Judgement Day
May 18, 2008
Originally reviewed here.
Jericho was the Intercontinental Champion at the time of this match, but the title was not on the line. Another important note would be that I think this would be the last time Jericho wore pants on PPV. I bring the insight.
This match was a part of Shawn’s transition of retiring Flair, feuding with Batista, and then ending up in an all-out blood feud with Jericho. Jericho inserted himself into Shawn’s life after Shawn refused to admit he faked a knee injury to beat Batista at the PPV the month before. It was quite clever.
Speaking of clever, this match was probably the hidden gem of their 2008 feud. Jericho managed to get a step a head of Shawn early on, and it stayed that way for a while. Shawn needed a superkick OUTTA NOWHERE to even things up. Jericho then appeared to down for the count while Shawn tuned up the band. Jericho was faking though and caught Shawn with a Codebreaker for a good nearfall. That was a good way of bringing up the issue that caused them to have a match (and later lead to Jericho’s heel turn). Jericho later went for the Walls, but Shawn reversed it into a pinning combo for the win. This was a treat to re-visit, and it also served a great prologue to their blood feud that would dominate the rest of the year. (***3/4)
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