[2010-06-20-WWE-Fatal 4-Way] Chris Jericho vs Evan Bourne

[Superstar Sleeze]

Chris Jericho vs Evan Bourne - Fatal 4-Way 2010

 

A very selfless performance from Jericho, it was truly a good faith effort to make this kid look good. I liked Jericho's promo a lot before the match saying if you are under 25, he is the reason you watch and if you are over 25 he is the reason you continue to watch. He also noticed a change in his career. For the first time, he doesn't feel like the underdog or the young upstart, he is the veteran and he is at the top. It was a nice self-realization promo. He still had another WrestleMania title match in him and the stuff with Kevin Owens was incredible, you cant write Jericho off just yet as a main event act.

 

In Jericho's mind, the way to get a kid over is to give him moments to shine. We see that with Bourne big dive to the outside, the incredible Frankensteiner while Bourne was on the mat and Jericho was on the top rope, letting him get rope breaks on the Walls of Jericho & Codebreaker and then of course the coup d'grace hitting his finish and winning the match. In my opinion, this is a very superficial way of getting someone over. Letting him get in key spots, escape your finishes and win the match are crucial and 100% agree with Jericho's call on that as a means to the accomplishing the objective. I just think there are more lasting ways to present this match. It is interesting to me that Jericho is incredible at creating an overarching narrative week-to-week outside the ring (maybe the best at in this millennium) is so poor at creating narratives within a match. This just felt like a workrate match from the 90s. Jericho didn't feel like a veteran or a heel. He was Bourne's peer. Jericho was enjoyable to watch. Seeing him hit German Suplex bridges and double underhook backbreakers was great. They were trading moves and Bourne felt his equal. It has a lot to do how Jericho was brought up. In his mind, this is how Benoit, Eddy and himself made each other. I do think he has a much weaker grasp on psychology either of those two had, but one key difference is they were coming up together. Here the story is difference and I think a lot more mileage could have been gained if it was played up as veteran vs young lion.

 

I say this as a product of the 90s. I didn't start watching wrestling until 1997. My favorites were Benoit, Eddy and Jericho growing up, no doubt. To me they were what pro wrestling inside that squared circle ought to be. It took me a long, long time to stop viewing wrestling through the prism of 90s workrate. I enjoyed this match. I am going to rate the match they had not the match they should have had. This was a very good 90s workrate match where unlike today's workrate there weren't too many modified slams, no gymnastics floor exercise routines, nor the dreaded stagger for 2 minutes while my opponent gets in position. 90s workrate >>> Modern workrate, don't get me wrong. It just lacked that narrative I can sink my teeth into. But as a pro wrestling match where spots were both cool and made sense this was very good. ***1/2