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Who Will Be Chris Jericho’s Opponent At ‘WrestleMania 33’?

By Aaron Sass
Published on: 19:22 PST, Nov 16, 2016

Chris Jericho’s 2016 run in WWE is arguably the best run of his entire career, and it’s a run that he feels solidified him as a true top guy in professional wrestling.

As of this writing, it seems that Jericho is on a collision course with his tag team partner, and best friend, Kevin Owens, but it’s unclear exactly when WWE is planning to split up the popular duo. In a recent interview on the Live Audio Wrestling Podcast, Jericho said that the “best friends” storyline has a ton of legs and that we’ve only seen the beginning of what he thinks will be a lengthy angle.

While WWE is already planting the seeds for a Kevin Owens/Chris Jericho split, it doesn’t seem like the breakup will happen for quite a while, as both men are booked to face their two biggest rivals — Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns — at next month’s Roadblock show. Will the split happen after that? We’ll see. WWE could draw this thing out for quite a while, and it may culminate in a match between the two at WrestleMania 33.

Right now, it does look like Jericho and Owens will face off at some point after the Roadblock show, and, who knows? Maybe Jericho will beat him for the Universal Championship next year in Orlando. But, while Owens is the most obvious opponent for “Y2J,” there are a few other big names that could receive the “gift of Jericho” on April 2 of next year.

  • Brock Lesnar

The biggest story coming out of this past August’s SummerSlam— aside from the finish of the show’s main event — was the backstage altercation between Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar. Since then, WWE hasn’t turned it into a storyline, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t at some point.

It’s probably pretty safe to assume that Lesnar is going to wrestle Shane McMahon in Orlando next spring. But, if Vince McMahon changes his mind, which he’s known to do, then Chris Jericho would be a great opponent for Lesnar.

A Brock Lesnar vs. Chris Jericho match has never happened, despite the fact that they were both on the roster, and in main events regularly during “The Beast’s” first run in WWE from 2002 to 2004. So, it’s a bit of a dream match, and WrestleMania is all about making dream matches happen whenever they can be made.

Will we see Lesnar vs. Jericho in Orlando next spring? It’s doubtful, but you can’t rule it out.

  • Shinsuke Nakamura

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMcWV8zLgsM

As you can see in the video above, Chris Jericho vs. Shinsuke Nakamura did happen over the summer, but it happened at a WWE live event in Japan, which wasn’t shown on the WWE Network.

Shortly after Nakamura arrived in WWE earlier this year, Jericho started taking shots at him on Twitter, where he was obviously building hype for their match at Sumo Hall. As most people expected, the match turned out to be pretty good. But, it could be even better on a big stage like WrestleMania.

Unfortunately, though, the plan, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, is to keep Nakamura down in NXT for several more months, even though he’s clearly ready to be a major part of the main roster. But, if he comes up to the main roster before WrestleMania 33, Chris Jericho would be the perfect opponent for him.

  • Finn Balor

Chris Jericho revealed on his podcast — Talk is Jericho — that he was originally supposed to be Finn Balor’s first big opponent when he was called up to the main roster over the summer. But, plans changed, and Balor was inserted into the WWE Universal Championship picture.

Following Balor’s Universal Championship win, the plan was for him to work with both Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens, but the idea had to be scrapped due to “The Demon King’s” shoulder injury.

The original prognosis for Balor’s in-ring return was six months, which means that he’ll be cleared to return shortly before WrestleMania 33, and it’s possible that, if Chris Jericho is still a heel at that point, WWE will book “Y2J” vs. “The Demon King” for their biggest show of the year.

  • Kevin Owens

As previously mentioned, Kevin Owens will probably receive the “gift of Jericho” at WrestleMania 33. The only question is, will it be for the WWE Universal Championship? As of right now, it doesn’t look like Owens will be dropping the title anytime soon, so “KO” vs. “Y2J” could very well be a title match.

The one thing Chris Jericho hasn’t done in his illustrious and Hall of Fame worthy WWE career is win the world title as a babyface. Will he do it at WrestleMania 33? It would make sense, simply because he’s probably the most over guy on the roster at the moment, and it’s pretty safe to assume that he’ll be able to carry that momentum all the way through WWE’s biggest show of the year.

Whether Jericho wins the title or not probably depends on how long he’s going to stick around after WrestleMania 33. It doesn’t look like he’s going to be leaving anytime soon, and if he’s still having as much fun as he’s having now come April, he’ll probably end up sticking around for quite a while, especially if WWE wants to put the Universal Championship on him.

[Featured Image by WWE]

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