Kevin Owens Should Retire Chris Jericho at WWE WrestleMania 33

Chris Jericho has performed at an all-time high during his year-plus run in WWE, but with the way this storyline has been going, Kevin Owens should end his career.

Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho had teased tension for months, which finally came to a culmination on Monday’s episode of WWE Raw, This saw Owens place Jericho on a new list and brutally attack him during their Festival of Friendship.

This segment set up the inevitable Owens vs. Jericho matchup at WrestleMania 33, which is only seven weeks away. With the longevity and build-up this alignment has had — similar to Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton — there’s enough to place this bout on the Grandest Stage of Them All. It may just be your standard singles match, but what if this is the end of Y2J? What if Owens retires him on April 2?

January 2016 to February 2017 may be the greatest stretch of Jericho’s WWE career. His in-ring work is not only crisp, but his character work has been top notch. This includes the heel turn on AJ Styles in February 2016, the creation of the List of Jericho, and the work he’s done to make Owens, Styles, and Dean Ambrose look like a million bucks.

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Then you have the masterful work done in the Festival of Friendship segment, which saw Jericho go to another level. He started out with his usual heel promo, but quickly flipped the script to babyface and had the crowd eating Booty-O’s cereal off his list. This culminated with the Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla making the magician the latest member of the clipboard.

All of this work from Jericho has been phenomenal, but at age 46, could the case be made that he should leave while at the top of his game? It would be on a much higher note than when he departed in the fall of 2014 or after losing to Fandango at WrestleMania 29. Both times (especially the second run), his babyface shtick became overplayed and stale. This time, he’s only going to have seven weeks of doing this before likely going away to be back with Fozzy.

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The storyline is in place for Jericho’s end here too. He had a six-month build with Owens before reaching Monday’s breaking point. They worked together, had nearly every segment of theirs with one at the other’s side, and assisted in their own title wins. There was tension along the way, though, which built up to a crescendo over this timespan.

By the time WrestleMania 33 approaches, it would have been about eight months to get to their match. With so much put into it, a proper ending is needed and not just Owens pinning Jericho in the center of the ring. A retirement match angle would give this match suspense, as fans stay on the edge of their seats to see if Jericho can keep his career alive against his best friend. It also takes away some of the predictability behind a plain win for the Universal Champion away, and lets him cement his legacy as the one who retired one of WWE’s most popular Superstars from the past 20 years.

More than likely, the work that Chris Jericho did during this stint with WWE will end up giving him another run at a later date. However, if his career is going to come to a satisfying conclusion, then going out on top to Kevin Owens, the man he’s worked with in the longest-running storyline in WWE, would be fitting. WrestleMania 33 as the location for this match works just fine for this too.