Chris Jericho wants WWE fans to 'shut the hell up' and give Roman Reigns a chance

First Bret Hart, then Geno Mrosko and now Chris Jericho.

The backlash to the backlash continues as we inch closer to Roman Reigns' big moment on the Grandest Stage of Them All next Sunday in Santa Clara, California.  Y2J is making the rounds for his many pop culture pursuits, and especially the recent release of his newest WWE DVD set The Road is Jericho, and sat down to chat with Matt Fowler at IGN earlier this week (check out the whole interview here).

In addition to talking about his epic feud with Shawn Michaels and some of the 'B-sides' and rarities contained on the new discs, Jericho was asked the pro wrestling question of the day...is Reigns ready?

Look, like I've said before, if you're going to give someone a shot, give them a shot.

There've been tons of guys who when they've been put in the main event at WrestleMania might not have been quote unquote ready. Who's to say who's ready and who's not? Let's see how the crowd reacts when they get there.

But all I know is that Roman Reigns was everybody's favorite guy until the Royal Rumble. And then everyone turned on Roman Reigns. It's so funny how two days before, and the year before, everybody loved Roman Reigns. Everybody. All the fans did. And don't tell me that you didn't because they were all saying "Roman Reigns, Roman Reigns, Roman Reigns...what? Daniel Bryan didn't win the Royal Rumble? We hate Roman Reigns! Boo!" And meanwhile, ever since then - I mean, we did house shows in Calgary and Edmonton and it was like Beatlemania. They were going nuts for him. And that was a week after the Royal Rumble.

So I think that he is ready, as much as anyone can be ready in this day and age. So let's see how it goes. I mean the match he had with Daniel Bryan at Fastlane was incredible. And you can't tell me that it was all because of Daniel Bryan. Really? Because I always heard in the business that it takes two. And I think I've proven myself to be a fairly decent worker, so if I'm telling you it takes two, I think every fan should shut the hell up and listen to what I'm saying.

He did a great job of living up to his end of the bargain and he'll do the same thing at WrestleMania. They will leave no stone unturned to make that a great match. They will get all the benefits. All the bells and whistles. And as long as they can hold it together, I think it's going to be great.

This continues the trend of WWE and Roman's supporters turning sentiment around to where those not in favor of The Big Dog getting the WrestleMania main event spot are haters who don't want to give the guy a chance.  While I personally don't see it that way, and remain largely unmoved by Reigns the character and the performer, it certainly has been a successful public relations campaign.

I'd ask a probing question about Jericho's quote designed to get comments, but I can already tell you that this will be one of the most highly trafficked and commented on posts of the day.

Which goes to show you that, at least for this 'Mania season, Vince McMahon has succeeded in creating his John Cena replacement.