10 WWE Tag Teams That Broke Up At The Best Time
2. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho
A break-up so immaculately timed and performed that it deserved a WrestleMania main event as a payoff, the collapse in relations between Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens was a gloriously devastating flashpoint in a long-term storyline in an era where such things happened less and less.
The friendship was as earned as the betrayal. As self-serving sh*thouses, the pair had teamed since the prior summer, but the dynamic was transformed by Owens' Universal Championship victory and subsequent reign. The experienced Jericho cleverly shrunk into a role as his interference runner and comedic foil.
Getting over about 50 different new catchphrases in what easily became one of the best spells of his entire career, Jericho attacked the role with such gusto that it was hard not to root for him - or the survival of their union at the very least. Owens' violent turn in the Festival Of Friendship (itself an homage to Jericho's on Shawn Michaels, which was an homage to Michaels' on Marty Jannetty) played on his darkest impulses to exploit the very best of the love the audience had built up for the pair of them.
Goldberg taking 'KO's Universal Title relegated the whole thing, but we weren't to know when 'Y2J's head was getting smashed into a flatscreen.