AEW: Analyzing how Chris Jericho's title reign helped the roster

Before losing his title to Jon Moxley at Revolution, Chris Jericho argued winning the AEW World Championship positively affected the AEW roster. Is he right, is he wrong, or is he somewhere in between? What does a macro examination of his time as champion reveal? Let’s take a look.

In an interview with Justin Barroso of Sports Illustrated published Friday before AEW Revolution, Chris Jericho said:

"This is my job as champion. I make stars. I’m already a star. Mox is a star. This company may have started on my back, but six months later it’s now on a bunch of backs, and that was the idea…It’s the first time this has ever been my position, and I’m enjoying it….Everything we do is designed to build stars."

As we head into this week’s Dynamite (the first one without Jericho as AEW World Champion), I feel like this is an opportune time for an analysis of his reign and if, as he argues, he’s helped “build stars.”

This won’t just be about The Inner Circle, who gain just by being associated with Jericho and the cache of accomplishments he carries. It’s too easy to just say Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz are have gained positive benefits.

Rather, this will be about who Jericho has worked with, including The Inner Circle. Here’s just a quick list of who Jericho has wrestled (singles, tag, trio) since he defeated “Hangman” Page for the AEW World Championship at All Out at the end of August (sans The Inner Circle):

The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks); Page and Dustin Rhodes; Darby Allin; Omega and Page; Cody; SCU (Scorpio Sky, Frankie Kazarian); Sky; Jungle Boy; Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus, Marko Stunt); Allin & Private Party (Isiah Kassidy, Marq Quen); and Jon Moxley.

He also had a memorable promo segment with MJF, but as they haven’t worked together in a match for AEW yet, I will leave him out of the rest of the article.

The Inner Circle

Starting with The Inner Circle, it’s basically 95 percent positive impact for the other four members; the remaining five percent is due to Guevara taking clean pins so frequently over the last few months.

Guevara, however, is a star in the making, and his heel mannerisms have only improved since he’s been able to absorb the knowledge and psychology of heel work from Jericho. He also has the most torque I’ve ever seen on 630, making it just look violent (Ricochet’s I would classify as fluid).

While Guevara is taking clean pins, he is also young, and this could easily be turned into a story where Guevara works himself into the rankings over a six to eight month span.

Santana and Ortiz entered AEW with a lot of hype based on their fantastic run in Impact as the revamped Latin American Xchange (LAX). Sure, tag team-wise, they haven’t made too much of a splash in terms of challenging for the AEW World Tag Team Championships. What they have shown (and possibly raised their stock with) is their showing in one-on-one matches with Moxley.

The big question about LAX (I would argue more with Ortiz than Santana) is if either could be in a good singles match and cut a promo. They proved that with their matches with Moxley, not to mention Santana’s impassioned, fiery sit-down interview he had with Jim Ross after Moxley “gouged” Santana’s left eye (the opposite of Moxley’s eye injury).

I LOVE Ortiz’s “Tiger Style” as it brings a bit of levity to what is sometimes a very serious show. He also has a rather unique style in the ring with his Tiger Style and planking dive, for example.

Further, Santana is only the second men’s wrestler of color to main event a singles match on Dynamite or a PPV (when he faced Moxley on the Feb. 12, 2020 edition of Dynamite). The first was Sky when he faced Jericho for the World Championship on the Nov. 27, 2019 edition of Dynamite (more on Sky later).

(I wrote about this lack of diversity in January since Tony Khan said there would be more men’s wrestlers of color challenging for the World Championship and being in the main event by the end of 2019. It didn’t happen.)

Hager may have benefited most from his association with Jericho and The Inner Circle. Remember, Hager is the former “Jack Swagger” in WWE, where his lisp held him back (in the eyes of higher ups), and was best known for being in a xenophobic tag team with Cesaro, The Real Americans.

Hager, after his release, signed with Bellator to pursue a mixed martial arts career, where he is currently undefeated (2-0, 1 NC). Using that real-life experience, Jericho brought Hager in as his “heavy” to do his bidding. After all, he did break Dustin Rhodes’ arm and defeated Rhodes at Revolution with a standing arm triangle choke in his first AEW match.

As Jericho stated in his interview with Barroso, his plan for Hager has worked to perfection: don’t say a word, remain stoic, and beat people up. Although I’m not high on Hager (I think we saw his ceiling in WWE), this character in AEW is working, but it will be in the follow-up as to whether or not Hager advances beyond being a hired goon.

The Elite

Quick note 1: There is no need for me to discuss Cody and Moxley since their star power/level was already so high before working with Jericho. They, like Jericho, have a long list of accomplishments that sets them apart.

Quick note 2: This extends to The Young Bucks who, along with Cody, Page, and Omega as “The Elite,” helped form All Elite Wrestling and as such, have a built-in star connection with AEW fans.

For Page, although his character was pretty meh in the first few months after his defeat to Jericho, it is quite clear in hindsight that Page would have been in over his head as World Champion at the time. His character change over the last three months or so has made him arguably a face on the same level as Cody. The fans pop huge for Page, and they love chanting “Cowboy s**t!”

By creating distance between Page, Jericho, and the World Championship, it allowed Page (and the fans) to organically discover who this “Hangman” character is together. Having Page focus on teaming with Omega helped, particularly since this run to the Tag Team Championship and story with The Young Bucks arguably began with Omega/Page losing to Jericho/Guevara on the Nov. 6, 2019 edition of Dynamite.

