Chris Jericho - Ryback: MITB preview

During my younger days, I used to wait for Sundays to come so that WWE, in all its grandeur, could air its Pay Per View of the month. I used to stay glued to the television hoping that the matches would never end. Little did I know that these matches were already contested in, and that what we got on television was only a late replay. Checking results on the internet was something that was unheard of. And when Superstars used to disappear for a long time after some shows, we really thought they were injured and anticipated their return.

But now, times have changed and so has communication. We can get results on the go, get superstar updates, be aware of story-lines that are probably going to be aired in the future (killjoy), and what not. Coming to the crust of the argument, Chris Jericho vs Ryback was a match many of us certainly never expected. Not because they never crossed paths before, but because it was rumoured that Jericho would take time off with his band and that ‘Payback’ was his last PPV.

News broke out recently stating that Jericho would be touring along with his rock band ‘Fozzy’ and would be involved in a story-line somewhere close to The Royal Rumble. Now, when was the last time you saw a superstar ‘supposedly’ sustaining a lengthy injury following a PPV and returning to a huge ‘pop’? The answer is, ‘almost everytime’. This is what WWE can have up its sleeve with respect to the above match.

Ryback, on the other hand, has single-handedly defeated around half a million (okay, maybe fewer) jobbers on every brand of WWE. Just when you thought he was getting monotonous, he involved himself in an angle with The Shield for a few weeks before suddenly catapulting himself to the main event stature at ‘Payback’. He faced Cena in a ‘Three stages of Hell’ match which he was largely tipped to lose, and he obliged.

WWE went nowhere by making him wrestle in dark ‘table’ matches against John Cena for almost three weeks. Now they have placed him in a feud with the ‘Ayotollah of Rock n Rolla’, Chris Jericho, to restore some faith in the fans. With Jericho taking a break and Ryback desperately needing a win, it’s obvious what WWE creative has in mind.

However, Money in the Bank is the perfect opportunity for Ryback to remind the world of what he is. Defeating Jericho will certainly aid his cause because the latter has nothing to lose. Ryback has come a long way since his Skip Sheffield days and has established himself as a top draw wrestler in the industry. With colleagues like Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Miz and others breathing down his neck, Ryback certainly has a lot to prove.

It will be a battle of ‘strength’ vs ‘technique’ as both superstars are very diverse in combat. But if both bring their ‘A’ game to the party, it could be, as J.R would call it, ‘a slobberknocker of a match’!