#the jas

I wasn’t always a full time AEW viewer, in fact I began watching regularly in the summer of 2022. What attracted me was Eddie Kingston. 

Eddie had the physique of a plumber, the gear of an indie guy who forgot his main attire at home so he scrapped together what he could find, and the speech of an angry New Yorker who spent the days yelling at kids on his stoop. That is what makes him so appealing. At the time, Kingston was feuding with Chris Jericho and his faction The Jericho Appreciation society. This faction had some of the guys from the previous Jericho stable, The Inner Circle, with some new additions in 2.0 and Daniel Garcia. The gimmick: Sports Entertainers who hated wrestling. If it sounds like an obnoxious WWE parody, then you’re right it was. You got the joke immediately and did not have room for expansion, they were guys who dressed in goofy matching outfits and “entertained” that’s really it. Kingston would get back up from the Blackpool Combat Club and LAX (Santana and Ortiz). They would do Anarchy in the Arena and Blood n Guts. The feud had strong moments with Kingston walking down the ramp during AitA, blood on his face, a cold dead stare, and a canister of gasoline and Kingston and Co. winning the BnG match. 

However it would have the stankest, wettest fart of an ending where Jericho and Kingston would have an abysmal barb wire match that saw Jericho winning with botches a plenty. Kingston would go on to get in a backstage altercation with Sammy Guevara who provoked him. He was in the wrong to get physical with someone who is an aggravating little turd, and he would tell you that himself. A suspension would follow and Kingston gave a half sincere apology on the short lived AEW reality tv show to which I do not care enough to look up the name. 

This is what feuding with Jericho does to an M. F. 

Kingston is not the only victim I saw fall to Jericho, Daniel Garcia is another name that comes to mind. Garcia was the young blood of the JAS. Originally under the tutelage of 2.0 and then absorbed into the JAS. He’s a gifted technical wrestler, but was a SANADA type, who did not really have any personality but was good at the graps. The goal, at least what we the viewers assumed was the goal, was to make Garcia a new bright star. He became the center of the JAS vs BCC feud, with Danielson wanting him to join their stable as he saw the potential in him. Garcia would get a clean win over Dragon and even went after the ROH Pure Title. The Dynamite where he challenged for the belt saw him get a special entrance coming out to DR BIRDS by Westside Gunn (the Jack Nicholson of Wrestling [thanks Olly!]).

 This was in his hometown, and he got the victory, this should’ve been his star making moment. Until the swerve happened. What we thought was going to be him breaking away from Jericho he would continue to be his underling, he lost the belt back to Wheeler Yuta, his momentum came to a screeching halt, but hey at least he dances funny now! Garcia has been mostly another guy with a dumb gimmick that makes him meme worthy. This misusage can be pointed at Jericho, but Tony Khan is equally as guilty.

Jericho would also go on to win the ROH World Title. Weirdly, he would have straightforward clean wins over previous ROH champions/regulars and one Tomohiro Ishii. Among these matches Jericho would have another worst match of the year contender with Colt Cabana. One that is meant for the boys.

 A rib directed to a extremely disgruntled CM Punk. To be fair, Cabana was wearing the wrong socks which messed up his flow (be patient he’s only been wrestling for a few measly decades) but for Jericho what was his excuse? Jericho would get a “win” over Danielson, Castagnoli, and Guevara at Full Gear (140,000 buys) but then unceremoniously lose it at ROH Final Battle (25,400 buys hm wonder why he would drop it on such a low buyrate) to the guy he beat for it rather than put over someone new. Going by Cagematch Jericho would only lose 4 singles matches. Sure you want to keep someone like Jericho strong, especially since he's a former world champion. However, that number is insanely protective of a 53 year old guy who’s at the tail end of his career. 

Jericho would try to make up for this, spending 2023 losing more than winning. It was not great. 

Right after losing the ROH belt, Jericho would put over an unknown Action Andretti in a shocking upset.

 Action Andretti in 2023 is 10-16 and most of his matches are in ROH. Ricky Starks would have an amazing showing in his world title match, and to follow that up he would have to do his time with Jericho. He would beat Jericho on his first encounter and then go on to beat him once again at Revolution. It felt like a waste of time, the matches were not spectacular, Ricky was going downhill and thankfully Collision would save his heat, but there’s strong rumors regarding his departure for the WWE. 

