[2002-01-20-WWF-Royal Rumble] Chris Jericho vs The Rock

[ohtani's jacket]

I was expecting a solid match between these two marred by a barrage of bullshit, and that's pretty much what I got. On a scale of one to ten, the bullshit wasn't as bad as in other matches, but I don't see how this style of main event wrestling was sustainable. When the bullshit and everything else involved with the style begins obligatory, it's time to take things in a different direction. The one thing I like about these Rock vs. Jericho matches is that it pays off Jericho's WWF debut where he interrupted the Rock's mic segment. The rest of the trappings I could do without. There were some neat counters by both men, and I guess the table spot was inventive, but the run-ins, the ref bump, the heel ref, etc. It felt passé for 2002, let alone all these years later. 

[cactus]

This had every Attitude Era big match cliche that you could think of. With outside interference, referees getting knocked down, and finisher stealing, this shows that even if the Attitude Era is officially over, some of the worst hang-ups of that era are still going to be sticking around for a while. What I did like about this is that Jericho played this one straight and he actually felt like a cocky heel instead of a comedic midcarder. The posturing to the crowd got the fans to hate Jericho and them to root for Rock. Although the fans brought into all the false finishes and the performances from both men were solid, this was way too overbooked to rate anything higher than good. ★★★

[Calvin]

These two have good chemistry, so the action is good, but this is still a wildly overbooked mess with all your usual mindless Attitude Era tropes, and they lazily recycle sequences from previous matches. Most importantly, this essentially confirms what we already knew: Chris Jericho is a paper tiger champion.

**3/4