7 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Dynamite (9 Mar)

5. The Jericho Appreciation Society

AEW had outgrown the need for The Inner Circle, particularly as a forced babyface unit, so splitting them up and replacing them with the gloriously narcissistic Jericho Appreciation Society last night was the right move.

Chris Jericho opened the show in the ring, playing a disingenuous babyface hype man as he welcomed the fans to "Wednesday night Dynamite-uhhh!", claiming that he wanted to repay his debt to Eddie Kingston after refusing to shake his rival's hand at Revolution. When Kingston came out and explained that the offered shake wasn't for him, but the people who'd told him his Player's Tribute article saved their lives, King was suckered in, poisoned by Jericho's faux-earnest approach, and ultimately powerbombed through a table on the outside.

Raw emotion poured from Eddie as it always does, even in smaller moments like this. This enhanced the swerve. 2point0 and Daniel Garcia only laid hands on Kingston initially before Santana and Ortiz made the save, holding Garcia in place for the baseball bat shot. Then, Jericho pulled the trigger, clocking Santana, joining up with his new allies, and welcoming Jake Hager into the Appreciation Society after a brief tease.

Another week of strong character work from Jericho, who has done a great job of righting what had become a tedious course. That the new stable is literally named after him feeds perfectly into his increasingly monstrous ego.

And it turns out Edde, Santana, and Ortiz were right about him all along.