In his first feud back in AEW after a year away, Chris Jericho worked with a former independent wrestling star who spent much his prime with WWE but now was in AEW using all his experience to remind wrestling fans why he was a star on the indies in the first place. Jericho’s opponent won the opening match in the rivalry on PPV by nefarious means, but ultimately lost the program.
That was Ricochet. Next up? Another former independent wrestling star who spent much of his prime with WWE but who’s now in AEW using all his experience to remind wrestling fans why he was a star on the indies in the first place.
Tommaso Ciampa targeted Jericho, and didn’t like it when the inaugural AEW World champ mocked him for it. Weeks of tension and backstage attacks led to their first match, which wasn’t on PPV, but was on the big Beach Break episode of Dynamite that featured two title changes and possibly send another championship in another direction for August’s return to Wembley Stadium.
From the start of Beach Break last night (July 8), Ciampa and don’t-call-me-Chris (sometimes) made liberal use of the set in Fort Lauderdale …
But while Jericho seemed to have things in hand, the 30 and 40-somethings he’s worked with thus far in his latest AEW run don’t play by the rules the way his character does right now. Showing little concern for getting disqualified, the Psycho Killer brought a prop into the ring. It paif off, even though he had to take a Codebreaker in the process. Ciampa later threw more sand in the legend’s face to escape before Jericho could lock in a submission. Or see the ensuing running knee that led to his being pinned.
Officials arrived in the nick of time (or thereabouts in Rick Knox’s case) to stop Ciampa from using a power drill on The Terrifier 2 & 3 actor.
I’m guessing Le Champion will stand tall over the two-time NXT champ before too long though.
Do you think Jericho will spend much more of his latest AEW run losing feud-openers to aging former indie darlings before ultimately going over them? How does that compare to his track record in the promotion up to now? Is it better than a WWE return would have been?
Sound off in the comments below.
