*Spoiler tags* The "Who it was" discussion

2nd attempt to post this, as my iPad just died half way through!

OK, so it was Chris Jericho, pretty much as we all expected. And his return was equal parts frustrating, annoying, and awful..... and intriguing and brilliant.

Jericho emerges wearing a jacket decked out in his old Christmas lights, and clothing very reminiscent of his previous "rockstar" look return. He walks to the ring, milks the crowd reaction for a solid 10 minutes, and then walks backstage without ever saying a word into the microphone. It was annoying to watch him milk the reaction, tease saying something, and then go back to milking it again. It was frustrating to be offered no link to the angle videos that have run for the past six weeks, and no explanation of any of what was in them, which was precisely what everyone was tuning it for. It was also awful to watch as his over-milking lead to the crowd becoming bored and annoyed with him themselves, and eventually start to boo him.

If that was all there was to his return, and the happy choppy Y2J is back, then its one of the worst returns in history, and its bloody awful ......

....except of course that isn't all there is to it.

Because the over-milking, the desperate appeals to the fans, the annoying teasing of a speech, that was all deliberate. Jericho was being deliberately annoying and self-congratulatory. He was over-egging the pudding on purpose, in fact to spoof his previous "rockstar" return, and very likely to make a point about how the crowd can be manipulated to put their faith in anyone. The WWE Universe (TM) will now rave and vent their spleens about "why didn't he say anything? that was rubbish". And that's the reaction this Jericho wants. He's playing with the crowd. WWE have managed to turn him from face to heel without him ever opening his mouth. Now, next week you will actually get the explanation, with the heel Jericho.

I admit, I was annoyed watching it live that we didn't get the reasoning last night. But as I think more about it, I'm intrigued for next week.

Of course, the WWE could still screw it all up and actually have it be a Jericho face return, but I don't think so.

I'm fairly certain this is Jericho trolling everybody and doing a fantastic job of it. My initial reaction was much the same as yours, David, but there really HAS to be more. After all, they made mention of a female character in the viral videos and we haven't had that part explained yet (of course, the videos could just be one big red herring parodying the typical return hype video, but we'll see).

In fact, checking out the official results they acknowledge the negative reaction, which makes it pretty clear that this was an intentional anticlimax. Very interesting.

I just watched it on Youtube. It's a bit of a strange return yeah, but I guess it makes sense if they're going for a heel comeback. For a popular wrestler returning, they usually get cheered by default as like a welcome back then have to build their heel heat but here it seems like the warm-up to a heel return.

It's a good move I think. Gets people keen to tune in next week to see what he has to say. All about ratings!

I watched it a couple of times and I agree that it seemed intended to
disappoint. I think we'll see a darker heel turn in coming weeks. Plus
if they are pointing out negativity on the official site then it suggests it's a play.

I also agree that it's a likely they are trolling the internet fans. A sort of anti-Punk.

Take a look at this...

I agree with you, Shand. The joke is made clearer with this.

http://vids.wwe.com/14480/wwecom-exclusive-a-smiling-chris

WWE.com attempts an interview with Chris Jericho.

He remains silent, he answers no questions... he stands there and smiles vapidly like a douchebag during the entire thing.

Hilarious. Brilliant. Beautiful. Chris Jericho is innovating the heel persona.

I actually, in my own way, take this to kind of be a direct parody from Jericho, an attack on the kind of babyfaces like Cena.

I really want to see where he's going with this.

That confirms the work and it's a clever one. Like we've said, to come back as a fan fave and start to turn heel without even saying anything...nice. Plus they have somebody who can really make this work. I've always been a big Jericho mark and this sort of thing is right up his street.

For the longest time on Twitter he was making posts about how everyone in WWE has been ripping him off.

I'm also starting to think that this is also cleverly tied into that as a heel-ish protest of sorts.

Almost like he's trying to say that everyone has taken his identity from him and turned him into this personality-less, lobotomized Jericho.

Agreed, Jericho plays a wicked heel

Its all leading to Punk .v. Jericho at Mania.