I just realized; what if it was always an act on Kevin’s part? What if he manipulated Jericho, put up an air of harmlessness, pretended to be is friend… just for the satisfaction of the betrayal at the greatest moment? Lord, Kevin is evil. And can we consider this a face turn for Jericho?
The fascinating thing about wrestling is that everything is subject to retcon! So yeah, Kevin could totally come out next week and say that it was his plan all along–and I think you can certainly headcanon that no matter what, depending on how you like to imagine Kevin’s personality.
I don’t tend to see him as that much of a schemer, myself. Most of his big betrayals are very spur-of-the moment: with Generico, for example, he literally says that he didn’t realize until in the middle of hugging him that he had to turn on him. And Sami’s said on more that one occasion that he believes strongly that everything that happened between him and Kevin in the ring after Sami won the title was “100% real”–obviously a nod to the fact that the celebration was very legit between the two actors, but also I think a belief that Kevin meant all of that in that moment. It’s, I think, a kind of unusual headcanon on that turn, but I tend to believe that Kevin knew intellectually they’d have to fight each other soon, but kept telling himself they could keep it professional and clean–until that moment on the ramp where he suddenly realized that nope, it’s going to hurt me too much to fight him if I care for him, so I’m gonna wipe him out here and now and come up with some reasons for it later. Kevin strikes me as very much the kind of character who does things first and then talks himself into why he did it later, and spends a lot of time and energy and bluster on digging himself in deeper and deeper with those reasons (”Sami was the bad friend! I say this because he had to be because I turned on him, despite the fact that it’s obvious lunacy to assert so!”) I personally believe he was backed into a corner by Hunter for some reason and did what he felt he had to do, but by next week there’s a good chance he’ll be certain it was always his own idea from the beginning.
That’s the fun thing with a character like Kevin, whose entire personality is basically a very complex messed-up web of denial, defensiveness, lies and self-delusion: who knows when he’s lying and when he’s telling the truth? I’m not sure he even knows himself, and that leaves us very free to construct our own versions of how his mind might have been working.
Chris MIGHT be able to manage being a tweener when he comes back, but I have to think the weight is in favor of his being a face! The way he delivered the “Why’s my name on this?” line (and oh man, that beautiful authentic emotion in the shoot sections where he thanks Kevin Steen) really makes it hard not to come out of that segment empathizing with him…
