wrestling / Columns

Why Can’t They Be Friends?: Why Jeri-KO Was Doomed From the Start

February 25, 2017 | Posted by Kenneth Hill
Chris Jericho Kevin Owens, Festival of Friendship WWE Raw

Ahoy hoy, everybody! “Your Kennection” Ken Hill here, back at long last after quite the hiatus (Finding work, hosting an award-winning show and DVT will take up an awful lot of your time), but I am happy to be here, happy to be alive, and happy to be raising some ‘Hill’ on 411Mania once more. Mind you, this is my first article on here in some time, so try to keep the burns to a second-degree minimum, kay?

Jumping right into things, the Jeri-KO partnership has been one of my favorite oddball wrestling duos in quite some time. When I say oddball duos, I don’t mean the usual tag team fare like Enzo & Cass, Golden Truth or “The Fashion Police/Chips Extras/Ice Cream Men” Breezango, but more along the lines of Heath Slater & Rhyno, Rico & Charlie Haas, “Bookdust, and, of course, The Rock & Sock Connection. The latter duos were individuals from completely different walks and talks of life, but somehow found amazing comedic and in-ring chemistry together that not only resonated well with their audience, but would lead them to bigger and better things, like tag team titles…

Team Chris & Kevin/Kevin & Chris, however? They looked beyond the tag titles, although they did occasionally try to play spoiler to the New Day’s eventual record-breaking reign, and saw ruling over RAW as dominant individuals as their endgame…as a tandem. When KO was the longest-reigning Universal Champion, Jericho was the longest-reigning Universal Champion; if Jericho was US Champion, then Owens was US Champion. What was Owens’ was Jericho’s and vice versa, both never stopping to help the other, whatever the cost, which would be considered almost touching if they weren’t so smarmy and smug and tootling on and on about their friendship being greater than any force in the WWE…and yet we loved them for it. ‘The List”, the constant belittling of nameless announcers, providing better, more coherent commentary on an episode of RAW than Cole and Saxton could in a lifetime, all hilarious and memorable.

So why do I mention in the title that it was doomed from the start? Owens himself wouldn’t give an answer during his blistering opening promo this past Monday, or perhaps he said all he needed to say when telling Goldberg “superheroes don’t exist.”

No superheroes, eh Owens?

So who was it that gave Owens a helping pair of brass knuckles at the 2017 Royal Rumble? Who was it that snuck in under the guise of Sin Cara (or a very fine-crafted Jericho-mask wearing Sin Cara) and saved Owens’ title from the nefarious Seth Rollins? Who broke into the nearly impenetrable *eyeroll* Hell in A Cell to help his best friend, even at risk to himself? Who was almost always on hand to take the proverbial “bullet” (Spear, Pedigree, Helluva Kick, etc.) so Owens could live to fight another day? His “hero”, his best friend, Chris Jericho.

You could tell Owens loved it at first; he reviled in having Jericho to help keep a grip on “their” Universal Title, but as the months grew on, Owens began to seethe. His enemies began to take him less seriously than before; before, he’d at the very least had been a constant solo thorn in the sides of main eventers such as Reigns and Ambrose and being the big fish in the midcard pond. Now, he had guys like Reigns making cracks about how he couldn’t go into a title match without Y2J holding his hand. Jericho wouldn’t even refute it, stating what was Owens’ was his, and anyone who got in the way of that would end up on “The List” and getting…


IT.

Jericho was so deluded with grandeur, so invested in the notion that with him around, Owens could do no wrong, that he did what everyone, especially Owens, considered unthinkable…actually ACCEPTING a match on Owens’ behalf, against Goldberg (Brock Lesnar’s “bitch-maker”, mind you) at Fastlane for the Universal Title, without hesitation. Whereas Owens was rightfully unhinged and panicking at the mere idea of facing Goldberg, Jericho was confident, so much so that rather than plan for possibly the biggest match of Owens’ career, he offered an olive branch to Owens in the form of a “Festival of Friendship”…

Seeing Owens’ reactions following Jericho’s hilariously overdone out-pour of friendship, particularly after Jericho proclaimed that his greatest gift would be having Owens’ back and making sure he left Fastlane as the Universal Champion, once again “saving the day”, I believe it finally clicked into place, in Owens’ mind, as to what Triple H most likely told him during that silent convo in the back: As long as Jericho’s around, it’ll always be Jericho helping his best buddy Owens, Jericho the conquering hero coming to the rescue of a distressed Owens in danger, Jericho taking up chunks of the limelight all meant for KO and his reign as Universal Champion with “IT” and his “List/Gift/Mask/Hug of Jericho.” No one would ever…EVERRR take Owens seriously again, and that Goldberg would run through Owens without a thought and move on to Lesnar at WrestleMania 33.

So what could Owens do? How could he prove himself ready for a self-proclaimed “superhero” in Bill Goldberg? By reminding everyone what a villain Owens could be…

He gave his “heroic” friend the “Gift of KO”…and the walls of Jeri-KO broke down, maaaaaaan.

Be sure to check out the official website for my award-winning show The Wrestling Kennection, in its fourth season, as well as its YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and TV Tropes pages! Get Kennected, maaaaaan! #KennectFour