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Chris Jericho has been able to successfully defend his AEW World Championship on two occasions. He defeated Darby Allin on an episode of Dynamite and followed it up by retaining the belt against Cody at Full Gear, the first AEW pay-per-view event since the beginning of the Dynamite TV show on TNT. Because of AEW's wins-and-losses system, as well as their crude (at least for now, since it's only been announced on Twitter) rankings system, it can be difficult to just rattle off a list of guys who might get a shot at the title, or who it would be cool to see get a shot. It would be awesome to see Jungle Boy or Marko Stunt get a shot at the champ (similar to Taka Michinoku getting a shot at the WWE Title against Triple H in 2000), but they're 0-7 and 0-5 respectively, so that isn't happening.
There are some men on the roster who definitely, thanks to their good records, could claim their stake at a title shot, and even at least one who could probably get a title shot based on story sometimes taking precedence over realism. These are 5 men who are likely to be in line for a chance at Chris Jericho's AEW World Championship.
#5 PAC
The surly Superstar has been extremely impressive and successful everywhere he's been, and he has traveled the world many times over. He has 4 wins, all of which have come in singles competition. Two of them are against Adam Page, who was one-half of the match to crown the first-ever AEW World Champion. Page was also his only loss in singles competition. PAC is not aligned with anybody and chances are it will stay that way, as he doesn't play well with others and never has.
Due to his impressive victories over Adam Page and Kenny Omega, along with being 4-1 in singles competition, PAC has definitely earned himself an opportunity at the AEW World Title. Will he get it? Chances are that he won't get anywhere near Jericho or the belt unless he gets through some of the Inner Circle. A win over Jericho's big backup man, Jack Hager, might be the right way to fast track himself to a World Title shot.
#4 Adam Page
Adam Page was within moments of becoming the first man to hold the AEW World Championship. He has wrestled a lot thus far for AEW, and although he's at an even 5-5 overall, he's got 4 singles victories, which is hard to beat. In fact, he's one of four people with 4 singles victories (nobody else has more than 3). He has 4, PAC has 4, Darby Allin has 4, and Champion Chris Jericho has 4. Darby Allin has received his title shot, PAC has a clear path to the title, and Page is a star on the rise.
PAC would win the tiebreaker over Page due to having 2 wins over Page compared to Hangman's 1 win over PAC, but Page's AEW run since their first event in May has proven that he is a force to be reckoned with, and definitely a future AEW World Champion. Will he be the next champion? That's hard to say. The crowd would certainly love it, and we know he can push Jericho to his limit, so if he gets a chance, it would not be unimaginable to see him become champ.
#3 Matt Jackson
Matt's brother Nick is about to go to war in what's being labeled a dream match this week against Fenix, in what will be Nick's first singles match, according to him, in nearly half a decade. It's possible that Matt could end up in the ring with the other Lucha Brother, Pentagon Jr, but it doesn't appear that AEW is going back in the direction of the Bucks vs. the Bros yet, so that is unlikely.
While Matt has zero singles wins (or matches) in AEW, he has certainly has an impressive win-loss record at 7 wins and 4 losses. Matt is also the brother, sort of like Matt Hardy, known less for his high flying antics (even though he can definitely do it with the best of them) and more for his ability to keep the pace together and sell a good wrestling match.
Matt would be a great underdog babyface to take on the Superstar World Champion Chris Jericho. While he's unlikely to actually win the match, it would be a pretty good way to build to an eventually Jericho/Omega rematch, where Jericho shows how much better he is than Kenny and The Elite by beating all of his pals. He already beat Kenny once, he's defeated Cody, and there's no reason Nick and Matt Jackson can't be added to that list. If you have to choose one, though, Matt's your man.
#2 Scorpio Sky
Along with tag team partner Frankie Kazarian, Scorpio Sky has the absolute best record in AEW. He's 9 and 3, which means he has more victories than the World Champion, Chris Jericho. In fact, he actually handed Jericho his first loss in AEW last week in a tag team match. If that, along with his record, doesn't earn him a title shot, what does?
Sky is an absolute stud, and a guy the crowd can get behind. This wouldn't be an underdog story, as Sky is a well-established star who has been tearing up the ring for years. He's got some size, some strength, and some high-flying -- a great combination for any wrestler -- and it could be hard for Jericho to thwart that.
Plus, Jericho just got a shot at Scorpio's title, so why shouldn't Scorpio get a shot at Jericho's? Having Jericho lose for the first time in a title match (albeit for the World Tag Titles, not the AEW Title) is a very interesting direction to go, and there must be something more than meets the eye with this one. Does Jericho have another partner waiting in the wings to go after Kazarian and Scorpio again? Will Scorpio shock the world and become the second-ever AEW World Champion while also holding the Tag Team Championship?
#1 Dustin Rhodes
Dustin might be an interesting choice, seeing that he sits at 2 wins and 3 losses overall thus far in his AEW tenure, but sometimes there's more than just win-loss records. Wrestling is a sport that was made for exceptions, and Dustin Rhodes might be the perfect one. It doesn't have to be a PPV match, but he's supposed to be on the mend and making his way back to AEW soon, so you have to expect that Dustin will be going right after Chris Jericho and his Inner Circle mates who broke his arm.
They may have injured the older Rhodes brother in an attempt to get into Cody's head and hurt someone he loves, but they may have failed to realize that Dustin Rhodes has forgotten more over the course of his career than most of the members of the Inner Circle may ever learn.
I could see AEW doing their big first TV episode of 2020 headlined by Cody vs. MJF and Dustin vs. Jericho. The chance of the son of a son of a plumber actually taking the gold from The Painmaker is quite low, but the two veterans know how to create drama along wih the best of them, and it could be a stellar match to go along what has been a stellar storyline thus far.
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