Chris Jericho calls on MJF
Jericho’s career-threatening match begins with MJF entering with a countdown similar to Jericho’s famous WWE debut – so it’s already fun. Jericho came to see a Fozzy guitarist playing the Judas melody, with the crowd singing. The guitar drowned the crowd, so it kind of backfired, but it was something different for a pay-per-view.
MJF is so good to be hateful. His taunts and annoyance of the crowd – whether it was doing Ric Flair’s strut or flipping them – were as effective in eliciting response as a high-impact move. But of course there were high impact movements. The apron came into play, with MJF attacking Jericho with a Heatseeker piledriver to the side of the ring. Moments later, after Jericho narrowly avoided being counted, Jericho gave MJF a nasty powerbomb on the ring apron.
This powerbomb would play into the rest of the match, as MJF was selling his lower back like he was totally supercharged. He countered a flying ax handle from Jericho in a Codebreaker, but couldn’t get the pin immediately because of his back. He then struggled to get up and stretched by the ropes, which allowed Jericho to recover and moments later to score a Lionsault.
A turning point came when Jericho hit MJF with the classic 10 punches on the tensioner. He then went for a hurricane, but MJF countered him with a top rope spinebuster, but again he couldn’t go for immediate cover due to his lower back.
Wardlow came to the ring to help MFJ, but he was cut off by Jake Hager. With the referee distracted, MJF timed Jericho with Jericho’s baseball bat. MJF then hit Jericho with a Judas effect for a pin. Jericho put his foot on the ropes, but the referee didn’t see him and counted the count of 3. MJF was declared the winner, with his theme song played and all, before another referee came in and said. to the match referee that Jericho’s foot was on the ropes. The crowd jumped huge for the intervention.
MJF argued with the referee as the match resumed, allowing Jericho to go for a stack for a 2. Jericho then misses a Judas effect, and MJF secures the armband with which he typed Jericho a few years ago. weeks on Dynamite. Jericho manages to counter and locks onto Jericho’s walls for the win.
Rating: 4.25 stars. Excellent correspondence. Excellent psychology with MJF’s lower back injury, and he did a fabulous job selling. The faux finishes were also great, as it was momentarily believed that MJF was going to hit Jericho with the armband.
To me, this illustrates how more can be less. I remember very little of the cage match, but a lot of the narration of that match.