His next victim was Adam Cole, and Keith Lee who already struggles to get on booked on TV had to lay down for Jericho to sell this program. Jericho would team up with (read: try to get in on Saraya’s heel turn heat) The Outcasts to beat up Britt Baker to give Cole some character motivation.

 The segment where The Outcasts and JAS hate-crimed Baker and Cole was strange to me, because the JAS have two female wrestlers in their ranks. It is as if Jericho simply forgot about them. To give Cole and Jericho’s matchup more juice, TK brought in Sabu and the match was made an unsanctioned match (but was aired on PPV?). The match was bad, and the feud forgotten. Luckily for Cole, he is so over that he moved onto to have one of the best programs with MJF. 

Following this Jericho would face off against Sting for a mini feud, but the Jericho Rub could not harm Sting because he is Sting. Simple As.

Enter Don Callis. He betrayed Kenny Omega during the BCC vs Elite Feud and replaced him with Takeshita as the wrestler he would be the personal manager to. He became the most hated heel in the company and having personally sat in the crowd where he had his first town hall as a heel, I can confirm the boos were deafening. Callis would then reach out to Jericho to join the Don Callis Family faction and Jericho was going to join. Jericho would team up with Takeshita and cheat to beat Guevara and Garcia. This would lead to the break up of the JAS, where all members sans Jericho and Guevara would continue to team with each other almost like they just became the *AS. 

Then Callis saw his cronies give a beat down on Jericho, which I must applaud Jericho’s ability to find himself working with the most over acts in the company, he always finds a way to involve himself. Hell he even pitched a program with a returning CM Punk which I no do not doubt would have been the worst wrestling match ever put on American broadcasting! Jericho is a shark and if there’s blood in the water he will find it. Jericho joined the Elite vs Callis feud, and even faced a Will Ospreay at All In. The build to this match was baffling. Ospreay is practically a heelish face in NJPW. He was the face in the match against Kenny at Wrestle Kingdom, and mostly works face. However he’s heel in AEW. Sure he worked heel vs Kenny at Forbidden Door since Canada, but the build to All In saw him be a heel. Then at All In he’s a face since London! What is going on! Jericho just turned face! Now he’s doing heel tactics and even said at the aftermath Dynamite he should have cheated??? Who wrote this?? At least Ospreay went back to NJPW and is finishing up his run there.

Jericho and Sammy would have tension teasing some kind of split. Now before I go any further, I must preface: I do not like Sammy Guevara. He is an overused, overexposed, mishandled and misbooked worker who represents zero IQ wrestling psychology. He’s a terrible promo and has terrible character work. He has attempted to turn face only to go back to heel because when he tries cutting a face promo and you can hear the simultaneous clicks of remote buttons to change it to Family Feud. 

Having said that, even I thought it was egregious for Jericho to beat Sammy. How does one man spend all year losing draw the line at his understudy? Guevara suffered a concussion during this Jericho and Kenny vs Don Callis, and is out on paternity leave. Who knows when Jericho will do him right, perhaps never. 

Jericho and Kenny have been teaming, they beat the Young Bucks for their Title Contendership and are now facing Ricky Starks and Big Bill for the Tag Team Championship. Starks and Bill have been giving beatdowns to Kenny and Jericho to build for the match. They even had the worst, and I mean this with all my heart, the worst in ring promo battle I have ever seen. Awful jokes, no selling insults, and doubling down on lines that did not land with the crowd. The look on Kenny’s face screams that he is checked out. 

However, as of writing this, Kenny is now out on injury for an indefinite amount of time. Jericho is now lost in the wind and I imagine both Starks and Bill are relieved. 

Jericho has proven this past year to not be any benefit to anyone he works with. He finds out who is the most over and tries to get in on their overness despite it making sense. All of his programs seem slapped together, as if Tony allows him to plan out his angles without any pushing back. I imagine he pitches these to guys who may want to have the opportunity to work with someone with decades of experience, but they do not see through him as a clout vampire. The goal of Jericho is how can I keep myself on TV, he has DEMO GOD plastered on himself for crying out loud! 

His character is supposed to be an aging rockstar who desperately clinging on for dear life, but it does not help when that is just who he is in real life. With Kenny out, what is next for Jericho? Hopefully retirement.