Chris Jericho In AEW - What Went Wrong?
Perhaps the ‘Painmaker’ becomes the ‘Holidaymaker’: a meta heel who threatens to actually listen to the fans, and go away for a while, before doing a run-in before the show ends.
The less facetious answer to that question is for Jericho to go away for a minimum of nine months. Tony Khan could and at this point probably should save Jericho from himself. Jericho’s legacy is in tatters. AEW’s vibe is ghastly when Jericho is on TV, and he gets more TV time than most. Nobody cared about the All-Star Scramble at Revolution one way or the other, but between Worlds End and Dynasty, the message could not be louder: the people do not want to see Chris Jericho any longer. AEW can’t be the show that fans hijack. AEW was able to exist in the first place because its future fanbase hijacked WWE shows. Hyperbolic as it may read, this Chris Jericho run represents a spiritual death of sorts.
If it weren’t for the lack of clarity surrounding the rumoured 2019 incident involving Kylie Rae, this editorial would be tinged with guilt. Jericho has bumped more than most (the grim irony being that, the more a wrestler hurts themselves over time, the less fans will care). The Highlight Reel was aptly named; Jericho has produced reams of brilliance. Most everybody’s escapist hobby is better for his involvement in it.
Haunted by sexual misconduct allegations, lacking any value as an onscreen presence, a bleak distraction from a promotion in desperate need of selling tickets to a fun show, Chris Jericho is trapped underneath an avalanche - and all he’s doing is working out how to trademark his demise. A tragic grift.
It’s sad - but do you know what’s sadder?
The fact that wrestling moves on from everything much too quickly. If he allowed people to forget, and they always do, he could stem the bleeding. Who knows; after that, he could always reinvent himself as the ‘Cockroach’.
There’s always an angle to play; he’s just working his worst one yet.