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A major match scheduled for AEW All Out 2021 will see Chris Jericho put his career on the line, facing MJF in their "Final Fight." Jericho has been the MVP in All Elite Wrestling to a lot of fans. He was among the first and arguably biggest signings for the company when it first started.
Chris Jericho became the first AEW World Champion at All Out 2019 and has done an exceptional job working with the young talent in the promotion. From Darby Allin to Orange Cassidy, Le Champion has made his mark on the promotion and helped establish the company as one of the leaders in the business today.
With the showdown with Maxwell Jacob Friedman coming up on the pay-per-view, it seems like an ideal time to look back on all his best matches since signing with All Elite Wrestling. In this article, let's take a look at the five best Chris Jericho matches in AEW.
#5 Chris Jericho vs. Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship (AEW Revolution 2020)
Chris Jericho's run with the AEW World Championship helped cement the top prize in the company and produced good business overall. Whether in the ratings or pay-per-view buy rates, Le Champion delivered the goods. He also had quality bouts against Darby Allin, Jungle Boy and Cody Rhodes along the way. It all led to Jon Moxley confronting Jericho and setting his sights on the gold.
Chris Jericho set a plot and tried to lure the Purveyor of Violence into the Inner Circle to prevent Moxley from taking his title. The Demo God bribed Mox with a brand new car and told him of everything the Inner Circle stable could provide him. However, Moxley turned down Jericho and challenged him for the AEW World Championship.
Chris Jericho didn't take kindly to being turned down and jumped Moxley along with the Inner Circle, stabbing him in the eye with a spike from his jacket. This led to weeks of Moxley wearing an eye patch and taking aim at the other members of the Inner Circle. He defeated Santana and stabbed him in the eye for vengeance. This set the stage for Revolution 2020's main event.
Jon Moxley revealed that his eye had healed and hit the Paradigm Shift on Jericho for the pin to win the AEW World Championship. It was a masterful buildup into a perfect main event that was physical and told a brilliant story.
The Chicago crowd at Revolution were heavily in the corner of Moxley and were thrilled to see him overcome Jericho to win the gold.
#4 Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega (AEW Double Or Nothing 2019)
Chris Jericho took a chance by leaving WWE since he wanted a dream match that could only happen outside of it. Jericho faced Kenny Omega at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12 on January 4th, 2018, and put on one of the greatest encounters of all time. It was truly a contest that changed the course of wrestling history.
Without Jericho vs. Omega at Wrestle Kingdom, Tony Khan has said there wouldn't be AEW. It was appropriate then that the main event of the first AEW pay-per-view and show was Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega. This bout was very fitting in many ways.
The story of the AEW Double Or Nothing 2019 main event was simply Omega trying to hit his One Winged Angel, but Jericho avoided what finished him in the first battle.
Chris Jericho evolved from their Wrestle Kingdom 12 match, and he was out to prove just that. He had the Code Breaker and the Walls of Jericho, which both couldn't get him the win. However, he brought a new weapon here.
Chris Jericho developed a new finisher called the Judas Effect. His spinning back elbow proved to be the final nail in Omega's coffin and helped Le Champion win the first main event in All Elite Wrestling history.
The victory also helped Jericho qualify for the first AEW World Championship Match at All Out 2019. It was a great main event that set the tone for what was to come for the entire promotion.
#3 The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana & Ortiz) vs. The Pinnacle (MJF, Shawn Spears, Wardlow & FTR) in a Blood and Guts Match (AEW Dynamite - Blood & Guts)
Since its inception, Chris Jericho's Inner Circle stable has been part of the top storylines and feuds in AEW. Their rivalry with The Elite was at the center of the main event scene when Dynamite started and looked to culminate at the Blood and Guts event. However, the pandemic put a halt to the event in Newark, New Jersey, and postponed the first Blood and Guts Match.
Following the conclusion of that feud, The Inner Circle's next major rivalry would be against MJF's Pinnacle faction. Maxwell Jacob Friedman used Jericho and the Inner Circle to learn how stables work and build his own group.
After being aligned with Shawn Spears, Wardlow, FTR, and Tully Blanchard, they jumped the Inner Circle and set the stage for their first showdown inside a two-ring steel cage.
On the May 5th, 2021 episode of AEW Dynamite entitled "Blood and Guts," The Inner Circle and The Pinnacle battled in the First Blood and Guts Match. It was physically intense, bloody, and brutal.
Multiple participants tasted their own blood on this night and found a new side to themselves. MJF claimed victory when he pushed Chris Jericho off the cage after the Inner Circle forfeited the win.
