[2008-06-29 WWE Night of Champions] Chris Jericho vs Kofi Kingston

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWE Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho vs Kofi Kingston - WWE Night of Champions 2008

Chris Jericho has officially turned heel smashing Shawn Michaels' face into the Jeritron 5000 and injuring his eye which would be the crux of the feud going forward. He is still in long tights, but the nature of his pre-match promo is a harbinger of his style to come. He is defending his title against a surprise opponent, Kofi Kingston, who is still from Jamaica at this point. 

It has been a while since I have some pre-AEW Jericho, but my feeling was this Jericho was a lot different than first run Jericho but I should watch some first run Jericho back this up. He felt more physical and more like a bully. He was really aggressive, hitting hard with confidence and really looking like an asshole. Jericho established he was an mountain early. Kofi did the headbutt the top rope spot to lead some dazzling with leapfrogs, a baseball slide and top rope splash that looked like a little dangerous. Kofi mounted Jericho for the ten count punches on the corner only for Jericho to chuck him off. Great transition to heat. Jericho picked up where he left off with tough, grinding bully heel tactics. I really liked that standing on Kofi's throat while on the middle rope. It looked particularly vicious. It was also a good cutoff of a hope spot. I thought he did a great job on the backbreaker stretch and working the abdominal stretch especially selling Kofi reversing it. He fed for the Kofi hope spots well and Kofi got a lot of while meat babyface flash pin attempts and his Boom Drop. Jericho cuts off with a clothesline, Lionsault and the Walls of Jericho looks like all she wrote when an injured Shawn Michaels springs out of the crowd. Lance Cade was the one flaw of this otherwise perfect feud as he gets owned by Shawn. Jericho shoulderblocks Shawn off the apron. Kofi uses the distraction to hit Trouble In Paradise! I like that it was not a distraction rollup but a distraction finish but thats classic Jericho. Jericho punches Shawn in his injured eye to put more heat on this feud. 

This was a pretty standard match. Kofi was working babyface 101. Jericho was a great stocky bully heel. Jericho looked like a ring general timing the hope spots well so that Kofi never died and he always looked like he had hope. The match spurred on the burgeoning Michaels/Jericho feud and the IC Title didnt need to be on Jericho but Kofi did immediately feel like a mid-card after thought compared to Jericho/Michaels. ***1/4