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What's the story?
Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho had a great storyline, and it all came to a head during the Festival Of Friendship. But it turns out the Festival Of Friendship almost never saw the light of day as we know it. Jericho explained how he had to fight to pull it off on Live Audio Wrestling.
In case you didn't know...
Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens were the best of friends and carried Monday Night Raw for many weeks thanks to their amazing chemistry.
But it all ended during a Festival Of Friendship after KO got upset at Y2J for agreeing to a match against Goldberg for him. Kevin would end up losing his treasured Universal Title in that match thanks to Chris Jericho. But their friendship paid the ultimate price.
The heart of the matter
Kevin Owens turned on his best friend during the Festival of Friendship. It was a segment which sparked a rivalry that still continues to this day. After all, when Y2J is finished touring with Fozzy, he's sure to want another crack at KO.
But Jericho explained to Live Audio Wrestling that he actually had to fight in order to pull off the Festival Of Friendship he wanted.
"The day that we had the show, Vince wasn’t there and they tried to change it to where Kevin would just attack me. And my thing was the whole drama of revealing the list of KO and 'hey how come my name’s on this' and the looking up and the feeling of oh sh*t don’t do it, don’t do it and then he attacks me."
When the Ayatollah Of Rock n Rolla wants something he knows how to get it. After all his latest book is all about how you should never take no for an answer.
"I had to fight for that all day long and there was some real heated debates going on between me and Triple H and a couple of other people. I said this is the way we’re doing it. It’s the way I explained it to Vince and Paul was like 'I’ll call Vince right now, he’s in a plane, I don’t care I’ll find him. I’ll send a carrier pigeon to get him.' And finally I think it was just exasperation, just do whatever you want."
What's next?
When Chris Jericho finally makes his return to WWE television it will likely be on SmackDown LIve which is where Kevin Owens currently resides. We can only assume there's still plenty of fuel to keep that feud going even longer when Y2J comes back to action whenever that might be.
Author's take
It's a great thing Chris Jericho stands up for what he believes in. Without his input and refusal to accept a different segment, one of the best rivalries of the year might not have been as good.
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