Chris Jericho says WWE tried to "change everything" in the Festival of Friendship
Chris Jericho has revealed WWE attempted to make changes to the Festival of Friendship segment on RAW on the day of the show.
In a recent interview with Digital Spy, the former WWE Champion opened up on the 2017 segment and said he received approval to go ahead with it "months earlier." Despite this, WWE still apparently wanted to alter what has since become one of the most popular and iconic moments in the history of Monday Night RAW.
Here's what Chris Jericho had to say about WWE's attempted involvement in the Festival of Friendship:
"The Festival of Friendship, something that I had planned out and basically pitched and got approved months earlier, the night of the show they wanted to change everything. That was one of the times when I was like, 'Absolutely not, we built to this, this is what's going to work. You have to trust my vision at some point after being here for almost 20 years. You have to let the professionals be professionals.'" - Digital Spy
Jericho would go on to say that this kind of creative freedom is one of the reasons he enjoys working for All Elite Wrestling:
"That's one thing I love about AEW, we do exactly that."
The Festival of Friendship would turn out to be a huge success and would mark the end of Chris Jericho's relationship with Universal Champion Kevin Owens. The segment currently has over four million views on WWE's official YouTube channel.
Chris Jericho would go on to face Kevin Owens at WrestleMania
Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens' relationship had been one of the main talking points of WWE for months, leading up to its eventual implosion at the Festival of Friendship.
Many believed the pair would end up facing off for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania, but this would not happen due to Owens dropping the title to Goldberg.
Instead, they would clash for Jericho's United States Championship, with Owens picking up the victory. Jericho would leave WWE later that year to pursue rivalries in New Japan Pro Wrestling, eventually signing with AEW.