AJ Styles vs Chris Jericho: ‘There’s Déjà vu’

Once again, the WWE is seemingly going to present AJ Styles vs Chris Jericho in a match that will be shown during WrestleMania 33 and will likely be a repeat of what we’ve already seen.

If you were to go through the segments and matches from the past couple of months since the Royal Rumble, it feels like we are always going to have something that adds to the rivalry of AJ Styles vs Chris Jericho.

And because I have children under the age of four, seeing the start of another Styles vs Jericho match – likely at WrestleMania 33 on Apr. 3 – reminds me of a specific scene from Disney’s Inside Out movie.

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Obviously, there are a lot of factors when it comes to having to book another match between the Phenomenal One and Y2J. It’s going to be slightly different with the fact that Jericho is going to be a heel this time and might be a little more vicious in the match. But it’s hard to really justify putting this match together for WrestleMania.

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First off, we’ve seen three high-quality matches where we saw the WWE veteran who still has plenty in the tank and someone who is just starting to hit his stride in the world of WWE. While many fans might not mind seeing these two face off against each other on a regular basis, it’s hard to imagine how they are going to do something different from the last three matches.

This might require having some form of a stipulation that builds some extra excitement. While it is highly unlikely, but one way to make the match different is by adding a stipulation where Jericho must retire if he loses to Styles for the third time. The only way this works is if Jericho does plan on being done with professional wrestling and it is possibly considering he has been active since 1990.

Maybe the two will want to face each other in a hardcore-type stipulation; although neither has a championship to put in a ladder match and there’s already a tentative street fight between Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar. There can’t be a cage match because there’s already a Hell in a Cell match with the Undertaker and Shane McMahon.

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The question becomes how can the WWE creative team add to the rivalry with booking themselves into a corner by not wanting to conflict with another match stipulation on the card?

Another problem is justifying Styles going into a third match with Jericho. What does he have to prove considering he’s beaten him twice? It would be understandable if the two had split their previous matches, but Styles already won the virtual rubber match at the Fastlane pay-per-view. Jericho could go the route of teasing him via verbal bullying to get him to agree to the match, or by Jericho putting his career on the line.

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Unfortunately, one should not get their hopes too much that this will be a match that is much different than the previous chapters. While having them take the WWE Tag Team Championships wouldn’t have helped the tag team division, having them team for a few months would have been a little more refreshing since we’ve seen the two face off multiple times now.

Once again, folks will look at the WrestleMania card similar to Bing Bong from the earlier mentioned Disney film, see Styles vs Jericho and say “There’s déjà vu.”