Scheduled plans for Chris Jericho's return

This past Sunday night at the 26th annual Royal Rumble, Chris Jericho made his surprise return to WWE after being gone from the company for nearly a year. Last time Jericho was seen on WWE television, he lost a match on RAW to Dolph Ziggler, with the stipulation that he’d be forced to quit the company if he lost.

Well, Jericho is back, and he’s picking up where he left off, starting with Dolph Ziggler. This past Monday night on RAW, Vickie Guerrero announced that she was the one responsible for bringing “Y2J” back to WWE, stating that it was a business decision, and Jericho is good for business. She then made a tag team match, pitting Jericho and Ziggler against WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No! (Daniel Bryan and Kane). In the closing moments of the match, Jericho walked out on Ziggler, costing them the match. This is going to be the start of a feud between Jericho in Ziggler, one that will likely get started at Elimination Chamber.

The feud with Ziggler isn’t supposed to last long, however, as Ziggler will likely be moving onto a feud with World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio for the coveted championship. So, where does that leave Jericho? Although he is wrestling as a face (good guy) right now, he is expected to turn heel (bad guy) sometime before Wrestlemania, and that in turn will lead to a feud with Ryback.

This plan is two-fold. First, it helps establish Jericho as the heel, as Ryback is currently one of the top faces in the company. Second, the plan is to reestablish Ryback’s dominance by giving him a win over Jericho at Wrestlemania 29, which will then lead to a renewed push on Smackdown!, leading to a World Championship match down the road.

Jericho isn’t expected to stay in WWE for a very long time, and is being used to help establish younger stars. Jericho is reportedly a big fan of Ryback, and is currently the main guy pushing for this feud. In an interesting comment, Jericho revealed that he felt Ryback should have won the WWE Championship from CM Punk back at the October Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, stating that he felt it was the right time for Ryback to become the top champion of the company. Although those plans were changed for various reasons, the original plan did call for Ryback to become champion, as he is expected to be a major part of WWE for the next couple of years.