Kevin Owens and former WWE Champion left 41-year-old with a bleeding tongue
Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho had a great time together during their run as best friends from late 2016 to early 2017. They made everybody laugh backstage and tried to get people to crack on live television, including Mike Rome, who suffered a bleeding tongue at one point.
Owens and Jericho struck a friendship that led to the famous "List of Jericho." It also happened during the time when KO was the Universal Champion. Jericho even won the United States Championship during that time.
In an appearance on the Out Of Character podcast, Mike Rome discussed what it was like working with Owens and Jericho and why they're two of his favorites. The current SmackDown ring announcer revealed that it was hard to stay in character when both WWE Superstars were doing stuff during their backstage segments.
"I've bitten holes in my tongue because doing backstages with them," Rome said. "It's so hard not to laugh because you don't know what they are going to say. You have no idea what's coming out, these guys are two of the best and I walked out of there with a bleeding tongue that day." (h/t Fightful)
The pairing of Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho ended at the Festival of Friendship when the then-Universal Champion attacked Jericho. It led to Jericho returning at Backlash 2017 to cost Owens the Universal Championship against Goldberg.
They faced off at WrestleMania 33 for the United States Championship, with Owens winning against his former best friend.
Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho for Universal Championship would have main-evented WrestleMania 33
The story between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho was so good that it had the potential to be a main event match at WrestleMania 33. Jericho revealed on an episode of Talk is Jericho back in July 2022 that Vince McMahon told them they were main-eventing before changing his mind the next week.
"We get to the Festival of Friendship, and we do the big breakup," Jericho said. "And it was around that time, probably a couple of weeks after that, Vince said, 'The main event of WrestleMania this year is going to be Jericho vs. Kevin Owens for the WWE title.'" (h/t Wrestling Inc.)
Vince McMahon ultimately bumped KO vs. Jericho to second on the WrestleMania 33 card. The main event ended up being Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker.
Do you think WWE could have done a better ending to Owens vs. Jericho back in 2017? Share your answers in the comments section below.