Chris Jericho For Dummies

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Photo Credit: WWE.com

Monday night, Chris Jericho finally spoke at length after doing nothing but uttering a stream of "C'MAWWWNS" and "YEAH BABIES", promising the end of the world at the Royal Rumble and just not speaking at all. The funny thing about all of that was that in his big promo, he said nothing more than what he'd said since coming back to WWE on January 2nd without speaking a word. Everything he said was like a ham-handed soliloquy from a movie villain explaining his actions in detail despite the fact that the entire movie was an exposition in his or her same actions described.

It shouldn't be surprising; WWE is terrible at abiding by the concept of "show, don't tell", most spectacularly with their insistence that the Divas are smart, sexy and powerful via word and certainly not by action. This is the latest example in their refusal to let actions speak louder than words. Why do they continue to eschew more artistic methods of exposition to always go to the promo? My guess is that they don't think too highly of their audience.

I think the fact is that WWE sees a majority of their fans as rubes. Whether or not this is true is irrelevant. It's the only explanation of why they'd continue to drum out the same verbal explanations every time there's a major storyline development, why they continue to make sure the characters tell everyone their plans rather than let them do it through action.

Granted, that doesn't mean I thought Jericho's promo was bad. Obviously, he had great delivery, and it was nice hearing one of the best promos in the history of the game come back and do what he does best. That being said, I wished he would have said what he said differently, maybe focusing on the actual wrestlers who did him wrong rather than why he did what he did before Monday. Leave something to the imagination. Give the audience a little more credit. Even if there are people who don't get it, my guess is that there'll be more people who do, and hey, aiming for a smarter audience with part of the programming is really never a bad thing.