Now, watch this:
And now, let's discuss.
See, I knew that this was going to be a good pairing when Jericho interrupted Dolph Ziggler's celebratory promo the night after Money in the Bank. And then Ziggler started to insult Y2J, and accuse him of being out of touch. Jericho finally silenced his claims that night by delivering a Code Breaker to the blossoming young talent.
The IWC has been enamored with Ziggler for a very, very long time, and there have been points at which we thought he was finally getting that push we all thought he deserved. He's been good enough to win a chance or two to go after the title, he's talented enough to have been included in the Elimination Chamber this past year, but he's had a lot of trouble thus far making himself a credible top talent. I realized quickly that there is nobody better to boost Dolph that far that fast than Jericho. I knew instantly that they would play off of each other so ridiculously well, and that we, the wrestling fans, were going to be in for one hell of a treat through this match-up.
Then one night, I sat in front of our WrestleMania Anthology box set and said, "Someone pick a number between one and twenty!" Mike picked nineteen, so we all sat down and watched WrestleMania XIX and suddenly, everything became so much clearer. Jericho and Ziggler are replaying the rivalry between Michaels and Jericho nearly ten years ago. Jericho, the learner, has become the master, and now it is his turn to make way for the next show-stopping charisma machine.
But here's my favorite part about this: they're not just re-telling a story they've already told before. They're re-writing it into its own greatness. Yes, the underlying basis of the young kid thinking he's better than the veteran, and the veteran proving that experience trumps youth is still there. But the details have been shifted around. Instead of having Dolph say, "I got into wrestling to be the next Chris Jericho", we instead hear Jericho say, "Dolph Ziggler reminds me a lot of myself." Jericho is one of those guys who can build a great feud AND put amazing emphasis on his opponent without burying him. He says, "Ziggler is an amazing athlete... but he can't beat me." and we believe him, despite the fact that we know Ziggler is telling the truth about Jericho not winning any of the really big matches since he's returned.
And what's great about re-writing historical battles is that now we're not sure how it's going to turn out. Michaels/Jericho ended with Michaels victorious, and then Jericho absolutely destroying him afterwards. But since they're turning history around, and we're viewing this rivalry from a different glass, there is every possibility that Dolph Ziggler will come out on top at the end of the night, and Jericho will have to concede that this young man was a worthy opponent, and no doubt deserves to be on top of the wrestling world.
No other rivalry in the top two companies comes close to being this well matched at this time. When I really think about it, it seems like not even the champions are getting play this good. The only one that I can think of that even comes close (and it really kind of doesn't) is The Miz. He is, by virtue of having won the title from him, still having to fight Christian, who at this point is a long-established veteran (first class of TNA Hall of Fame, let's not forget) who can give almost the same kind of credibility to midcard talent as Jericho can to a guy like Dolph Ziggler. But there's no story there. Miz won a title, defended a title, and has been stuffed into 6-man tag matches that gives air time to guys who deserve it while really focusing on a bigger rivalry. That bigger rivalry? You guessed it, Ziggler and Jericho.
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