JERI-SHOW
Chris Jericho & The Big Show
2009 - 2010
World Tag Team Champions; WWE Tag Team Champions
Written by Canadian Bulldogg
Chris Jericho and The Big Show (a/k/a Jeri-Show; although they never referred to themselves as this name on television) were taken seriously as a tag team in an era where virtually no one was taken seriously as a tag team.
The combination was mostly a fluke, as Jericho captured the Unified Tag Team Championship with Edge, only to have Edge get injured. At the 2009 Night of Champions PPV, Y2J introduced The Big Show as his partner, and the rest was history.
Even though the pairing seemed incredibly temporary, it wasn't. The two were able to legitimately get heel heat by taking themselves incredibly seriously and not coming up with cool catchphrases. Even when the two bickered (which was frequently) it was a fairly big deal for a kind of "meh" period in WWE history.
While Jeri-Show's reign on top of Raw and SmackDown wasn't overly long, the two did manage to have some high profile matches, including bouts with D-Generation X, Cryme Tyme and the random pairing of Mark Henry and MVP.
The two even managed to secure a World Heavyweight Title match while pairing up. Both men battled The Undertaker for the belt at Survivor Series (and strangely enough, WWE Champion John Cena battled both members of D-Generation X at the same event, also in a Triple Threat match, showing that the WWE writing team in 2009 clearly didn't have a lot of tricks up their sleeves.
What I loved about Jeri-Show was their "throwback" nature, meaning not only were they both legitimate heels, but they played to each other's strengths. For example, The Big Show's knockout punch was their team finisher, and Jericho would wear the team down until Show was ready to deliver the crushing blow.
Perhaps the greatest moment in Jeri-Show's run (beyond their combined "Crank The Walls Down" theme music) was when they were forced to split up following a loss to D-X on Raw. It was something out of a romantic comedy, with Jericho pleading to continue their relationship, despite Show quickly moving on to teaming with The Miz as ShowMiz. It was a rare comedic moment for a team that strived to avoid most of that during their teaming.