AEW: 3 reasons why Chris Jericho should be the first World Champion
By Chris Schad
Denying Adam “Hangman” Page will get the fans behind him
One of the things AEW needs to do in order to be a successful promotion is learn from the mistakes that their main competition has made above them. While it would be a progressive move to put their main championship on an up and coming superstar such as Page, it could backfire as pushing a rising act way too soon.
An example of this was how WWE handled Roman Reigns at the beginning of his career. Whether you love or hate Reigns, he can put on an entertaining match in the ring and belongs at the top of the card. The only issue is how he’s been booked on his way to his championship opportunites, running through every opponent imaginable with little resistance.
By giving Page the belt too soon, AEW could be creating a duplicate version of Reigns or even peak John Cena, which for a company that describes some potential decisions as “a WWE move,” would be contradictory from what they are trying to establish.
Perhaps All Out will be the big performance that Page needs to push into that mainstream tier that Jericho currently resides in. But by denying him, it gives fans to get behind their rising star before he reaches the ultimate payoff of capturing the AEW Title.
Putting the belt on Jericho gives AEW plenty of options
As we mentioned earlier, putting the title on Jericho would give AEW some name recognition as they move into a prime time television slot. While Jericho would draw people in, it would give AEW a chance to build even more stars against a legitimate champion right off the bat.
By having Jericho as champion, there are several matchups that could be key draws down the road. We already can feel there being an Omega/Jericho III match coming in the future, but what about Jericho vs. Jon Moxley or a Jericho vs. Cody title fight to try to get the on the fence crowd to turn in on Wednesday nights.
Next. Cesaro should move to NXT UK full time. dark
Of course, this could all be part of the buildup while Page works his way up the ladder and ultimately gets the rematch he would crave against Jericho for the title down the road. Such should be the goal as AEW attempts to create major title storylines as they continue to push into the mainstream audience they want to target.