Big Bubba: Booking the Return of Chris Jericho to WWE for WrestleMania 27

Being the first housemate for Big Bubba I get to make my own topic.  Since my favorite wrestler is Chris Jericho, I thought I'd make my topic about him.

So most people I'm sure have an idea that Chris Jericho is taking a break from WWE for a little bit.  It was announced on a lot of news sites that his contract was coming up, but of course if you've been watching Raw, you'd have an idea anyway with the talk of him leaving if he couldn't win the title at Night of Champions, and lots of little suggestions Jericho has dropped.  And then he's got a big match with Orton tonight with Orton claiming last week that he doesn't want to hear Jericho's voice anymore.  So whatever happens tonight, it sure seems like Jericho is going to be going away for a bit.

But he'll be back I'm sure.

In fact his second book, "Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps", is planned to be released in February 2011.  If you haven't read his first book, it ends with his WWE debut.  This second book will actually chronicle his time with WWE.  So not only will he want to be on WWE TV to promote the book, it makes sense that he would since it will likely be even more appealing to WWE fans.  

The easy booking idea would of course be to have him come in to win the Royal Rumble in January, and put him in one of the main events at WrestleMania.  I don't think that's going to happen though.  For one thing, that's less than 3 months from now..  February, while only 1 more month, doesn't necessarily have to have an in-ring return for him to promote his book - he could come back to promote the book and something could be set up for a WrestleMania match.  Then he wouldn't even need to show up every week until we actually get to around WM time.

So I have a few ideas for booking an angle for Jericho at WM27:

1) Randy Orton vs Chris Jericho - Just getting this one out of the way first because to me it is the least interesting and I also have a big problem with it.  My big problem is that the Jericho return and the subsequent book promotion would likely put Jericho in a face role.  If not, promoting the book is kind of silly.  And Orton is a pretty hot face right now.  Turning him heel again before WM27 would be ridiculous.  BUT of course I'm talking about it for a reason:  it's possible that tonight the Orton/Jericho match will in fact be the cause of Jericho leaving WWE.  An injury angle, whatever they do.  If that is the case, you could say it'd be silly NOT to have Jericho seek revenge on Orton.  Then you go a little further and see that when Jericho originally returned to WWE with the SAVE_US.Y2J deal, it was to save us from Randy Orton as WWE champion.  So there could be a lot of history to build a match off of..  but I think the Orton/Jericho match could be held off until later in the year (or whenever Jericho goes heel again).

2) CM Punk vs Chris Jericho - This may actually be the one I like the best.  Not only do I think the match would be great, but I think the promos leading up to the match would be STELLAR.  They can draw parallels between Jericho wanting to save us [from heel champion?], and CM Punk wanting to save us [from ourselves?].  I'd kick the angle off as soon as Jericho makes any kind of return.  Let him promote his book in the ring, get that out of the way, and then immediately have Punk come out to attack Jericho.  So right away, you forget about whoever causes Jericho to disappear from TV - or even better, you have Jericho survive tonight and have Punk take him out a week or two down the line.  And this match, even though it wouldn't be a top-billed match on the card, it would sell PPVs.  It's a match people would want to see for sure.  I wouldn't doubt that we've seen them wrestle on Raw before (but I can't remember for sure) but on WM I have no doubt it'd be phenomenal.

3) Triple H vs Chris Jericho - This one could be interesting too, though I somehow think we'd see HHH in the main event if he's back for WM27.  I have no idea what will be in Jericho's 2nd book, but if any mentions of the "glass ceiling" are in there, along with feelings of HHH holding him back - it's an easy sell.  Jericho promotes his book, and you have Cole bring up some of the "nasty things" Jericho wrote about HHH in the book.  It'd be a WM rematch, which I'm not usually a fan of, but we would have the roles reversed.  (Jericho as face, HHH as heel)  Plus, if we can get Stephanie out there involved with Jericho, I think we'd all love to see that again. :)

I think those choices make the most sense.  If anyone has any other ideas for a Jericho match at WM27, let me know!  And I mean, I wouldn't mind seeing Daniel Bryan vs Chris Jericho either, along with a lot of other guys, but I just don't know any way to book them since there's no history there.  It'd be all brand new.  Which wouldn't be bad, but I don't think would make sense for a big WM match.