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Chris Jericho literally lost the physical AEW World Title belt recently and recovered it. He will be making his first defense of the newly-won championship on the 3rd episode of AEW's new show on TNT on October 16th.
It would be interesting to see if Jericho's reign ends at a month and a half, with zero successful title defenses.
Several men have the chance to win it. We could see a rematch with Adam Page or the first-time-ever match against PAC, who defeated Kenny Omega at All Out and is scheduled to possibly feud with The Hangman moving forward.
It could even Jon Moxley who, at that point, would likely be only two days removed from his IWGP United States Championship match at New Japan's King of Pro-Wrestling event.
Cody, although he will likely be staying out of the main event spotlight for a while, would even be a strong choice to be the second-ever champion, if only because the AEW live crowds treat him as a God-like figure.
It is difficult to say how the challenger will be determined. Jericho himself, along with Cody, are the only men who have had more than one match and are undefeated in singles competition.
The company is already running a tag team tournament, so it's unlikely that they will have another tournament to choose the first challenger for Jericho's title.
Both the first AEW World Title and AEW Women's World Title matches were decided by one competitor winning a battle royal and the other winning a singles match that they did pretty much nothing to qualify for.
With those ramifications in play, maybe the first guy who makes a verbal challenge to Jericho could get a match -- or maybe Jericho himself could choose the first person to get a shot.
No matter how they get to it, the outcome will probably be the same: Chris Jericho loses the AEW World Title (not literally, this time) in his first defense. Here are five reasons why.
#5 Jericho Only Won The Belt Because He's A Familiar Face
It was a smart move on the part of AEW to begin the journey of their new World Championship with a veteran superstar.
Jericho has a ton of credibility, a load of different title reigns under his belt, and has been on international television as a star for over 20 years.
He's a wrestler that former and current wrestling fans are very familiar with. He has a band that has been on TV and radio -- Jericho is a household name, legitimate hall of fame star in the wrestling business with a solid career outside of the ring as well.
If a person who is only somewhat familiar with wrestling tunes into AEW for its first show on TNT, they are more likely to recognize him than probably anybody on the roster who isn't Jon Moxley.
Add that to the commentary booth being able to list off all of his past accomplishments, and you have a guy who "casual" fans immediately see as being a legitimate champion.
Lapsed fans, men and women who watched wrestling in the late 1990s and into the early 2000s but have mostly stopped watching, will surely know who Jericho is.
They know he's a former champion and a star, so it might keep them interested in tuning in because he's someone they recognize. Jericho being the first champion immediately legitimizes the belt as a real World Championship. That being said, it leads directly to the next point.
#4 Beating Chris Jericho on TV Could Immediately Create A New Star
There aren't very many people in AEW who are well-known by people who only watch WWE, short-term fans or the ones who used to watch but haven't for a long time.
If they see a wrestler who they are unfamiliar with, or maybe only slightly recognisible, get a shot at the mighty Chris Jericho, that instantly makes them look more legitimate.
If the wrestler goes toe-to-toe with him in a verbal battle, or if he physically outdoes him in a brawl on an episode of TV before the title match, the new audience will look at him as someone who is qualified to be a challenger for the most important championship of a brand new company, and a person qualified to take on international superstar like Chris Jericho.
While it isn't a complete guarantee that defeating Jericho would make a man a star, it certainly would give that wrestler a solid foundation to start building their name in front of a larger audience than they have ever been in front of.
AEW would have to choose the right guy, of course. You don't want to put the belt on Kip Sabian or Darby Allin, for example. As good as those men (and so many others) are, they need some more time to develop their characters on a big stage.
Some possible options for lesser-known wrestlers to become the second World Champion include Adam Page, MJF, Shawn Spears, or PAC.
The last two names on that list have been on national TV in the past wirh WWE, and PAC even had two different strong runs on the main roster -- one as a babyface who had a decent stint as a mid-card guy and a pretty high profile SummerSlam match with TV star Stephen Amell, and a second run as a dominant heel Cruiserweight Champion (even though that ended very poorly.
The other was barely on television at all, and his most successful run was on NXT, on the WWE Network, for a couple of months before being called up to the main roster to do absolutely nothing.
It could still work, of course, since he has had a high profile feud with Cody and has the legendary Tully Blanchard (if he's sticking around) in his corner.
#3 Makes TV Unpredictable
If they have a big championship match on the third-ever episode of their TV show, and actually have the first champion lose it in his very first defense, it would be insane.
In a good way, mind you. Does anybody really expect that Jericho would win the title only to hold it for a month and a half, and have zero successful defenses? That's highly unlikely, but certainly not impossible. What it would be -- shocking.
