10 WWE WrestleMania Matches That Failed To Live Up To The Hype

9. Kevin Owens Vs. Chris Jericho - WrestleMania 33

Owens Jericho
WWE.com

It is difficult to lay too much blame at the feet of Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens here. What should have been a world championship feud was downgraded to one over a secondary title, relegated to second on the card on the biggest show of the year, an unenviable position to say the least. Owens vs. Jericho was the feud that carried RAW from the end of 2016 through the beginning of 2017, but the return of Goldberg threw a spanner, a jackhammer into those plans.

Despite the disappointment, Owens vs. Jericho should have been a home-run. One of the greatest of all time going up against a protege of sorts, someone with clear Jericho influence but packaged up in a unique frame. The Canadians were two of the best wrestlers on the planet at the time, but what should have been an iconic grudge match ended up being a slightly disjointed and frustrating 16-minute slog. Three stars, sure, but capable of so much more.

Vince McMahon was reportedly angry at how this match didn’t live up to the hype, although it is difficult to put too much stock in the rambled opinions of an insane billionaire. Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho failed to live up to the hype of the Festival of Friendship and all that came before it, and it will remain a blot on the copybook of both men.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.