How does AEW balance win/loss records with big match announcements?

All Elite Wrestling wants wins and losses to matter. It will be similar to NCAA college football rankings.

Early on, AEW made it known that wins and losses will matter. This is one way that they want to stand out from other wrestling promotions. The records will determine who will be able to challenge champions.

Ahead of Full Gear tickets going on sale last week, it was announced that Chris Jericho would defend his title against Cody. Since Cody currently has the best record, he qualified (Note: Adam Page is 3-1, but will not be getting a rematch right away). There’s one problem: Cody has a match against Sammy Guevara on October 2. It is literally the first match that AEW fans will see live on TNT. Most would assume that means Guevara is losing to keep Cody’s record intact.

Cody had to backtrack a bit and say that cards are subject to change. In most instances, they could use this loophole to change future matches and to not give away other match winners. Cody will absolutely face Jericho at Full Gear, no matter how it’s spun. Would they have Guevara win to save face? It won’t affect the match on November 9 because he would move to 2-1 and Cody would be 2-2. Could the match actually go to a draw? That would be the cleanest way to handle it. Cody’s record stays intact and Guevara doesn’t suffer a loss.

At the All Out press conference, Tony Khan explained that there are records for singles matches, tag matches and trios matches. He also said that there are overall records. They’ve yet to fully break down how the wins/losses records will work. This will hopefully come on the first live show or on Road to AEW on TNT.

How will this work in the future? What if AEW wants to announce big matches to sell tickets? They risk hampering the matches that will happen in between. They can’t hold a challenger off of TV until the match occurs. How will AEW balance the two? Do win/loss records carry over into the new year? Does it start over at Double or Nothing, since that was the first AEW event?

To make things interesting (or a SMH moment, depending on how you look at it), Le Champion released a promo telling Cody how much he hates him and his family. Are they being clever and poking fun at how it’s been handled? We shall see.

What do you think of the importance of wins and losses? Do you think Cody will beat Guevara? Sound off below.