Chris Jericho In AEW - What Went Wrong?
The Le Champion character was launched with a little bit of the bubbly. It was also genuinely funny when Jericho would throw fireballs at people and suddenly declare himself to be a wizard, and you could believe that he believed it. That daft patter has deserted him, too. He doesn’t have that mojo anymore. He’s dead behind the eyes. He doesn’t even try his hand in 2024. He’s not even doing his drivel, like “GFY” or that time he called the Pinnacle the ‘Pineapple’ and MJF “My !*$% Friend”. It’s as if he’s lost the delusion even. It’s also notable that Jericho hasn’t bragged about his demo numbers in years.
More damningly still, Jericho used to be funny when he was defiant and pissed off. He botched a lionsault in a 2021 Dynamite tag. Fuelled by the criticism, he landed it perfectly the very next week and burned a hole through a ringside camera lens with an expression of pure fury and disdain. GFY for doubting him. He is Chris Jericho.
He made his career, in no small part, by lashing out at the critics and proving them wrong. That fire has been extinguished. It doesn’t seem like he’s remotely dialled-in. He used to know how good he was. He used to seethe at the idea that he was all too easily written off, knowing full well his next unexpectedly great match was imminent.
He should be reacting to this latest backlash with thunder in his voice, but he knows full well what is happening. He is resigned to it but doesn’t feel the need to go away. Why? Would doing so in late 2023 have scanned as an admission of guilt? Does he feel, at 53, that he can’t simply go away and come back better anymore? Wrestlers will tell you of the paradox that bumping - often compared to a low-impact car crash - gets easier and less painful the more frequently they do it.
Jericho is stuck. Nobody gets over when he loses, and nobody wants him to win.
All that’s left for him to do is lean in. He always prided himself on being the one guy in his era of WWE who knew what the bubble was, but never enclosed himself in it. He has now taken that mindset to a nonsensical extreme of a self-own.
He’ll never win a World title again, and his last blood feud (with Don Callis) was a sprawling, heatless mess, so now, he can only attempt to siphon the worst, meta, self-damning heat. Do you think he’s a clout vampire who gloms onto young, hip talent? Why, he’ll make a storyline out of it. His character should be principally concerned with pursuing titles, but even Tony Khan - who has been feckless throughout a saga that is ruining the vibe of his promotion - rightly won’t book Jericho in a programme for one of his many sanctioned titles. So Jericho’s new character is thus Chris Irvine: a fading force who is desperate to be relevant by association. This underscores that there is absolutely nothing left for the fictional character of Chris Jericho to do.
And, if it’s yet another dig at CM Punk - the veteran who imposes his advice on everybody through arrogance - it’s pathetic. AEW needs to move on.
What’s next?
CONT'D...