It's tough to say who would win it. AEW would run into a similar problem to the one TNA suffered when they started if they went with Jon Moxley.
While he would definitely be a big enough star to be AEW World Champion, and eventually will hold the belt, the company would lose a good amount of support and come under a lot of scrutiny if they went with former WWE Champions as their first two AEW Champions.
Who else? Hangman Page wouldn't be a terrible choice and it could happen. Cody wouldn't be as bad, in terms of "WWE star" problems because while he spent his formative years in the company, he became an actual star once he left.
They would, however, run into another problem suffered by TNA -- having one of the founders of the company as the World Champion so soon would be a pretty big faux pas and one AEW hopefully has learned from by paying attention to history.
No matter who it is, even if it's a shocking victory by a wrestler that everyone expects Jericho to beat very quickly and that wrestler loses it back to Jericho soon after -- it still lends a feeling of unpredictability to their new television venture.
That's an important element to have on your side. If nobody knows what's going to happen, and everyone knows that anything can happen, then people will want to tune in and see what actually does happen.
#2 Jericho Becomes An Even Bigger Heel
Chris Jericho has definitely done a very good job playing his role as a bad guy since his last departure from WWE.
He did a great job in WCW and WWE as well, obviously, but right now, as he is reaching the final stages of his nearly 30-year career, it's more important than ever. Not for him, but for AEW and for its young and unestablished talent.
If Jericho, who has already been positioned as ungrateful, unstable, and unwilling to believe anybody's opinions but his own, were to lose the title as quickly as he won it, the man's mind would be blown.
If you think he's crazy now, just wait until he has his validation as the man who makes AEW important ripped away from him. Jericho, with all filters off and nothing to lose, would be wildly entertaining and, more importantly, an even more important man to be conquered.
Yeah, it would be great for anyone to defeat him and stop a long reign as the cocky, overbearing champion, but he doesn't have to be champion to be a very important man to beat.
Jericho was the choice to become AEW's first champion because he's a recognizable face to the wrestling world, both old and new. Once he shows up on TV and has it for a couple of weeks, the goal of getting people's attention in that respect has been accomplished.
That's when you move on to phase 2. Jericho loses the belt quickly to help make one new star, and then goes off the rails, allowing him to become a featured attraction without the limitations that come with being the World Champion. If you hold the belt, there's only so many people that could conceivably beat you.
If you're not the champ, the field opens up considerably. Jungle Boy isn't going to defeat World Champion Chris Jericho. He might, however, have a chance at getting a flash pin over crazy, out of control former World Champion Chris Jericho.
Joey Janela is going to be a giant star in the future, but he's not going to reach the World Title at this stage in the game.
He could, however, end up in a long-term program with Jericho, become a huge babyface and up his credibility ten fold. Then, when he gets a clean victory over the well-traveled veteran, he becomes a star. And you don't need the World Title for it.
#1 Controversy! And it creates cash
Taking the belt away from Jericho so quickly has the potential to create a number of different responses from different members of the audience. Outrage. Excitement. Joy. And so on, and so forth.
Some fans, whether they're fans of Jericho or not, are going to get upset because AEW spent so much time and effort building him up and put him over a young guy who has the potential to be one of the top guys in AEW for years to come.
Why not just give Page the title immediately, and skip the step of putting it on Jericho first? Why "hot potato" the title? That makes it so unimportant! It makes it look cheap! We thought this was supposed to be different from WWE!
But, just like people who complain about the shows they watch, wrestling or otherwise, they continue to watch. That would be the case with this set of fans, almost guaranteed.
Others, however, would see this as a really bold move from the upstart company. It's exciting. As stated earlier, it sets the stage for AEW to be a promotion that goes for the unpredictable.
The people who get excited by it might not feel like this specific moment would be especially controversial, but it sets them up to expect that something different could happen in the future. Once the precedent is set, it allows AEW to get away with more and more as time goes on.
Finally, the set of people who would feel joy for a Jericho title loss may feel that way for a couple of reasons. One, there's a large set of individuals who think putting the title on him was a bad idea in the first place.
Controversy has already been created among that group. Giving them what they want (anybody but Jericho, for many) turns that controversy into a joyous occasion, and that makes people want to give you money to continue seeing things like this moving forward.
The other set of joyous individuals are feeling that way because even though they may not necessarily extremely upset about a Jericho run as champion, they were really hoping that AEW would get behind someone newer and younger as their top guy at the beginning.
They may be frustrated and worried that AEW could be going in the wrong direction. You have those people hooked, but they might let go of the bait. Reel them in by doing a title change. The initial spark of controversy, in this case, doesn't become full-blown chaos, but it does create cash.
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
