3. CM Punk
Well, this one was a personal feud. Jericho had just returned to the WWE and would get emotionally riled up, but, would not say a word or compete in a match. It was not clear if he was a heel or a face. However, Jericho turned out to be a heel when he attacked CM Punk citing the reason that Punk was the worst offender of impersonating Y2J and claiming himself to be the “Best in the World. Punk eliminated Jericho from the Elimination Chamber, but, Jericho won a 10-Man Battle Royal to become the #1 Contender for Punk’s title.
The rivalry just intensified when Jericho started pulling the skeletons out of the straight-edged superstar’s closet. Jericho revealed to the WWE Universe, about Punk’s father’s tryst with alcohol and drug addiction issues of his sister. Chris even smashed a bottle of whisky on Punk’s head during one of their altercations and had vowed to make Punk drink whisky if he won the Match at WrestleMania.
Punk won his match against Jericho even after Jericho tried his best to get Punk disqualified. The stipulation for their match was that if CM punk got himself disqualified, he would lose the title. Even after Jericho’s best efforts to get under the skin of Punk, he couldn’t get past Punk’s resolve to retain the title. Punk won his match against Jericho at WrestleMania 28 after he reversed the Walls of Jericho and applied an Anaconda vice grip. The match was one of the high points of Mania and was lauded by the critics.
If WWE would have gone with its original plan to tattoo Y2J’s initials on CM punk, the rivalry would have become even more memorable. Nonetheless, the feud was the closest you could get to the Attitude era in these PG times and nobody can complain about what transpired during the rivalry.
