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Submitted by Hustle on Monday, November 3, 2008 at 5:20 PM EST
 Good lookin out for the graphics work, Noc "See, all that attitude's unnecessary, dude.." Another intro by T.I. this time out. It's really not necessary, people, but I still continue to get it. That's alright, though, because I keep on brushin em off. Welcome back to the HIPE, ladies and gentlemen. Of course, that makes me pimpin of all pimpins.. ya boy, Hustle, stepping back into the building once again. You know, I still can't believe that it's November already. This year has been going by far too quickly for my liking. I doubt 2009 moves any slower, though. Speaking of making moves, though, I think it's about that time. Shall I proceed? (Yes, indeed.) Less dew eet!! save_us.y2j: This entire thing has gone through so many twists and turns in the year since Chris Jericho returned to the company. Just when you're ready to give it a permanent label, something different happens, and you begin to view it in a totally different light. To take a look at this entire, multi-layered storyline, you must start from the very beginning, which is where we'll be going right now. It started with a single, Matrix-like vignette that aired on an episode of Raw. Almost instantly, the IWC went into hyperdrive, trying to figure out what the "code" was all about. People were taking screen shots. People were watching it in super slow-motion, viewing it screen-by-screen, searching for the littlest of hints. When I say the littlest of hints, I mean the littlest of hints. It was downright laughable to see some of these people try to crack the messages by finding "clues" that weren't actually there. "There's a number four in the second line! Four plus two equals six! It's Syxx Pac!" "The 19th letter of the alphabet happens to be S, and I saw more than one S in the third frame. Think about it.. who has the letter S appear in their name more often than anyone else in wrestling? Shawn Stasiak, of course. The letter S appears three times in his name, too." Seriously, it was one of the funniest things I've seen in my years of being a card-carrying member of the IWC. For those of you that post at LoPForums.com, you might remember the kicks I got out of ridiculing some of the more.. interesting.. ideas at the time. If the students of this country spent as much time and effort on their schoolwork as they did trying to figure out some wrestling vignettes, they'd be able to find the cure for cancer and syphilis within weeks. Time went by, and we kept getting new vignettes, each with its own new messages, new hints, and more people trying to decipher the entire thing. It got to the point where I think the company was purposely adding new "red herrings" just to fuck with the people who were taking things far too seriously. There were "clues" that pointed to Shawn Michaels being behind the entire thing, and there were other "clues" that pointed to Big Show being responsible for it. Of course, there were also the rumors of some brand new wrestler set to make their debut, as well. For the most part, however, the signs were pointing to the return of one Chris Jericho. To say that a large percentage of the IWC were excited about that possibility would be a huge understatement. We hadn't even received an official word on what the vignettes were leading to, and the "Chris Jericho Is The Next WWE Champion" talks had already taken over message boards and chat rooms all over teh intarwebz. People were truly excited about the "viral marketing" style of the entire thing, but I guess, in the end, getting your fans and viewers excited isn't a bad thing at all. Let's travel now to the November 19th, 2007 edition of Raw, which was a shade under two months after the initial vignette aired. Randy Orton was taking part in a lame "Passing The Torch" ceremony, involving a man running to the arena with a torch, Olympic-style. Upon his arrival at the arena, a man who had his back to the camera reached out and hit him with a clothesline. The Matrix coding hit the TitanTron, and the crowd went absolutely apeshit when "Y2J" appeared on the screen. Sure enough, Chris Jericho was back, and he looked somewhat different. He looked like a 160-pound Chippendales dancer, with a glittery vest and women's pants on. His trademark long hair was gone, too. In its place was something I saw referred to as "Butch Lesbian Chic". Take that for what it's worth. Seriously, he looked like a stunt double for Marcy D'Arcy from "Married.. With Children":  Jericho came out and got into a war of words with Orton, and you could immediately tell that he was excited to be back in the world of wrestling. Almost too excited, in fact. He seemed to struggle with his promo at times, which is supposed to be one of his specialties. He was spending too much time smiling and playing to the crowd. Still, his biggest fans praised the entire segment, and they started their own countdowns until he was a world champion once more. His return didn't get off to a very good start. Yes, he won the Intercontinental Title, but you could argue that he wouldn't have won the belt at all if Jeff Hardy wasn't battling some sort of an addiction at the time. Chris was stuck in feuds that were going nowhere, and he took part in match after match that was just.. there. There even came a point that even the strongest of Jerichoholics were having a hard time believing that he'd amount to anything more than a midcard-level wrestler at that stage of his career. Based on the amount of hype his return received, and what we had seen up until that point, I qualified his return a huge failure at the time. Chris then became involved in the "Ric Flair Retirement" angle, calling out Shawn Michaels for ending Flair's career at WrestleMania 24. I've never been a very big fan of Chris Jericho, but I was happy to see him becoming involved in a feud with top names like Shawn Michaels and Batista, even though I had no idea where it was all leading. Eventually, the storyline focused more on Chris and HBK, which is where things really began to take off. Chris would ask the crowd why they'd cheer for a man (Michaels) who has such a spotty character history, and who has looked out for only himself throughout