10 Times AEW Made The Critics Look Like IDIOTS
5. "Chris Jericho Is Finished"
Chris Jericho is a divisive act; as many people bury him online as a clout vampire as sing 'Judas' very loudly in every arena he enters.
Many critics have written Jericho off over the last four years in an echo of a trend that plagued Jericho in WWE. Those people want him to go away for a while. Time and time again, Jericho proves his value.
Those critics have a point. Jericho did little for Eddie Kingston, who was on fire, babyface World champion elect, before the disastrous Barbed Wire Everywhere fiasco. But then, that same year, he worked a classic with Jon Moxley at Quake By The Lake in which he adopted the Liontamer persona to combat Mox's ground game with llave. Jericho defines uneven, but the highs are so great that he constantly proves his critics wrong.
After the programme with Ricky Starks, the most generically plotted big AEW storyline ever, the knives came back out - but Jericho at time of writing is in the midst of an excellent programme with Adam Cole. The angles are heated and inventive, AEW has devised a new and much-needed means of keeping two upcoming PPV opponents apart, and Jericho in general is back to his best as the über-fragile hypocritical monster who cannot sanction the idea that he is in the wrong. That Falls Count Anywhere match with Roderick Strong was such a perfect TV match. Relentless ass-kicker versus desperate slapstick heel trying to get the hell out of dodge: are there two better opponents for the stip?
And, incidentally, shouldn't Tony Khan get more praise for dreaming it up?
Chris Jericho isn't going anywhere - and he probably shouldn't, on balance.