WWE News: Chris Jericho Violates WWE Rule — Is ‘WrestleMania’ Match In Doubt?

On January 9 of this year, Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens took on Roman Reigns in a two-on-one handicap match that saw Y2J capture the United States Championship. Since then, a lot has happened, and it has led to Jericho defending the U.S. Title against his former best friend at WrestleMania 33, but technically, there could be a problem. Jericho has actually broken a cardinal rule in WWE, and it will be interesting to see if the company even acknowledges it.

Ever since winning the title, Jericho had matches against Sami Zayn for a while, but then, Owens turned on his best friend and that ended that. Back on February 6, though, Jericho actually successfully defended his title against Zayn on Monday Night Raw.

Not bad for the long-time veteran, but that is where the problem comes up, and it has to do with the next time Jericho defended the title. His next defense came in a Triple Threat Match against Zayn and Samoa Joe at a house show event on March 12.

As reported by ComicBook.com, Jericho may have successfully defended his title on those two instances, but he took too long to do it. One of the oldest rules in the WWE book is that a title holder must defend their titles at least one time every 30 days to be seen as a “fighting champion” and not just hold onto it without doing anything.

Jericho obviously broke that rule, but those on Reddit believe the rule is going to be completely and totally ignored “for the sake of storyline.”

For the sake of things, though, Jericho has been able to defend the United States Title and not be in violation of the rule, but he hasn’t been booked in championship matches. He has participated in tag matches and non-title matches but hasn’t actually put the belt on the line.

Pro Fight DB is reporting that Jericho actually defended it at a WWE Live Event on February 11 in a match against Sami Zayn that ended in a count-out loss for the champion. Now, if that is the case, Jericho would have defended it by the rule which would have been 29 days (March 12) due to February having only 28 days.

This is one of those rules that has been strictly enforced by WWE, and there have been top names such as Daniel Bryan, John Cena, and Shawn Michaels who have lost titles because of it. While the numbers may be a little off, Jericho did have his rule violation pointed out to him on Twitter and he acknowledged it.

Keep quiet ya stooge…. https://t.co/u6t68nrWRE

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) March 17, 2017

One thing is certain, and it is that Chris Jericho’s confirmed next United States Title defense will be against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 33. No matter what, that will be within the 30-day rule of his last defense back on March 12.

While the 30-day rule may not be 100 percent written in stone, it is something that WWE has always enforced and made known. In this case, Chris Jericho may or may not have broken the rule, but the company doesn’t appear to be overly concerned with it this time.

WrestleMania 33 is going to be a huge event with all that is planned and all that will end up being added in the coming weeks. Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens for the United States Title should end up being one of the better matches on the card, but will WWE bring attention to the title defense rule violation? If they haven’t by now, they likely won’t at all and will simply follow the storyline to its conclusion.

[Featured Image by WWE]