It's Official: AEW Has Broken Its Most Sacred Rule

Eddie Kingston
AEW

As recently illustrated by the Eddie Kingston Vs. Chris Jericho feud, AEW is trending in a numbing and worrying direction.

The programme lasted roughly seven months and was superb at its peak. Jericho was the situational heel who patronised Eddie for his impulsive temperament. Eddie accused Jericho of using Santana and Ortiz to cling onto his main event career. When Jericho said that Eddie lacked what it takes to win the big one, the match was set, and at Revolution, they wrestled a classic. Kingston's selling was so great that even seasoned, jaded fans worried that he'd damaged his eye, and Jericho, the classical North American worker, bumped big all over his head and neck in a selfless performance aimed at getting Kingston over as the standard bearer of a certain value. Before it was even made canon in storylines, Eddie's win represented a major career accomplishment: Eddie beating a major star who embodied sports entertainment in a gruesome puro-influenced war was symbolic of so much.

Jericho refused to show Kingston respect in the post-match, turned heel and formed the Jericho Appreciation Society in a development that informed the next beats of the story. Faction warfare sprawled across Anarchy In The Arena and Blood & Guts to slightly mixed results. The former match was an instantly iconic masterpiece that contrived to engineer and capture a tone of pure blood-soaked chaos, where the latter was a very good version of the flawed maximalism that is the modern WarGames match. The score at this point was 2-1 in favour of Eddie Kingston, the men he loved, and the men he put up with because he loves Jon Moxley so dearly.

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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!