that was to make it a Gauntlet Elimination Match. That means Jericho can start out with Piper or Snuka, and they can keep it very short and sweet, go on to the next guy, and then possibly have something of a match with Steamboat, who is obviously the best possibility to get anything decent out of the three. Reportedly some other legends were contacted about appearing at the show, so whoever they got that wanted an easy paycheck will come out, Flair will be involved, and I think the final spot will be Mickey Rourke knocking Jericho out with a right hand. Rourke is supposed to be front row for the match.

The Legends win, and get their celebratory moment in the sun at the 25th Wrestlemania. It’s not going to be pretty, but if they gimmick it up enough, and keep things simple, it should be an entertaining part of the show.


The REALLY sad part is that Chris was the best thing on RAW for a good chunk of 2008. But one Cena burial and one McMahon humiliation later and this is what he gets. I could be wrong...it's not like that never happens, lol....but I always got the feeling that the powers that be were none too happy at all the attention Chris was getting last year. Yeah, he won the Slammy...and was promptly bitched out.....but he also won just about every website award there was to win. They don't like it when a heel gets that kind of attention. And they especially don't like it when the attention is focused on someone not normally considered a "golden boy."

I've just always had the suspicion that Chris was "put back in his place" and not so subtlely reminded that as amazing as his 2008 work was, he was still never going to be at the top for very long. Which I'm sure irks his fans far more than it irks him. He's still completely invested in his character and I'm sure he'll move heaven and earth to pull off a great WM moment.

You know Vince can't have Chris outshining his golden boys

Chris won and he did a great job at wm ,he made that match and Chris Jericho is so much better then all those wrestlers on raw. Cena ,Batista,Triple H, Orton all of them.Im glad Chris is off raw ,and on smackdown.Im happy he is away from all the title hogs.Chris is doing a great job on smackdown and will be champion again.Smackdown is Jericho.