How AEW Are SECRETLY Telling A Genius Long-Term Story

Chris Jericho
AEW/TNT

As the North Charleston fans jeered Jericho in full voice on October 30, he shut them down with a pithy "Calm down, hillbillies". On November 21, he apologised to the Indianapolis crowd because the Thanksgiving 'Celebrashawn' would take place next week, in Chicago - not "in this dump of Indianapolis in front of all of you bumpkins".

MJF meanwhile scorched the Nashville crowd at the beginning of that aforementioned segment. He mimicked the cadence of a stereotypical hick - "MJF, what do you mean, man? Cody's in my livin' room every week, he's a stand up guy, I love me some Cody Rhodes!" - and tends to use "inbred, white trash, redneck hicks" as his go-to insult, as he did on the night. Jericho and MJF love to mock the cliché of the incestuous backwoods mutant, but it's they who share the closest of bonds.

On the subject of Jericho's Lexicon, he on December 5 unveiled the Lexicon of Le Champion. On it, he revealed a number of wrestlers and fictional banter figures that he would not meet in the ring to complete his outstanding contractual obligation, in order to further the idea that he is terrified of wrestling Jon Moxley - but this segment in fact advanced the secret storyline also. That very same week, in a riff on Cody's famous post-WWE to-do list, MJF also furthered two storylines in the medium and long term to expand the shared universe. MJF tweeted his own 'List of people I will never wrestle'. Only Cody's name appeared, but something else appeared in shot: the Dynamite Diamond Ring he won on November 28. This highlighted a further parallel between the two - only MJF and Chris Jericho have captured achievements in the Men's singles division of All Elite Wrestling - and of course, Jericho proudly displayed the AEW World Championship over his shoulder in the same shot as the clipboard. This is next-level long-term storytelling.

But there's more.

CONT'D...(3 of 5)

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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!