Why Chris Jericho as inaugural AEW World Champion makes sense

Chris Jericho is a legend in the wrestling business. On August 31, he became All Elite Wrestling’s inaugural World Champion.

Despite the shenanigans with the AEW World title, Chris Jericho is the right choice to be their inaugural champion. This automatically solidifies AEW as a competitor. With nearly three decades under his belt (no pun intended), Jericho brings the leadership and credibility that goes along with being the face of a company. AEW is a new company with a familiar champion.

Cody has said that they will not cater to the casual fan, but he has to know that fans that gave up on WWE will likely be curious about AEW. They probably know Cody; depending on when they stopped watching, they know who Jon Moxley and PAC are under their old names. Jericho? Now that’s a name they know and love (or hate). That will be enough for some people to turn on TNT.

Monday Night Jericho. Jericholics. Y2J. “Eeeeever a-gain.” Ayatollah of Rock n Rolla. “Stupid idiot.” “You just made the list.” Festival of Friendship. Alpha. Painmaker. This is how Jericho has repeatedly reinvented himself. He changes with the business, sometimes ahead of the curve. He’s not stuck in the past and doesn’t hide behind lazy storylines. He evolves and is successful. Some champions do the same thing for years and barely even show up on TV.

Baron Corbin even tried to compare Jericho to Lesnar because of age. But complaints about Lesnar have never been about Lesnar’s age. It’s the fact that he never shows up and rarely defended his title. When he does come, it’s the same tired schtick. How is he the face of your company when he’s not even there 95 percent of the year? Jericho is never complacent. He shows up. He builds up his opponent. He gets the job done. Jericho is invaluable to the business.

“AEW is WCW 2.0 for putting the title on Jericho” is another common criticism. First, WCW led the Monday Night Wars for 84 consecutive weeks. They clearly did something right. Yes, WCW did some really stupid things, but so has WWE. They aren’t flawless here.

Will AEW get it right 100 percent of the time? Of course not. This time they got it right. Making Jericho their inaugural champion instantly gives AEW credibility. It creates buzz (the missing title debacle only helps). Just look at all of the memes and gifs related to #ALittleBitoftheBubbly. There’s already a t-shirt.

If you want to know why Jericho is a World Champion in 2019, tune in to TNT on Wednesdays to find out.

Thank you, AEW. Thank you, Chris Jericho.