Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho Will Shine at WrestleMania Without Universal Title

Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho is finally official.

April 2 is the date, and WrestleMania 33 is the event. The much-anticipated bout is indeed going to happen, as the two former best friends will go to war on The Grandest Stage of Them All. The showdown between KO and Y2J will not be for the WWE Universal Championship, but that's OK.

Owens and Jericho will shine just fine without it.

The moment that Owens lost the Universal title to Goldberg at Fastlane was the moment that many WWE fans lost their minds. How could the company take the belt off Owens? KO is not a part-time Superstar. He's also not at the end of his career.

Owens is one of the WWE's top guys, and he was the top titleholder on Monday Night Raw for six months. WWE has invested in Owens as part of its future, and there was no reason to job him out to Goldberg.

But many of the WWE faithful may have missed the point.

Fastlane was about getting Owens back to Jericho. Y2J brought the distraction at Fastlane and caused KO to lose the strap. When that happened, Jericho got a measure of revenge against the man who attacked him and left him for dead on Raw.

At that moment, the Universal Championship took a backseat.

"

Just finished a signing. A fan told me I had a great entrance last night. I agree. Highlight of the match, in fact!

— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) March 6, 2017"

Owens may have lost the belt, but he has not lost momentum. He still has his edge, he's still hot, and fans still want to see him. More importantly, they want to see Jericho pummel Owens into submission. That's what Fastlane was about, and nothing more.

Jericho wanted to take everything from Owens, and that's what he did.

Allowing KO to escape with the Universal title would not have worked. Jericho has been on top for the bulk of his WWE career, so he's already experienced the life of a world champion. He's a future Hall of Famer, and he's got nothing left to prove.

Causing Owens' loss to Goldberg meant more because KO was convinced he was going to win without Jericho. Owens not only lost his belt, he was also embarrassed in the process.

Jericho wasn't concerned with winning the Universal title, because his problems with Owens go far beyond material things. Y2J wanted to dissect Owens and take the most important element from his professional life.

Now the Universal Championship will be up for grabs between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania.

That match is the one that needed a title, and it needed the most important title on Raw. Fans needed a reason to care about Goldberg vs. Lesnar III, and now there is one. The feud between those two men may be hard-hitting, and it may be intense, but it's not personal yet.

Fans needed a reason to invest in it, and the Universal Championship is it.

Jericho vs. Owens is already right where it should be. There's enough emotion involved to get them to WrestleMania, and beyond. Owens and Jericho have always worked extremely well together, and the same will be true when they face off on April 2.

They may even steal the show.

WrestleMania is the night when the WWE's best come out to shine, and that is definitely true of Jericho and Owens. They're true pros in every sense of the word, and when they step through the ropes on April 2, they will make magic in the ring.

No one is more comfortable in his role than Owens, and no one is more comfortable in the Mania spotlight than Jericho. When they meet on April 2, they will bring the house down, because that's what they do best.

The Universal championship can come later. But first, the war will happen, and that war could become the match of the year.

Tom Clark can regularly be seen on Bleacher Report. His podcast, Tom Clark's Main Event, is available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Android, Windows Phone and online here