This week's episode of the Monday Night War focusing on Chris Jericho got me wondering: does Y2J "deserve" his own episode of the series? Sure, most of us love Jericho. He's a fantastic promo and he's one of the elite performers in the ring in the history of the sport. However, was he really so integral to the feud between WCW & the WWF that he "earned" (I keep using quotes because it's ultimately, pretty trivial) a focal entry into the series? He was held back to where he never moved beyond midcard status in WCW, despite great performances, and after his AMAZING debut in the WWF, he was immediately shuffled into meandering, innocuous feuds with Bob Holly, Chyna, etc. Even when he was put over Austin & Rock as the first WWF Undisputed Champion, he never seemed to be a major draw.
I'm not arguing his talent or ability, I'm just not sure he "moved the needle" enough to warrant his own episode of the show in the same way that Austin, Goldberg, the nWo, DX, Foley & the like did. Am I missing something?
I will acknowledge that it's nice he gets some well-deserved recognition. That, in and of itself, is pretty cool.
Thoughts?
​Here's the thought process of original programming on the Network broken down for you:
1) Do we have enough existing footage of something or someone tangentially related to the subject at hand to base an episode on? If yes, there's an episode. If no, go to 2.
2) Do we have the person available to shoot more footage to pad out the existing footage so we don't have to pay someone out of the company? If yes, there's your episode. If no, go to 3.
3) Blame it on WCW if it failed or say it was all because of DX if it succeeded. There's your show.
End program creation algorithm.
​Basically, Jericho is around, so he's suddenly important to the Monday Night Wars. At this point they're just fluffing out the runtime anyway.