Why Jeri-KO Was Bad For Business

I will begin this piece by saying Jeri-KO was amazing. Owens having Jericho to bounce off of in his promos only amplified his brilliant trash talking, and it allowed Jericho to perform some of his best character work, which given his storied career is a true feat. All that being said, it has damaged a key aspect of Raw which if continued will leaving a lasting impression on the brand itself: the Universal Championship.

Imagine three years ago you told someone Seth Rollins was facing Finn Balor for a belt “bigger” than the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of SummerSlam, in the wake of a new brand split? There would be nothing that could ruin that, unless it was a red belt. Don’t get me wrong, I do not like the belt, and considering the recently unveiled UK Championship belt, which is gorgeous, it just seems like laziness on the part of WWE. At the end of the day, however, it is just a prop and it shouldn’t have ruined what was an amazing match.

Cut forward a few months and after a swerve we all saw coming where Triple H betrayed Rollins, Owens was champion and I for one was really excited. We had a heel champion who could have a good match with anyone , could talk and would try to keep the belt no matter what. It seemed like the perfect chance to finally give the belt a little bit of prestige and improve its image in the eyes of the smarky fans. A few months earlier, Jericho and Owens had formed a bond, and to begin with this did nothing but help, having the greatest of all time be friends with the Universal Champion. More prestige for the belt, surely?

As the weeks dragged on, I noticed the belt was getting less and less important in promos. Where it used to be a case of “someone comes out, challenges for the belt, fights over the belt”, it was slowly becoming “someone comes out, challenges for the belt, gets put on the list, fights about being put on the list”. While this wasn’t bad, it has hindered the growth of the Universal Championship, when it needed it the most. You can’t deny that if Kevin Owens was more focused on the Universal Championship rather than the friendship with Jericho the belt would not have sunk to below a list. Now the biggest issue is that due to the booking the only other people who could have possibly taken the title from Owens were Roman, Strowman and now Goldberg, all of whom won’t help the belt at all.  All of this is why Jeri-KO has been bad for business…so far.

But what if by some miracle Vince sees sense and lets the Chubby yet insanely talented guy who goes off script keep the belt against the huge, muscle bound part-timer (who isn’t awful in the ring but has a few years of ring rust at best) leading into a Universal Championship match at Wrestlemania with Jericho? I would happily eat all of my words. The two work really well together, and if this was one of the main events, in which Owens retained, it would cement him as an amazing heel and champion. You’ve increased the stock of both the Universal Championship and Kevin Owens. A feat which they both really need right now, but one that WWE seldom achieves.

With the odds heavily stacked against Owens for Fastlane now he has lost the support of Jericho, who will likely cost him the match,  I’m deeming Jeri-KO as having been bad for business.