Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels 2008: The Greatest Feud Ever

There are many reasons why we watch professional wrestling, the larger-than-life wrestlers, the incredible athleticism on display, musical chair competitions (Ric Flair managed to make it entertaining to be fair) but one of the most captivating parts of wrestling is the legendary feuds. While good in-ring wrestling will always be fun to watch itself, having a true reason why these two half-naked gentlemen are fighting each other, makes it far more compelling. A good feud can lead to the best work of multiple wrestlers, a good feud has multiple matches that all have their own style to them. Wrestling has had countless memorable feuds, however, in my opinion, the greatest feud in the history of professional wrestling was the feud between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels in 2008.

The feud started before their matches even began. At Backlash 2008 Shawn Michaels, fresh off Old Yellering Ric Flair, had a match with Batista and Chris Jericho was named special referee because he looks damn good in black and white stripes. The conclusion of that match saw Shawn Michaels appear to be injured before surprising Batista and picking up the win, while there was confusion on whether or not the Heart Break Kid was injured or faking it, the future Demo-God seemed especially skeptical about the injury. Jericho would later confront Michaels about the “injury” and after convincing from Michaels, Jericho believed that Shawn was being truthful about the injury. Shawn then proceeded to kick Jericho in the face with music of the sweet chin variety to make it clear to Jericho and everyone watching that he was not hurt, setting up the first match.

Match 1: Judgement Day

The first time Jericho and Michaels faced off in 2008 was at Judgement Day, it is important to note that at this point in the feud, both wrestlers were considered babyfaces, as far as wrestling matches go, it was basic yet brilliant, two of the greatest wrestlers to ever lace up a pair of boots putting on a display of excellence, the match eventually ends with Shawn Michaels pinning Chris Jericho with a roll-up, and after the match, Jericho extended his hand to Michaels, and the two shook hands in respect, this does two very important things, Michaels won the match, but not in a definitive way, and also it establishes that there is still respect between the two, the feud is not yet hateful.

Rating: 4 ½ stars

After their Judgement Day match, Jericho hosted the Highlight Reel with special guest Shawn Michaels. Jericho told Michaels that the fans will cheer him regardless of what he does, getting visibly angrier as he called Michaels a liar, Jericho couldn’t stand the idea of the fans booing him and cheering Michaels when Michaels is the clear wrong person here. Remember when Shawn Michaels threw Marty Janetty through a glass window? Well, the painmaker did his best making of pain when he smashed HBK’s head through the screen of the Jeritron 5000, which is an insider term for “TV”, making it very clear that this is no longer a feud with respect, just pure hatred.

Match 2: The Great American Bash

This match is a perfect example of how two wrestlers can have two very different matches in the same feud. This match featured a lot less wrestling, and a lot more fighting, these two very clearly hated each other now, as evident by the match ended by referee stoppage when Chris Jericho beat Shawn Michaels in such a brutal fashion that Shawn was doing his best Ric Flair impression by bleeding like he was is a Saw movie, the commentary team did a great job of selling the brutality and violence they had just witnessed, this wasn’t a wrestling match, it was a blood bath

Rating: 4 stars

At SummerSlam that year Shawn Michaels came out along with his wife where he was about to announce his retirement from recent injuries, when Chris Jericho, 2008’s Superstar of the Year who wasn’t booked to wrestle at SummerSlam for some reason, came out to verbally assault Shawn Michales, as they were getting into it, Jericho threw a sucker punch towards Michaels, but accidentally hit Shawn’s wife, as Jericho exited the ring Shawn looked at him with a look of pure hatred, somehow, the feud got even more heated.

Match 3: Unforgiven, the unsanctioned match

Things were now as heated as Vince McMahon when someone sneezes, at perhaps the most fittingly named show for this match, Jericho and Michaels faced off in an unsanctioned match, which is the 50th unique way to say “hardcore match” to put this simply, this was a brawl, it was two men full of hatred just going all out, they weren’t trying to beat their opponent, they were trying to hurt them. It was as brutal as a TV-PG match can be, after 27 minutes of sheer violence and hatred, Shawn Michaels was the one who stood tall, but Jericho would not leave Cleveland that night a loser.

Rating: 4 ½ stars

After Randy Orton had done his best Matt Prater impression on CM Punk’s head, causing Punk to be unable to defend his World Heavyweight Championship in the championship scramble match (remember playing those in SmackDown vs Raw? That was terrible) the match continued as normal until the 5th entrant was supposed to come out, nobody knew if Punk made it or it a replacement was found, when the clock hit 0, with a burst of pyro, out came Chris Jericho, he was CM Punk’s replacement, and after sneaking in a last-second pinfall to the absolute shock of Batista, Chris Jericho was the new World Heavyweight Champion

So now we have an interesting situation, Shawn Michaels just beat Chris Jericho, yet Jericho was the one who stood tall as champion, so naturally, this makes the feud turn from violent hate, to being about the World Heavyweight Championship, and to add even more intrigue, the stipulation was set, it would be Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels for the World Heavyweight Championship in a ladder match.

Chris Jericho did this promo from the top of a ladder to reiterate everything he had been saying for months now. About the fans cheering for Michaels despite what Jericho claimed to be hypocritical actions. Jericho set the stage for the climax of this legendary feud.

Match 4: No Mercy, the ladder match

This was it, after months of hatred, months of phenomenal wrestling, months of brilliant storytelling, it all concludes with two of the greatest of all time in a ladder match for one of the most prestigious championships in all of wrestling. This match is my favorite wrestling match of all time, my one single favorite. To put it simply, this is the perfect ladder match, it has everything you could want, it was a ladder match where the two men were fighting with the ladder, this was not about insane spots in a multi-man match, those can be great but this was a pure one on one match for the top prize, months of the feud of the year, the decade, in history, ended with Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels standing on top of the ladder, both clinging to the title belt, trying to gain possession of the World Heavyweight Championship and win the match, it all ended with Chris Jericho landing one final shot to the head of Shawn Michaels, allowing Chris Jericho to bring down the belt, and retaining his World Heavyweight Championship, and putting the final dagger in Shawn Michaels.

Rating: 5 stars

So, have I convinced you that this is the greatest feud of all time yet? I encourage everyone out there to watch this feud for themselves, not just the brilliant matches, but the promos too, fire up episodes of RAW on the WWE Network and take yourself on a journey, a journey through the greatest feud in the history of professional wrestling.

Wrestling Trivia:

Which wrestler wrestled in both of the two matches to receive 5 stars from Dave Meltzer in 2005?

DM @JackDownVSRaw on Twitter for the answer