This lived up to all the hype and expectations that were set before it. It recaptured everything that made WarGames the signature bout in WCW and a feud ender unlike anything else in the business. Chris Jericho came out of this match with a broken arm, and MJF became a bonafide star. It was a fantastic battle that highlighted every member of each group.
#2 Chris Jericho vs. Cody Rhodes for the AEW World Championship (AEW Full Gear 2019)
Following his win over Hangman Page to become the first-ever AEW World Championship at All Out 2019, Chris Jericho started a feud with another Elite member in Cody Rhodes. The two men traded barbs and crafted a compelling feud that captured the interest of the entire wrestling world.
Cody cut one of his greatest promos to date in the buildup to Full Gear 2019. Rhodes said if he couldn't defeat Chris Jericho, he would never challenge the AEW World Championship ever again. A bold stipulation made many fans believe that Rhodes would overcome the odds and win the title at the pay-per-view.
This AEW World Championship Match delivered on the exceptional buildup and told a superb story. The drama was intense and had tremendous work from both competitors.
Jericho focused on Cody's back and neck relentlessly. Rhodes fought from underneath and did a great job of selling Jericho's offense.
Le Champion locked Cody in the Liontamer and wrenched back on the neck. Rhodes wouldn't quit, so his cornerman MJF threw in the towel to give Chris Jericho the victory at Full Gear 2019 to retain the AEW World Championship. This was Jericho's best encounter as AEW World Champion, and it was a fantastic bout overall.
#1 The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Hardy, Hangman Page & The Young Bucks) vs. The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana & Ortiz) in the Stadium Stampede Match (AEW Double Or Nothing 2020)
As previously mentioned, Chris Jericho's formation of the Inner Circle helped set up multiple months of storytelling in the early stages of AEW Dynamite. In the first episode, Chris Jericho aligned with Santana and Ortiz to defeat Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks of the Elite. They continued to beat them down until Cody and Hangman Page made the save, but they had backup.
Sammy Guevara and the debuting Jake Hager completed Chris Jericho's Inner Circle ranks as they made a powerful message to close the first Dynamite. From there, the group ran roughshod over AEW and would frequently get the better of The Elite. It looked like Blood and Guts would blow off this faction warfare, but the pandemic halted those plans.
With The Young Bucks and Hangman Page on the outs with one another, The Elite was fractured. Cody Rhodes would soon distance himself from the group to focus on his feud with MJF and the TNT Championship. During the early months of the pandemic, Hangman, Matt, and Nick were also at home, so this left Kenny Omega as the sole Elite member to fend off the Inner Circle.
Matt Hardy's arrival in AEW saw him align with the Elite to fight off the forces of the Inner Circle and draw the ire of Chris Jericho. On the May 6th, 2020 episode of Dynamite, Omega, and Hardy lost to Jericho and Guevara in a Falls Count Anywhere brawl thanks to the numbers advantage of the Inner Circle, which would lead to a challenge for one final showdown.
At Double Or Nothing 2020, The Elite faced The Inner Circle in the first-ever Stadium Stampede Match. It was a no-rules brawl inside the TIAA Bank Field Stadium in Jacksonville.
Hangman Page and the Young Bucks reunited with Kenny Omega and Matt Hardy to fight Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz, but no one had any idea what to expect.
It was a truly amazing spectacle that set a new standard for cinematic matches. When wrestling was the only thing still running, fans needed an escape from the world around them. That is exactly what the Stadium Stampede provided. Some brawls went all over the stadium, from a ring at the 50-yard line to the bar to the outdoor pool.
Hangman Page rode into the stadium on a horse. Matt Hardy showed off his multiple different personas to dispose of Santana and Ortiz. Chris Jericho gave the Judas Effect to the Jacksonville Jaguars mascot before The Young Bucks took him out. AEW World Tag Team Champions Hangman Page and Kenny Omega reunited to get rid of Jake Hager.
For the Inner Circle, it came down to Sammy Guevara, who Matt Hardy and Kenny Omega chased in a golf cart up to the stadium's rafters. Omega then hit the One Winged Angel on Guevara off the rafters to the floor for the win.
This showed the creativity of the performers involved and AEW as a whole. Chris Jericho was one of the minds behind this daring encounter and deserved credit for how it turned out.
Although it wasn't a singles bout, this may go down as one of the greatest accomplishments of Jericho's career. That's why the Stadium Stampede Match at Double Or Nothing 2020 is the best Chris Jericho match in AEW.
