Why AEW Has Just Helped Triple H In A Big Way

The heartbreaking reality of 2017's instantly iconic Festival Of Friendship segment between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho was that it was destined to not set up a major title match.

Then-Champion Owens had a date with Bill Goldberg at March's Fastlane that had made the chances of him heading to WrestleMania as champion completely untenable. The sardonic and violent conclusion of his months-long friendship with Jericho was to result in a relatively meaningless midcard match for an even more meaningless midcard title.

It was the contest that resulted in the infamous shot of Owens being curtly pied off by McMahon backstage afterwards, all under the watchful of WWE cameras shooting a Network special that ended up playing more as a video diary of an abusive relationship than a year-in-the-life fluff piece.

The type of own goal the company used to score with wilful ignorance, and yet even then, carefully curated beloved NXT father figure Hunter was playing the game. Because what didn't feature on the Owens special was any footage explaining how the seminal segment splitting the pair up almost never even went ahead as planned.

Chris Jericho himself later revealed that Triple H had been manning Raw the night Owens destroyed him, and that 'The Game' wanted much much less of the ballyhoo and b*llocks that dressed the set before Owens used it as a stomping ground. It took a call to McMahon himself to overrule Hunter's instincts, which was the sort of bold choice only a veteran of 'Y2J's standing could realistically make.

Five years later, and that same Triple H can take partial credit for a glorious spiritual sequel.

Has he, as a booker again, learned a valuable lesson from the man he once branded an B+ Player and the man who was the 'Demo God' at the front of a brand destroying his pet project in a television ratings war? The Bloodline t-shirt segment suggest so.

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