Chris Jericho Taunts Kevin Owens; Vince McMahon Rumors; Lita Talks Becky Lynch Angle

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and AEW.

       

Jericho, Owens Go Back and Forth on Social Media

Sunday marked the five-year anniversary of the "Festival of Friendship," the instant-classic segment that saw Kevin Owens turn on Chris Jericho to build their WrestleMania 33 feud. 

Owens commemorated the anniversary by changing his Twitter profile picture to the moment Jericho realized his name was on The List, with Jericho responding with an ominous threat:

Out of all the talent that left WWE for AEW, Jericho seems the most likely to eventually find his way back in WWE. The future Hall of Famer has kept a strong relationship with most people in the company, most notably Vince McMahon.

Jericho seems more than happy where he's at with AEW at the moment, but it would be a surprise if he didn't wind up doing one last retirement run in WWE when his name gets called for a Hall induction.

It's worth noting that Jericho's contract with AEW was set to expire in January, but the company had a one-year option to keep him until 2023. There has been no announcement of Jericho signing an extension, so the soonest we could see the two in the ring together is a year from now—especially now that Owens is inked to a long-term deal in WWE.

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Vince McMahon Happy With Current Product

Well, that makes one of us.

While the overwhelming majority of fans would say WWE has qualitatively struggled in recent years—especially amid the emergence of AEW—Vince McMahon, the most important internal voice, doesn't seem to agree.

“In his mind, he doesn’t think anything is wrong,” Mike Johnson of PW Insider wrote (via Wrestling Inc). “The company made a billion dollars last year, so there’s a billion reasons for him to shrug off any criticisms. We are told he pushes and presents what he likes and wants and nothing else makes a dent in that vision. That’s why the shows are presented the way they are and that’s why nothing is going to change anytime soon, if ever.”

WWE does, indeed, continue to rake in record revenue—a move that's made it a massive success for Wall Street investors.

Those consuming the product won't assess quality by dollars and cents, but they've continued to watch WWE programming despite growing frustrations. The Royal Rumble live event was one of the lowest-rated in history among fans despite being the most-watched event since WWE moved to Peacock.

There's a disconnect WWE needs to fix.

      

Lita Talks Becky Lynch Match

Lita has not had a proper one-on-one match in WWE since dropping the women's championship to Mickie James at the 2006 Survivor Series pay-per-view. While she's made occasional appearances in a ring since then, her match against Becky Lynch at the upcoming Elimination Chamber match will be the first time she's been responsible for carrying 50 percent of the workload in over 15 years.

Lita recently sat down with Denise Salcedo and spoke about WWE approaching her for an in-ring return. 

“They hit me at a great time, right after the match,” Lita said, per Wrestling Inc. “Literally like, sweaty, like right coming out, ‘what do you think about facing Becky in a couple of weeks?’ And I was like, ‘what? Yes. Oh s--t, did I say yes?’ I didn’t have a chance to doubt or think about all the reasons I shouldn’t face Becky, or all of the reasons I wouldn’t be ready or what could possibly go wrong. All I thought of is what could possibly go right, committed to that and haven’t looked back. Like, ever since, 'yes,' I wasn’t like, ‘oh wait, what am I doing?’ No, I’m just like, ‘no, no, no. That time has passed. The time now is to think about how it’s going to go good.'”

It's likely that Lita will be one-and-done against Lynch, especially given her appearance is mainly because she's a relic of the Attitude Era and Saudi officials have long pushed WWE to bring back legends for their events in the country. 

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