Keep or Delete from History? Chris Jericho in AEW

[tiger_rick]

Right, hopefully no confusion over this topic now! Concept is simple, would you wipe Chris Jericho in AEW from history? As if it never happened.

Jericho was the inaugural AEW World Champion, is credited by TK with bringing a level of name value to the company in the early days that was desperately needed - presumably by TNT more than anything - and he was an important figure in the company producing a TV product through the pandemic that was remotely watchable. It's easy to forget that AEW had to produce TV with massive restrictions and no crowds in their first year as a company and within 6 months of their TV debut. Jericho was a key figure as a commentator and character through that period. What's followed is 4+ years of generally dire stories and matches, dragging other people down and not giving any rub worth having to people he attached himself to. 

Other than a good match with Eddie Kingston, he's not delivered much worth keeping in the last 4 years and his associations, runs as ROH Champion (ugh) and lack of ability in the ring have been a drain on a great product at times and symptomatic of their struggles at others.

Having Jericho's name value and initial run as Champion seems a loss on the face of it. However, the fact that Jon Moxley debuted on their first PPV and was right there the whole time, coming off several years in WWE seems a very capable replacement to me. With the caveat that I don't know what cache Jericho's name had with TNT.

What do we think? Bin or keep Chris Jericho's AEW run?

[LaGoosh]

Absolutely keep. Yeah he's been shite for ages but I think he was absolutely vital to those first few years. I'm not sure AEW would have got through them without him. 

For all the bad stuff if you together a list of top AEW moments ever a significant number of them would be Jericho bits.

Edited July 31, 2025 by LaGoosh

[Chili]

A no brainer keep for me. You could bring Mox in and have him take the gold, but he's someone I think the benefited from beating big baddie than just being the inaugural champion. Whilst Jericho storyline wise dropped off in 2022 (though interestingly for me he has his best AEW matches and was in his best ring shape that year) he was incredibly important to the early AEW when they still had their stabilisers on and were forging their identity. That's always the complex with a very talented yet wildly inconsistent performer like Jericho. His 2023-2025 run was so irritating that you almost forget that in 2019-early 2022 he was still one of the and definitely AEW's best all-rounders. There's so much good stuff in that first few years where he really put the work in both in-ring and a goofy prized on-screen dickhead.

[air_raid]

But if we lose him we can also forget idiots repeating “little bit of the bubbly” so… it’s a tough call.

[DavidB6937]

13 minutes ago, air_raid said:

But if we lose him we can also forget idiots repeating “little bit of the bubbly” so… it’s a tough call.

I miss the days where that was the most annoying thing about him.

[sivy]

Id absolutely keep Jericho run. Specially for that first year, the stampede stadium match. The inner circle stuff was good at the start of aew and was an important part of the show. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Absolutely keep. Yeah he's been shite for ages but I think he was absolutely vital to those first few years. I'm not sure AEW would have got through them without him. 

For all the bad stuff if you together a list of top AEW moments ever a significant number of them would be Jericho bits.

I was going to write a post but this one summed up all my thoughts. Keep.

[Snitsky's back acne]

7 hours ago, air_raid said:

But if we lose him we can also forget idiots repeating “little bit of the bubbly” so… it’s a tough call.

I still have this as a notification when I get a message on my phone.

I regret nothing. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

Definitely delete for me. It was a big name signing at the kick off event when AEW was revealed. But he almost cost them the TV deal with the Kylie Rae situation and it’s been far more misses than hits with him over his tenure. He’s booked a European Fozzy tour early 2026 which suggests WWE have either shown no interest or want him for a hall of fame induction. Either way he’s pretty washed in the ring, problematic outside it, and was one of the highest paid talents. The only way I’d keep him is to keep his gob shut.

[BomberPat]

I think I would probably lean towards delete, if we're just going off the balance of his in-ring work with AEW, because he spent longer either as a detriment to the show or as something bang average. But business-wise, I do wonder how much of a genuine bargaining chip he ended up being, and it does seem like he was pretty instrumental in being able to get a decent TV deal. Perhaps without him AEW gets TV a little later, and off the back of the likes of Moxley as the big name ex-WWE guy and Jim Ross as the seal of credibility, but it's impossible to say.