Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

Chris Jericho, real name Chris Irvine, has signed a two year contract with WCW. The contract was actually signed last week and Jericho was originally meant to be a surprise on the 10/6 edition of WCW Underground. Jericho was hired to take over the top babyface position that opened up with the Kurt Angle suspension that begun on 10/4.

There has been a great deal of controversy involving this entire situation. The first is, of course, Kurt Angle's arrest. Even though he's had the charges dropped down to reckless driving, WCW is taking a hard stance when it comes to talent being arrested. Dave Lagana said on a radio show with us this week that WCW officials wanted to make a point that no one is above the promotion, including the top draw. Kurt Angle has originally been the focal point of a long arching storyline that would end in December. We saw the beginnings of said storyline come into play on the first four episodes of WCW Underground (Kurt Angle taking Davey Richards under his wing, the conflict with Alberto Dos Caras). The end result was that in December, for a big end of year iPPV, would have been a Kurt Angle vs. Alberto Dos Caras rematch from the first iPPV, likely with Angle going over for the WCW Championship. But then the arrest and subsequent suspension killed that.

Instead, WCW aired the Angle/Dos Caras rematch on WCW Underground this week with the stipulation that if Angle lost - he was gone from WCW. Angle ended up losing a ****3/4 and that's how he's being written off TV. The finish of the match protected Angle in two ways. One way saw him have Dos Caras pinned but the referee completely out of position to make the count, so that when the referee did make the count, Dos Caras kicked out. This put the blame on the referee instead of Angle, and it works incredibly well. The fans chanted "That was 3!" and "Bullshit!" because of the ref's screw up. Then Dos Caras used the same counter he did at the first iPPV but Angle remembered it and countered it himself with a powerbomb. Then Dos Caras finally got the pin after countering an Olympic Slam with a roll up and holding the tights. The problem is, Angle is still under contract and come December, per the nature of the WCW contracts, he will start receiving guaranteed paychecks. The guaranteed paychecks, while not for much but are good enough, were meant as incentives to lure talent away from WWE and TNA. On top of that, Kurt Angle took the suspension knowing he had burned bridges with the other two major promotions, ROH couldn't match the money WCW was giving, and the knowledge that when his suspension was up - he would be back. That creates a problem of killing a stipulation very early into the lifespan of a promotion. If Kurt Angle comes back in December, then the fans who are already accustomed to stipulations not meaning anything thanks to WWE and TNA, will see this as business as usual and that could really hurt WCW. WCW is trying to position itself as "Wrestling for the 21st century" and is trying to stray away from those same problems TNA and WWE have. For now, it appears they might have backed themselves into a corner.

Chris Jericho did appear on the 10/6 show. John Layfield and Lenny Leonard were flown to Atlanta, GA the day before the show to re-record commentary for the episode. The original plan was to have Chris Jericho show up and then save Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards from an assault at the end of the 10/6 show. This was how it was presented live. It's an old school angle that has, in the past, done well with business. The problem is, and Dave Lagana caught on to this albeit after the taping, is that in 2011 - this kind of stuff won't work. You can't tell the fans that Jericho is just a fan in the audience who gets in the ring at the end and nothing happens to him. Insulting the fans' intelligence is something that doesn't usually work out. So they announced on the WCW web site that Jericho had signed and had Layfield and Leonard cut new commentary for the next four episodes since the original commentary portrayed Jericho as someone in the right place at the right time.

Jericho cut a promo at the end of the episode talking about how he was held back in WCW for being short and held back in WWE for not knowing how to work the main event style. These are both pretty valid claims, as Kevin Nash is the person who convinced Goldberg not to do a program with Jericho because Jericho was too short. Triple H was notorious in WWE for cutting the legs out from underneath Jericho on multiple occasions, citing that Jericho couldn't work the main event style. Jericho never really drew big in WWE until a fantastic program with Shawn Michaels, which working with Michaels protected Jericho since Michaels and Triple H are friends. But the story is that Jericho sees Dos Caras in the role of Triple H/Kevin Nash and that he's holding down Davey Richards and Jericho refuses to let that happen. They went with this because Chris Jericho doesn't have that natural "fit" a coach for Davey Richards that Kurt Angle did, so they had to work out another way to fit them together.

Another part of the show that was added in as part of the Angle-controversy, was the introduction of a yet-revealed character in the WCW Executive Director. The idea is that with Angle going and Jericho replacing him so suddenly, they wanted to give something extra to keep the fans hooked. Mysteries can work well in wrestling, but the payoff can't be drawn out too long and, and this seems simple really, there has to be an actual payoff. Right now the storyline plays similar to the anonymous RAW General Manager that has yet to be revealed and likely never will be.

By virtue of the actions of Chris Jericho on the 10/6 show, he's now been inserted into the trios match on the Halloween Havoc iPPV in place of Kurt Angle. Angle and Jericho have different styles, but in their own ways could easily mesh with the other workers in this match, so it should still be a good one.