Why AEW Has Just Helped Triple H In A Big Way

Consider what made the Festival Of Friendship so potent, why it worked so well, and how effectively the bones of it helped sculpt SmackDown's magnificent scene.

In 2017, Chris Jericho was acutely aware of how audacious the whole event had to be to make it all the crueler when Kevin Owens finally snapped. They'd already called it a "Festival", so party hats, go-go dancers and 'Creation Of Kevin' framed oil painting were necessities rather than frivolities. The stupid had to come before the serious; the contrast between the two being key to its heft.

The world saw the "List Of KO" on the back of a silver clipboard before Jericho did, giving us all a split second longer than 'Y2J' himself to consider the brutal beatdown that was about to occur. On SmackDown, Sami Zayn flipped this with same literal lightness of touch he used on the shirt.

Roman Reigns' faint praise gesture as he tossed the t-shirt was a gaslight in the dark, but one so effective that it worked on everybody in attendance too. Handing Zayn the gear seconds after teasing that he was going to destroy him was inch-perfect conduction of a crowd enthralled by every last little facial expression.

The details were immaculate, and the scene was enhanced both by everything that came before it and the potential of what remains.

For much of the company's three year existence, this has been the modus operandi of every AEW segment.

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