the years. The only problem I had with the storyline was that they were both portraying faces, although the fans were siding more with Michaels. A heel turn was sorely needed, and it really didn't matter which of them turned, although it would've helped Jericho more if it was him. In June, I got my wish, as Jericho finally turned heel, after several weeks worth of teasing it. The turn seemed to light a fire under him, and he became more motivated than I'd seen in years. The live fans appeared to have been craving the heel turn more than I was, because they absolutely tore into Jericho. He was getting HUGE heel heat almost immediately. He switched his in-ring gear to show that he was growing up and moving beyond his happy-go-lucky face persona. He started wearing suits to the ring for his promos. He even began mastering the little subtleties about being a heel, from the way he'd address people to his amazing facial expressions. Yes, I was beginning to change my mind about his return being a failure, and I even found myself kinda sorta becoming a fan of his. That should say how well he was doing as a heel. In any other heel run he had, I was "meh", at best, about the guy. In any face run he had, I was "meh", at best, about the guy. Now, I was looking forward to his work every single week. When he punched Shawn Michaels' wife at SummerSlam, I was hooked. Sure, that's a messed up way to officially win a fan over, but it was such a diabolical thing to do, even if it was an accident. Unforgiven.. September 7th, 2008.. nearly ten months after Jericho's return to the company. He was booked against Shawn Michaels in an Unsanctioned Match that had fans buzzing about how great it would be. It was certainly going to be a brutal fight, that's for sure. For nearly a full half-hour, they tore into each other, with Shawn Michaels getting the upper-hand and coming out with the victory. It didn't make a whole lot of sense for the referee to stop the match, being Unsanctioned and all, but hey, at least we got a really good match out of it. It wasn't the absolute classic that some people were predicting it to be, but it was highly entertaining nonetheless. Some people did have a bit of a problem with the way Jericho came out of the match looking really bad, especially during the last few minutes, but others countered that by saying the heel always gets what is coming to him in wrestling, especially in a feud that became as personal as that one had. However, Chris' night wasn't over yet, much to everyone's surprise. With CM Punk being taken out of the Scramble Match for the World Heavyweight Championship, a replacement was needed, and Chris was chosen to take Punk's place. He stumbled into a victory, and before everyone could even figure out what was going on, he was the new World Heavyweight Champion, not even an hour after having been destroyed by Shawn Michaels. I really didn't like the decision to give him the belt because of that loss to HBK earlier in the night, but I let it slide because I wanted to see what direction the Chris Jericho character would be going in, and whether or not he'd keep up the same heel intensity now that he was the champion. The title reign lasted a month-and-a-half, but you could count the number of times that his character looked good during that month-and-a-half on one hand, and you'd still have a finger or two left to work with. Escaping matches with lucky victories, being owned in promo wars, being beaten up in a lot of those promo wars.. he just seemed like a second-rate joke of a champion, and this was after the company had worked so hard in building him up to be a credible main event wrestler once again. TV ratings were going down with Jericho as champ, which may be a big reason why they cut the reign short, whether that's fair or not. Obviously, there's no real way of telling how responsible Chris is for those dipping ratings, as there are multiple major issues that are probably contributing to the numbers. For now, though, I sit back and look at the fail-pass-fail journey that his return has taken, know that it isn't quite over yet, and I anticipate what his next move will be. I suppose I should be excited, as the pattern is pointing towards "pass" being next, but we'll see. Writer's Note: I'm not going to turn this into any sort of a rant about why Democrats are better, or why Republicans are better, because it's not my job to sit here and say any of that, and it's not your job to take your political advice from me. What IS our job, though, is to make our opinions heard on Election Day. For anybody reading this that is capable of doing so, please go out and vote tomorrow. There are so many issues and so many problems in this country right now, and we're all ready for a change, so do your part in making sure that we get that change, and that it's for the better. It doesn't matter if you vote for John McCain or Barack Obama. It doesn't matter if you vote for Ralph Nader. It doesn't matter if you write-in your vote and vote Hustle in '08. Just get out there and make a difference. That's all I'm asking. Writer's Note Part Deux: I do realize that some of these columns are really short, especially with my track record. However, it's part of the problem with writing on a daily basis. I am working on beefing the columns up, though, so don't worry. Obviously, I'm still pretty new to this daily writing thing, so I'm trying to work out all the kinks as I go along. Folks, you know the deal by now.. Believe The HIPE. It's real. I have a few more columns in the works, and of course, the return of "Ask Hustle" is also on its way. Regardless of what people are asking, I have no intention of turning "Ask Hustle" into an everyday thing. It would be too cheap, even for me. Chances are, though, it'll return tomorrow while I formulate my flows in other columns. Keep your peepers peepin for that, and I'll be back tomorrow.. same Hustle time, same Hustle page. From the state that is a month away from entering its 40th year of statehood, I bid you farewell. Aloha and Mahalo Nui Loa. "I'm exceedin expectations, you barely meeting quota.. I give it to em straight, you cut it with baking soda.." Hustle HIPRNFeedback@gmail.com 
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