AEW and NXT Wednesday Night Wars: 3 winners of night #1

Chris Jerrico puts the Smackdown on CW Punk during the WWE Raw event at Rose Garden arena in Portland, Ore., Monday February 27th, 2012. (Photo by Chris Ryan/Corbis via Getty Images)
Chris Jerrico puts the Smackdown on CW Punk during the WWE Raw event at Rose Garden arena in Portland, Ore., Monday February 27th, 2012. (Photo by Chris Ryan/Corbis via Getty Images) /
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Chris Jericho

In a week where we found out that he will face the legendary Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kindom 14, Chris Jericho bookended the first episode of Dynamite with a pair of performances that should quell any skeptic who thought AEW should’ve put their World Title on someone else.

Let’s start with his blindsided attack on the number one contender for his title, Cody, which came after the “American Nightmare’s” win over Sammy Guevara.

The beatdown — which included two Codebreakers, a belt shot to the head, a chair shot to the back, and a powerbomb on two folded out chairs — added more fuel to an already explosive feud that will likely culminate at Full Gear on Nov. 9.

Jericho also apparently got himself a new faction, too. After Jericho pinned Nick Jackson in the six-man tag main event that was mentioned in the previous slide — the Bucks were protected by the numbers disadvantage and the surface-of-the-sun-level hot tag from Nick –Jericho and the former LAX continued the beatdown on the Jackson’s before Cody ran down to exact some revenge on the champion.

Then, Guevara entered the fray and kicked Cody low before Dustin Rhodes came through and cleaned house.

Shortly after, Jake Hager (f.k.a. Jack Swagger) slinked into the ring and laid the elder Rhodes out, ultimately resulting in the rudos standing tall as the show faded to black.

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Early on, AEW has put a lot of faith in Jericho as the top heel and he hasn’t disappointed yet. These two segments were proof of how great Jericho is, even as one of the more, uh, seasoned workers in the company.