WWE: The Best Angle That Lasted Less Than One Month

Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories
WWE: The Best Angle That Lasted Less Than One Month

NOTE FROM ERIC: This article is being written for Bleacher Report's "CvC" tournament. If you like this article, make sure to vote for it tomorrow when the poll goes up. Until then, enjoy the read!

What's up, ladies and gentlemen? My name is Eric Kanes and today, the topic that I will be discussing is "The Best WWE Angle That Lasted Less Than One Month."

Unlike most of the other topics in this tournament, there wasn't much to choose from here because, let's face it, there's a reason why these feuds don't last more than a month. In some cases, it's because one of the wrestlers involved gets injured which prevents the feud from really taking off. In other cases, the feud is going nowhere and is aborted to prevent things from getting worse.

However, amongst a bunch of those failed feuds, there is one that stands out. That feud is Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton.

There are many reasons why this feud stands out despite lasting such a short period of time. One of those reasons is that 2007 was simply a disaster of a year for WWE. It started off with a very strong roster but bit by bit, month by month the roster began thinning. John Cena, Edge, Triple H, and The Undertaker all had to take time off due to injury. Booker T and Rob Van Dam, two valuable main eventers, left the company altogether due to personal reasons. Bobby Lashley, a young up-and-comer on the brink of becoming a main eventer, left because he felt he wasn't getting paid enough. And of course, the icing on the cake was the infamous Chris Benoit tragedy.

This created quite a bit of a dilemma for WWE. The main event scene was being hit hard and there weren't many main eventers left. On SmackDown, The Great Khali held the world heavyweight championship. At that point, you knew you were witnessing one of the lowest points in WWE history. However, if you think that's bad, on the RAW side of things, John Cena held the WWE title for nearly the whole year until he had to relinquish it due to injury, at which point Randy Orton took over.

Ratings were down. Ticket sales were down. Don't even get me started on PPV buyrates. How did things turn around, you ask? Well, things started to turn around with the help of one man. That man was Chris Jericho.

In November of 2007, after months of the "Save_Us.222" vignettes, Chris Jericho finally made his return by crashing Randy Orton's "passing of the torch" celebration and announcing that he was back to save WWE from Randy Orton. Indirectly, that's exactly what he did. Chris Jericho was finally the man that was able to fill the huge void that guys like Booker T and Rob Van Dam left upon their departures.

After a month of some classic promos by Jericho (you can see two of them on the right hand side of the article), the Randy Orton/Chris Jericho feud was one of the most hyped-up in years. Don't take my word for it, though. During that time span, Monday Night RAW ratings went from an abysmally poor 2.8 to an almost staggering 4.1, the highest rating since the Benoit tragedy. Numbers don't lie.

Chris Jericho would then go on to have a classic rivalry against Shawn Michaels and then feud with the likes of Edge and John Cena, winning three world titles in the process.

In conclusion, this feud didn't last a month because it failed or was irrelevant. The reason that this feud only lasted a month is because it was only done to establish Chris Jericho's return. Once that was done, Orton went on to feud with John Cena while Jericho went on to feud with a returning JBL.

The bottom line is that Chris Jericho announced that he had returned to save WWE and this feud certainly did not let us down.



Load More Stories

Subscribe Now

We will never share your email address

Thanks for signing up.