This also tangentially extends to Omega, whose only one-on-one match with Jericho was nearly a year ago at Double or Nothing. Many argue for Omega to be World Champion, but there is little argument against him teaming with Page and the storytelling involved, both between Omega and Page and between them and The Young Bucks.

The Youngins

In terms of “building stars,” undoubtedly Jericho’s matches with Allin and Jungle Boy did just that. While many fans saw Allin’s potential in his time-limit draw with Cody at Fyter Fest in June of 2019, his Philadelphia street fight with Jericho on the Oct. 16, 2019 edition of Dynamite is probably the genesis of his current rise.

Who can forget Allin skateboarding down the ramp to jump Jericho the week before, and the amount of punishment he suffered during that street fight?

While Allin’s win-loss record is below .500 in 2020, his performances, coupled with how much the fans love him, have set him up to be in the mid-upper to upper card. (Allin would be PERFECT to be in the foursome fighting over a mid-card title with Guevara, Kip Sabian, and Joey Janela.) His look is unique, and the next show you watch, just look at how many fans have Allin’s face paint (kids and adults alike!).

Jungle Boy is another star in the making thanks to the “Star Maker” Jericho. When Jungle Boy confronted Jericho to challenge him, it might have seemed odd considering he hadn’t yet won a match (which Jericho reminded us). Still, the fan support was there, and though he didn’t win, he also didn’t lose as it was a 10-minute time-limit draw.

He is still a bit green (he hasn’t wrestled long, after all), but Jungle Boy (and Jurassic Express) is now one of the more popular acts in AEW, partially due to Jericho’s promo and ring work against him. Further, as a tag team and trio, the members of Jurassic Express have tasted the sweet nectar of victory, and show no signs of being done.

The curious case of Scorpio Sky

As previously mentioned, Sky challenged for Jericho’s World Championship the week after pinning him in a tag team match (involving Kazarian and Guevara). This was when Sky and Kazarian held the Tag Team Championship, the only champs until they lost the belts to Omega and Page. Sky having a match with Jericho for the World Championship (and it was good match) should have propelled him into a different sphere.

Nope.

After his match with Jericho, SCU appeared on only two episodes of Dynamite over the next seven weeks. The first (Dec. 18, 2019) saw them retain their titles against The Young Bucks. SCU then lost the Tag Team Championship to Omega and Page on the Jan. 21, 2019 edition of Dynamite. SCU is now 0-3 in their last three matches against Omega/Page, the tag team #1 contender battle royal, and to the Dark Order during the Buy-In pre-show.

Further, outside of a three way match on the Dec. 4, 2019 edition of Dark (the episode after his match with Jericho), Sky has not had a single one-on-one match since.

I posited turning Sky into a singles wrestlers in my January column, and I still think that’s the way to go. Sky would also bring the diversity Khan loves to discuss to the World Championship (and singles) picture. Also, SKY IS GOOD! Sure, he probably needs some more work on the mic, but how can he do that when he isn’t even given the opportunity (outside of his “This is the worst town I’ve ever been in!”).

Unlike the wrestlers I wrote about above, this is the one clear-cut case where Jericho’s involvement negatively affected the star building process (which also ties to booking). Here’s hoping 2020 is much more fruitful for Sky.

The rest

As it pertains to the other acts not yet discussed, I think it is safe to say that Dustin Rhodes and Private Party have benefited not from facing Jericho, but by facing The Inner Circle members.

I mentioned earlier the story that was built between Hager and Rhodes, culminating in their match last Saturday. Well, Rhodes also had two matches (1-1) with Guevara leading into his match with Hager. Suffice it to say Jericho’s involvement was minimal at best, so Rhodes is one where Jericho’s influence was moot.

The same goes for Private Party. They had a little feud with Santana and Ortiz over a couple of months culminating in the trios tag with Allin against Jericho, Santana, and Ortiz. Like Rhodes, Jericho’s involvement was moot, and it’s also a question as to whether or not Private Party are in a better position now than before, or if they’re running in place.

Conclusion

More from All Elite Wrestling

Jericho is right … for the most part. He is in a position to create stars and he has done so with the likes of The Inner Circle, Allin, and Jungle Boy, not to mention the added rub he gave to the likes of The Elite and Moxley.

Scorpio Sky is the “turd in the punch bowl” to Jericho’s assertions, so to speak. If anything, his star power and spot on the card has regressed. Sky is immensely talented, so maybe now that Jericho is without the belt, Sky can turn back to this feud and emerge from his angle with the “Star Maker” as a bonafide upper card act.

Can Jericho continue to create stars even without the AEW World Championship? If he doesn’t go right back into a feud with Moxley (though this seems to be the case with Jericho/Guevara vs. Moxley/Allin set for Dynamite), then it will be interesting to see what direction he (and creative) have in store for us fans.

dark. Next. AEW: Why Matt Hardy would make a perfect addition to All Elite Wrestling

Let’s also take time to marvel at the continuous evolution of Jericho as a wrestler and character over the last 25 years. It’s a testament to his star power, and his ability to give that star rub, that he is still one of the top acts in wrestling as he approaches 50 years in age. Here’s to “Le Champion.”

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AEW: Analyzing how Chris Jericho’s title reign helped the roster

By Bruce Lee Hazelwood | Mar 4, 2020