WWE news: Chris Jericho almost became Universal Champion, Goldberg thwarted plans

WWE superstar Chris Jericho is currently away from the wrestling scene, made even more dramatic with the vicious attack of former best friend Kevin Owens. He, however, shared an interesting bit, revealing that he would have won the Universal title had Goldberg not been inserted into the fray.

Speaking to Busted Open, Jericho shared how things should have been. He revealed a discussion with WWE CEO Vince McMahon about a scenario where he and Kevin Owens end up facing each other at Wrestlemania for the Universal title. He claims he was scripted to win the title then eventually lose it at the next pay-per-view (likely referring to WWE Payback) to current champion Brock Lesnar.

However, all these were before Goldberg entered the picture. Likely seeing the rise in ratings, McMahon opted to move in a different direction, and such resulted to Goldberg winning the Universal title at WWE Fastlane back in March.

With the Universal title out of the picture, the attention shifted to the United States title. Jericho was the champion at the time but lost to Kevin Owens at Wrestlemania 33. He would get a rematch at WWE Payback and reclaim the title before losing it again on WWE SmackDown. At this point, most were already aware that Y2J was set to take a break from the WWE scene to go on tour with his band Fozzy.

According to the Sun, Chris Jericho will return when the WWE tours Japan on June 30 and July 1. From there, he should re-emerge on SmackDown, where he is expected to go after Owens and seek payback for the vicious assault before departing the WWE scene.

In the meantime, Owens has to deal with business at hand. He is set to face AJ Styles, with the US title on the line this Sunday at WWE Backlash PPV set to go down at the Allstate Arena in Chicago. It will be the first time the two collide since May 2016.

Formidable as Styles may be, early predictions see the “Prizefighter” coming out on top using his familiar dirty tactics. There could be some outside interference happening as well, based on past shows.

Either way, it looks like Owens and Styles will be working together for quite some time – probably until the end of June. The title could stay with Owens for the duration, or perhaps a flipping of champions similar to the case of Owens and Jericho a few weeks ago.