It might be hard to keep in mind right now, because everything has been so tragic for him lately, but Chris Jericho has been having one of the very best years of his entire, lengthy career as a pro wrestler. The future sure-thing Hall of Famer has reinvented himself and seen a major resurgence since adopting his new heel persona, and it’s been wonderful to watch.
And Chris Jericho is anything but a stranger to reinventing himself. He’s understood perhaps more than any other pro wrestler the power of absence allowing the heart to grow fonder, as he has taken a number of extended breaks from WWE over the past dozen years or so. Now, wonderfully, a member of r/SquaredCircle has given us this supercut of every time he’s returned from a hiatus.
In case you need a refresher, these are the returns in question:
- The “Save_Us.Y2J” return in 2007, coming after a two-year hiatus and following weeks of short cryptic videos.
- The “Smilin’ Jericho” return in 2012, after a year away. Jericho’s polarizing return consisting of a light-up jacket and a refusal to speak quickly just became Jericho-as-usual after a lackluster response.
- The Royal Rumble return in 2013, after a five-month break (his Smilin’ Jericho run was VERY short-lived). He stuck around until July this time, then took another year off.
- The June 2014 return. He arrived just to take the wind out of the sails of The Miz’s own return, which people cared a lot less about.
- Night of Champions 2015, where he was the surprise partner of Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose as they took on the Wyatt Family. Y2J was then mostly absent from WWE apart from a live event to celebrate his 25th year as a pro wrestler.
- Raw in 2016, where Jericho’s less-than-thrilling babyface run began at the expense of the heel New Day. How quickly things can change, huh?
