10 Most Shocking Wrestling Betrayals
Broken glass, broken hearts.
On this week's episode of WWE RAW, months of simmering tension boiled over into one of the best segments WWE has produced in aeons.
It's too soon to state "ever" - but the Jeri-KO break up really did have everything. Chris Jericho was at his hammy, catchphrase-generating best as he presented Kevin Owens with an array of very funny and intimate gifts. The segment even found time to incorporate the return of Gillberg and a particularly hilarious addition to 'The List' - but even more so than the content, the tone was perfectly pitched.
Proceedings were breezy at first, but it soon became clear that a guilty Jericho was over-compensating - something which became heartbreakingly clear as he very plaintively conveyed to Owens that this run has been the most cherished of his career. When Owens revealed that he had added Jericho's name to The List Of KO he, in expert callbacks to betrayals carried out by Shawn Michaels and Jericho himself, smashed his head through the glass screen of a TV monitor. It was like the AJPW King's Road of sports entertainment.
Jericho's acting was unbearably sad, but he did not carry the segment entirely by himself. Owens' own use of body language was equally impeccable. When he looked up to the heavens after dropping Jericho with an apron powerbomb, exhaling, you could almost see months' worth of tension oozing out of him.
Time will tell if it will live as long in the memory as its spiritual predecessors...
10. The Mega Powers Explode
The partnership between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage was, in retrospect, obviously forged to promote an eventual match. That's what the vast majority of alliances are designed to do. Wrestling is all about the payoff.
But for many children drawn to the DayGlo WWF product of the golden era, Savage's heel turn, years in the making, was heartbreaking. Wrestling wasn't about the payoff - it was about the here and now. Everything was so thrilling and new that the journey itself was the destination. These two men, for many fans, were the very first best friends. When Savage destroyed that friendship, it is no exaggeration to state that he destroyed the innocence of a demographic.
Savage, suspiciously very believable wearing the tinfoil hat (without getting too libellous, it was the 1980s) had been looking cross-eyed at Hogan for a while. He suspected that Hogan had "jealous eyes"; one was looking at Savage's gold, the other in the direction of his woman.
After a series of misunderstandings during a match opposite The Twin Towers at The Main Event resulted in an injury to Miss Elizabeth, the Mega Powers exploded when Savage brained Hogan with his WWF Heavyweight Title. He then threw Elizabeth ten feet across the room and kicked the hilariously ineffective Brutus Beefcake square in the nuts.
It's funny now - but it certainly wasn't then.