Chris Jericho on Kevin Owens, Original Wrestlemania 33 Plans, & More

A recent episode of the Inside The Ropes podcast show had Chris Jericho as the guest discussing Kevin Owens’ comedic greatness, the original plans for Wrestlemania 33, the Festival of Friendship, and more.

On the topic of Kevin Owens comedic greatness, Jericho praised Owens’ great sense of humor as the reason why they were very successful as a team.

“The idea initially was just getting to know him. That guy’s f–king funny, man. He’s really funny. He [has] got a great sense of humor. I remember just working a couple of random matches where I was like, ‘I could do something with this guy.’ It seemed so weird at the time, Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho, we’re at different levels, didn’t really look the same or wrestle the same, but just his personality was so sardonic and sarcastic.

What happened was we were in London [England] last April and we did some random tag team match and at the end, he ran down the aisle and jumped in my arms because Vince [McMahon] had just told him, ‘act like you just won the World Series; act like you won the Stanley Cup, the Super Bowl, because I had gotten the pin, but you act like it’s the biggest thing ever.’

We went up the ramp way and he goes, ‘we’re the best! You’re the GOAT and I’m the donkey! We’re the best!’ And I’m, ‘yeah, you’re the donkey!’ And he goes, ‘yeah, I’m the donkey!’ We get to the back and Vince is laughing his ass off and I was laughing. We were all laughing and we were like, ‘we’ve got something here!'”

On the topic of the original plans for Wrestlemania 33, Jericho stated he was originally planned to beat Kevin Owens for the Universal Championship and then lose it later to Brock Lesnar.

“I think once we got to about December. I started pitching to Vince, I said, ‘listen, like this Jericho character, this is not me, this is the most popular I’ve ever been.’ I said, ‘you could put the world title on this guy if you wanted to. And this is not pitching.’ And he said, ‘yeah, absolutely.’ So I said, ‘why don’t we have a title match at The Royal Rumble, me and Owens, and what if I win and he wins the next week?’ I think originally he was supposed to lose to Brock at WrestleMania. And Vince finally came back to me, I don’t remember when it was, and he said, ‘I want you to beat Owens for the title at WrestleMania and then you lose to Brock’ and I said, ‘f–k yeah!’ And that changed the next week.”

According to Jericho, the memorable Festival of Friendship moment almost did not happen due to Triple H trying to change the plans for the skit and when Owens would actually turn on Jericho.

“I came up with The Festival Of Friendship in Las Vegas [Nevada] a few months before. I knew exactly where we had to do it and The Festival Of Friendship was my idea from the start.

We went over this and Vince approved it. It was rehearsed, not rehearsed, but it was a done deal. Then, in that day in Vegas, Vince wasn’t there and when that happens, things always change. And Triple H wanted Owens to just attack me, like out of nowhere. He goes, ‘it’s too long. Why wouldn’t he attack you earlier?’ And I said, ‘it’s just the drama. It’s Game Of Thrones. It’s The Red Wedding.’

I said, ‘it’s the drama!’ I pull out The List Of KO and I’m like, ‘why is my name on this?’ and then, there’s the realization for me and the audience, like, ‘oh, no!’ and here he comes. And [Triple H] is like, ‘no, it’s too comical.’ I said, ‘it’s not too comical if I don’t deliver it comical! ‘Oh, it’s The List Of KO! Why am I on this?’ No, it’s drama because I don’t ever see The List Of KO, I just see, ‘oh, a new list! That’s great! [The audience] see[s] The List Of KO, but I don’t. ‘How come my name is on this?’ List Of KO. Realization, ‘oh f–k.” I actually had to have a pretty heated debate with Hunter about that. And I like Hunter a lot. He’s a good friend of mine. This is not a Jericho versus Hunter thing. That was done a long time ago. [It was] a very heated debate and I said, ‘listen, I’ll call Vince right now. This is the way to do it.’ I think he just kind of threw up his hands and walked away. And afterwards, he even texted me, he was like, ‘you were right. That was great. You totally made the right call on that.'”

Later in the interview, Jericho revealed the original plans for his feud with Kevin Owens for the United States championship were almost changed when Vince was not around backstage one night. Unlike with Wrestlemania 33, Jericho fought back enough to keep the plans and his surprise title win in tact in the end.