Every AEW Title Reign Ranked From Worst To Best

2. Chris Jericho - World Title

Riho Cody
AEW

Chris Jericho was the inaugural AEW World Champion because he was entrusted to legitimise the title and indeed the company.

He was entrusted to bring a level of match quality consistent with the idea that AEW was the new, premier wrestling brand, not the sports entertainment relic. He was entrusted to make the underneath guys the mainstream had never heard of without compromising himself. He was entrusted to be entertaining, in a new persona removed from his WWE characters, in every and several departments: matches, angles, promos, skits, beat-downs.

He did all of those things in the greatest and most effective entertaining run of his career.

His range was absolutely spectacular; Jericho breezed through so many different modes without diluting any of of them. He was piss funny with his callous comedy schtick and a dangerous, skull-scraping veteran in his classic with Cody at Full Gear. He crafted a great generational styles clash with Darby Allin from which Allin has never looked back. His promo work leading up to November 9 was so phenomenal in that he and Cody made it feel - in wrestling, in 2020 - like a super-fight.

All the while, Jericho brought the ratings and drank a little bit of the bubbly to toast almost constant victory in the Wednesday Night War.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!