15 Greatest Angles In Modern Wrestling History
4. The Festival Of Friendship
As good as if not better than any angle shot in the heyday of WWE Raw, the Festival of Friendship was a masterpiece.
The non-fan finds pro wrestling not merely "fake" or silly, but utterly inexplicable. They can't fathom that you like it. Show them this segment, and they might begin to understand. The tone was set with Chris Jericho announcing the festivities with the biggest, beaming smile on his face. He wore it to put over the contrast of the moment his heart would be ripped in two. Jericho also wore the expression in order to slowly, torturously, ramp up the gut-punching suspense. How could Owens do what he did to Jericho?
The Festival goes wrong, hilariously so, throughout. It was bad enough, for Owens, that his clown mate was screwing around too much and ruining his aura. Now, Owens was becoming a laughing stock. The genius of the Festival of Friendship is that Jericho was annihilated when this five-star winner of an act was at its most entertaining.
In an ingenious twist, Jericho shattered the facade near the climax and used his real-life feelings about what was a rejuvenating period in his career to tell Owens how much he appreciated him. It felt like (and probably was) a shoot. Then, when Owens was done with Jericho's b*llocks, he gave him a new list.
"How come my name's on this?" Jericho said.
Wrestling is at its very best when it conveys an emotion the audience has felt. The rejection here was soul-destroying.