One of the best moment in recent WWE history came in Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens’ 2017 Festival of Friendship. Jericho innocence combined with Owens’ diabolical heel turn made for a legendary segment, but according to Vince McMahon, one of the worst WrestleMania matches ever.
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In an interview with Inside the Ropes, Jericho gave a peek behind WWE’s curtain in the build to WrestleMania 33. According to Y2J, the Festival of friendship was something he had to fight for, particular against the wishes of Triple H. However after the segment finished, Jericho says the Triple H admitted that it had been a smash and it looked like Jericho/Owens was in line for a memorable WrestleMania match.
On the night of WrestleMania 33, Owens vs. Jericho went on early, and Y2J admitted that it could have been better. But apparently, Vince McMahon thought it could not have been worse.
“I thought [the match with Owens] was good but it seemed a little bit missing,” Jericho stated. “The problem with us is we were on after Shane and AJ, which is funny because the year before was me and AJ and we were on after the ladder match. We were second both years and I’m like, ‘F—, I wish I was first.’ Because the AJ match was good, but once again, the people are so in to it at first and the second one is hard no matter who you are. So I thought the match was good. I was very surprised when I saw KO after and he’s like, ‘Vince said it was one of the worst matches in WrestleMania history.”
Per Jericho, McMahon wasn’t thrilled with KO’s character and may have used that night to be hard on the still new WWE Superstar.
“He wanted Kevin to be this type of heel and Kevin was doing a lot of stuff off the top rope and flashy moves, and Vince did not want that,” Jericho said. “I think Vince had a hard-on for him at the time and it would have been very hard – see, Vince never said anything to me about the match, ever. Not once, never said anything like that, never said it was the worst match in WrestleMania history, never said a word about it. We talked about it the next night and didn’t go into detail, but he just went, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’”
While he totally disagreed, Jericho didn’t take McMahon’s opinion personally. Instead, Jericho guesses that McMahon was simply being hard on KO in order to get more out of him.
“…Vince told [Kevin] to lose weight and this is terrible, and you don’t know anything,” Jericho continued. “I’ve been through it. Vince told me you’re green as grass, you’re not worth the paper that your contract is printed on back in 1999. So I told him, you are now going through the Vince bootcamp and stick with it because you’ll be okay. Do I think it was a great match? No. Do I think it was one of the worst matches in WrestleMania history? Absolutely not.”
