Chris Jericho Recalls Vince McMahon Calling A Match “The Worst In WrestleMania History”

Chris Jericho has revealed that Vince McMahon called one of his WrestleMania matches the “worst” in the history of the ‘Granddaddy Of Them All’.

Jericho has competed at 13 WrestleMania matches, making him a veteran of the ‘Grandest Stage of Them All.’ His first was WrestleMania 16 in 2000 when he faced Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit in a 2 Out Of 3 Falls Triple Threat match for the WWE European and Intercontinental Championships. He won one of the falls to capture the European gold.

From Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and CM Punk to Edge and AJ Styles, he faced a who’s who of WWE Superstars at the ‘Showcase Of The Immortals’ in the years that followed. In his final WrestleMania match, he faced Kevin Owens with his United States Championship on the line at the 33rd edition of the show.

The match happened following Owens’ betrayal of Jericho at the ‘Festival of Friendship’ which Y2J had intended to be a celebration of his growing friendship with Owens. Unfortunately for Jericho, Owens had other ideas, viciously assaulting the future AEW World Champion instead, forcing him off WWE TV for several weeks.

Jericho made his return at the Fastlane event and cost Owens his Universal Championship by distracting him while he was defending it agfainst defence against Goldberg. This led to the pair having their match at WrestleMania, which Owens won by powerbombing Jericho on the ring apron and pinning him to capture the US Championship.

In an interview with Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT, Jericho said that when he went backstage after the bout, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon gave him a thumbs up. However, Kevin Owens didn’t receive the same treatment.

“He told Kevin it was the ‘worst match in WrestleMania history’ [laughs]. I never heard anything about that. When I came through, Vince went [thumbs up], so I think he was on Kevin’s case at the time.”

He went on to say he thought that McMahon might believe Owens was maybe “carrying extra weight” or wasn’t pleased with his work.

“I think he was going through a phase where he thought maybe Kevin had some extra weight that he wanted him to lose or wasn’t happy with his work as a heel.”

Following WrestleMania 33, Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens continued to feud for several weeks until Owens ended things by assaulting the multi-time WWE Champion after another bout on the May 2nd, 2017 episode of SmackDown. The attack left Jericho being carried out on a stretcher and written off WWE TV for some time.

H/T to talkSPORT for the above transcription.