10 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Revolution

2. Brawl Out War

With PAC vs. Cassidy all about the explosive comebacks, Cody vs. MJF going full '80s NWA, and Cody/Page vs. The Young Bucks so cutting-edge, Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho were almost forced to work an all-out brawl in Revolution's main event. Fortunately, it's a style that both men work incredibly well.

Jericho's Inner Circle Choir serenaded his arrival with a beautiful rendition of "Judas." Like MJF before him, 'Le Champion' was looking for a way out as soon as the bell rang. His methods were different, though: rather than trying to frustrate Moxley, Jericho looked to get himself disqualified. Plunder was employed liberally as they fought through the crowd but AEW's smartest referee, Aubrey Edwards, was wise to this, using her discretion to nullify Jericho's dastardly gameplan. A neat way of justifying the weaponry.

Filling the space between moves with a panache few others can master, Jericho's performance was what we've come to expect from him in AEW. Peacocking, vicious, and devious, he was a total piece of sh*t, and Moxley responded in kind, biting the seven stitches between the champ's eyes early on. This was a fight. It was ugly and attritional in all the right ways. Everything it needed to be, basically.

AEW rewarded intense investment by paying off the Randy Couture training footage from this week's Countdown show as Moxley reversed a Liontamer into an Ankle Lock. A welcome moment of superior technique and strategising, though Mox was almost undone by a Sammy Guevara belt shot once the rest of the Inner Circle had been banished. The 'Purveyor of Violence' had an ace up his sleeve, though. His injured eye, so often Jericho's target, had healed. He revealed this by yanking his own patch off, nailing a second Paradigm Shift, and walking out as AEW Champion.

Time will tell whether or not taking the belt off Jericho was the right move, though Moxley's "hey, what the f*ck?!" post-match promo was a hoot and every great babyface reign begins by vanquishing the ultimate bad guy.