Chris Jericho has been involved in professional wrestling for close to 30 years. He has done everything in professional wrestling. He is the biggest mainstream name to sign to AEW.
AEW has marketed itself as a new wrestling promotion which can provide competition to WWE. That is something fans have craved since the Monday Night Wars from 1995-2001. Other promotions, such as Impact Wrestling, have attempted to replicate the Monday Night Wars and the attempt went downhill fast.
It can be argued that AEW is the most viable challenger to WWE for viewership in North American pro wrestling in 20 years. AEW has shown itself as the cool and exciting promotion. It pushed itself into relevance thanks to the likes of Cody & Brandi Rhodes, Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley, The Young Bucks, and Hangman Page. AEW capitalized on WWE fans being disenfranchised with the current WWE product. AEW had successfully presented itself as the “hardcore” wrestling fan’s promotion.
Chris Jericho has earned the right to wrestle when he wants to. He has not been tasked with being a full time draw for a wrestling promotion in 7 years. Since he left WWE for good in early 2018, he has had creative opportunities with New Japan Pro Wrestling in matches with Kenny Omega, Tetsuya Naito, and Kazuchika Okada. Jericho helped cement all 3 men by putting on an excellent matches that proved that defeating Chris Jericho means something.
The main event of AEW All Out determined the inaugural AEW Heavyweight Champion. This match was between Adam “Hangman” Page and Chris Jericho. Page won the 21-man Battle Royale at AEW Double of Nothing. Chris Jericho defeated Kenny Omega in the main event of that PPV to determine who Page’s opponent would be. AEW is less than 30 days away from debuting on TNT.
The outcome of this main event would play a pivotal role for AEW. Who would be on the debut episode of AEW TV as the inaugural AEW Heavyweight Champion? The answer, Chris Jericho, as he defeated Page in an exciting match to be crowned AEW Champion.
This was universally applauded by professional wrestling fans and critics alike. It is a move that I believe sends the wrong message.
Chris Jericho is one of the greatest pro wrestlers to ever live. He still cuts an amazing promo. If he is to be used as a vehicle to get other wrestlers over, he can still be incredibly valuable to a promotion. He doesn’t need to be the World Champion in order to have a positive impact for AEW.
Hangman Page should have defeated Chris Jericho for the AEW Championship at All Out.
“Chris Jericho is a household name. He brings AEW mainstream attention!”
There is no denying the first part of that argument. Chris Jericho is a household name. He has played a pivotal role in professional wrestling for the last 20 years. He has been able to consistently reinvent his character.
What does AEW accomplish by having Jericho win the AEW Championship? Fans that are tied to the Chris Jericho character know how great he is. Jericho winning the AEW Championship doesn’t add to his character. You will be hard pressed to find a fan that will tell you “I was not going to watch AEW, but now that Chris Jericho is the champion I will”. Those fans will watch AEW on TNT if Chris Jericho is on the show, not necessarily if he is their champion.
TNT will be being home to AEW should be able to provide more eyes to AEW than Chris Jericho could. TNT is an established network brand. There will be promotional spots for AEW everywhere on TNT. There is a large pocket of wrestling fans that will tune into AEW because it is competition to WWE, regardless of who on the top of the card.
What does Chris Jericho as the AEW Champion bring to AEW on TNT that would not be there if he was on the second to last match on the show? AEW on TNT doesn’t need Chris Jericho as its champ to draw an audience. The fact that they’re on TNT, they’re not WWE, and they’re the cool underground wrestling promotion is enough to draw eyes to the show.
“It’s pro wrestling 101! When he loses the championship it will mean so much more!”
There could have been any ending to the main event of All Out and that first argument could have accurately fit. It is the wrestling version of confirmation bias. More often than not, wrestling fans don’t know what will happen at the end of the match. Whatever the outcome is, it can be framed as “IT’S PRO WRESTLING 101!!!” It’s a lazy take that fans trot out there whenever they are trying to make sense of a result that they can’t explain.
One of the more consistent ideas of pro wrestling is the older talent whose best years are behind them, making a younger talent mean more by the younger character defeating the older character.
AEW had an excellent chance to establish the character of Adam Page by having him defeat Chris Jericho for the AEW Championship. One of Jericho’s many strengths in professional wrestling is, in defeat, Jericho has the ability to make a new talent appear credible to the fans. Defeating Chris Jericho in 2019 still means a great deal. If you question that, then why Chris Jericho was defeated by Okada, Omega, Naito, and Kevin Owens in the last 3 years.
Being defeated by Chris Jericho did more damage to the character of Adam Page, than helped the character of Chris Jericho.
What’s done is done. Chris Jericho is the AEW Heavyweight Champion.
The age old question is wrestling is now rearing its head “whats next”? There could be a feud with Jon Moxley without the constraints of WWE programming. There could be a feud with Cody Rhodes. There could be a feud with Kenny Omega. All of those are great feuds. The challenge is that Jericho doesn’t need the AEW Championship in order to make any of those feuds matter.
. @AEWrestling World Champion #ChrisJericho (@IamJericho) has recovered the #AEW World title in less than 24 hours!! #LeChampion #ALittleBitOfTheBubbly pic.twitter.com/LvIWOOCypZ
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) September 5, 2019
“Brock Lesnar is 42 and he was WWE Champion! Age doesn’t matter, if you can draw!”
Chris Jericho is 48-years old. It is not blasphemy to say that his days of being a full-time draw are behind him.
The great pro wrestlers get smarter as they get older. Ric Flair comes to mind with this argument. Flair knew how to mask his diminishing in-ring skill set and could still be a force on television. Flair didn’t need to be the top guy in WCW. It is a fact that Ric Flair was WCW Heavyweight Champion into his 50s, but it was at a time when WCW was spiraling down as a company. That is vastly different than Jericho walking into the first AEW on TNT show as World Champion at 48-years old.
Brock Lesnar is not Chris Jericho. The comparison of Brock Lesnar’s run in WWE and Chris Jericho’s potential run in AEW holds no weight. The Brock Lesnar character is billed a super human monster. Chris Jericho is not a super human monster.
From a character development standpoint, Lesnar’s run as a part time WWE Champion has done more harm than good. Fans enjoy the concept of Lesnar appearing every two months. It is still an attraction when Lesnar shows up on RAW. Lesnar did the WWE Universal Championship no favors by appearing once every few months.
Is this the measuring stick we judge the potential Chris Jericho AEW Championship reign with?
Can Jericho be there every week to help advance storylines? That remains to be seen. The truth is Jericho has not been a full time member of any wrestling promotion in 10 years. He is a man of a plethora of commitments outside wrestling. Is he willing to do the work needed to get AEW off the ground and carry the responsibility of being its first champion?