Cody posted an image on Twitter of him, Dean Malenko and Tony Khan about to board a plane heading to DoN.

Not to mention, the chase is where the money is at. Put it on a piece shit heel like Jericho. Build up a babyface to chase him and make that kid a star in the process. I'm all for Jericho being the first champ. Also gives him the gimmick similar to the "first undisputed champion" schtick.

I think "the money is in the chase" is a bit of a myth. Especially in modern wrestling when people's immediate interest seems to be in the performance. I can already hear the bitching if Jericho wins the belt first, with people tuning out because it's "just like WWE" (regardless of whether or not they have a plan for Jericho or not).

What would make potential fans the happiest? Would it be for Jericho to be a heel parading around for a few months as champion, because he's the guy with the most recognition to people who aren't watching, or him being shoved on his ass and being humbled up and sent back to the drawing board?

If they can find a babyface that people definitely want to watch, then that's probably more beneficial than having the belt on a heel just to mimic what used to work in territory wrestling, because you'd have a bunch of territory babyfaces that were built up. Omega is your territory babyface -- build him up. Hangman Page could be that guy in a few years, so while he shouldn't lose all the time, he can be the young guy with potential a heel like Jericho walks over to re-build him for title matches and the like -- eventually putting the guy over down the line, when you've pumped stakes and story into it.

I don't think there's one way to skin the cat in this situation. Jericho would not suck, from my perspective, as first champ. I just think it would be colder than people think to viewers that stopped watching WWE when Jericho meant something there.

Modern wrestling still uses the heel being chased. We just saw it with Kofi and Rollins. Other than Omega, who may not want to book himself as champ given his stature in the company, they don't have any babyface stars. They're going to have to create them. Trying to do that on your second ppv in your first 4 months or so is a big ask. Putting the belt on a guy and expecting them to be over doesn't typically work. Jericho is useful here. Putting the belt on him to start doesn't automatically mean people are going to think it's just like wwe.

Lol, Rollins and Kofi aren't exactly setting the world on fire, are they? I'm not sure you create these babyfaces stars by booking everyone under Jericho for months. I think it comes with an element of risk.

Not to mention Jericho winning doesn't necessarily not make fans happy. They shouldn't jump the gun and hot shot a guy strictly to make fans happy. We'll see what they do but given how unknown their roster is I can't see why putting the belt on an established star who you know will put a young guy over well and try to make him would be a bad start.

But that's what they've got a chance to do at Double or Nothing, lol -- use Jericho to make a guy. It's not hot-shotting to put a babyface over in the main event of your first PPV.

People tuning it may not know who Kenny Omega is, but they might ask "Who is Kenny Omega?" And the answer might be "Oh, he's the best wrestler in the company." You can't really say that with any sort of honesty if you've got a 50-year-old Jericho walking around with the belt because Omega done goofed. Keep it simple.

I think it's a situation where it doesn't really matter which way they go. You could do a lot of great stuff with either direction.

Personally I'm in the Jericho camp. It is indeed great to see a character like Jericho get humble. But I also think it's even better when it's built up really well. Jericho is their biggest and best heel. I think for a guy so good at being a shithead, the payoff should come a little later.

Also, Kenny is kind of a weird guy. He may not click with everyone in the mainstream audiences right away. But Kenny chasing the belt being held by one of his arch rivals and certainly his arch nemesis in AEW, is a story that will adhere him to people very well. Because I do believe Omega should be the one to dethrone Jericho.

While I don't believe the money is always in the chase, I think in this case, it's a really good option.

But like I said before, given the talent involved I'm confident they can make it work regardless who wins.

I think Jericho is gonna screw Kenny and get his win that way we can get a rubber match down the road. And as far as Jericho's tweet to Lesnar, who cares.

Further explanation of my thinking...

AEW "wants" to develop something with NJPW so they can exchange talent. They've already got some talent with verbal deals like Jericho and Omega. Perhaps giving Jericho a win over Omega makes Gedo happy so that Jericho comes in strong against Okada for their IWGP Championship bout in June, soon after Double or Nothing.

Also leaves the door open for the third match, which could take place on an AEW show or perhaps even on an NJPW show. And then there is the outside chance that Jericho is getting a run with the IWGP Championship, in that case it would be a great idea to have Omega lose to Jericho at Double or Nothing when neither of them have a championship, but AEW has announced the winner of Jericho/Omega at Double or Nothing will be #1 contender against he winner of the Battle Royal. And I think it would make the AEW championship match mean a hell of a lot more if the IWGP Champion was apart of it, and even won it to become a dual champion. And that would be so Jericho wouldn't it?

Let me preface this by saying Chris Jericho is one of my legit 3 favorite wrestlers ever, and I personally think he is the best I've ever seen in terms of pure talent. My other 2 favorites are not in the same league as him (Tazz and Kevin Nash) and are just people I enjoyed for whatever reasons.

Jericho should not be the first champion. No way in hell. Really bad look for them to have a 50 year old ex-WWE main eventer as their first champion when they are trying to be an alternative. You could do it by having Jericho when via shenanigans, but then you have your first main event not being a clean match and ending fuzzy and again, is that really a way to present yourself as an alternative to WWE?

Then there's Jericho's recent comments in regards to Lesnar. The ones about a 40 year old taking spots from the younger guys......and then just a few days later he's going to win the title in a new companies first major event? And he's 50??? Talk about taking spots from the younger talent. Not a good look there. At all.

If they are going to go the route of a dirty finish of some type and not have Jericho do the job I would hope they would find some way to end it in a double KO. Not a count out outside the ring, not a DQ. A double KO. No one leaves as champion, you have an excellent match, everyone looks strong, the fans are left wanting more and to see who is going to get that belt in the end. And it's not stereotypical WWE.

Edit: Forgot the winner faces the winner of that battle royale and it's not for the title directly. So I dunno what you would do here honestly. I take back the double KO finish idea because I don't want the eventual first title match to be a triple threat. I'd still say Omega has to go over unless Jericho goes over dirty and they have a rematch for the title shot as a blow off match.

<iframe width="1439" height="557" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PWWShSOkqXA" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And with the winner facing the winner of the battle royale at a later date that would mean making Jericho champion would require him to go over 2 younger talents. Uhg on that idea.

Maybe they could have Jericho go over Omega in their match and then have Omega enter the battle royale later and somehow manage to survive and win it. That could potentially work.

It sounds like the planned booking was meant to be Omega/Jericho and Page/PAC being the two matches to determine the first title match. And then Omega was going to go over PAC.

But with Dragongate deciding they wanted PAC to keep their belt longer, and PAC is refusing to lose singles matches while he's their champion so as to not cheapen it for whoever takes that belt off of him...that forced them to alter their plans so that now the battle royal winner faces the winner of Jericho/Omega instead.

At this point I think Hangman might simply enter the battle royal and win. Letting him hang with Kenny will help establish him fairly quickly, and if the plans were always for Kenny to be the first champion they can continue to go that route.

Given the stipulation, if it's not Hangman it surely has to be Moxley. Can't imagine their first ever title match would just feature some random scrub.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AEW Has The Next '6 Months To A Year' Worth Of Storylines Planned<a href="https://t.co/EfobtQHBAT">https://t.co/EfobtQHBAT</a></p>&mdash; PWStream (@PWStream) <a href="https://twitter.com/PWStream/status/1131571904312217601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Refreshing. Let's see if they can maintain that long termapproach.

Jericho signed for 3 years so he’s in it for the long haul. I don’t think his age should be an issue. HBK was the best wrestler in WWE by far in the mid 2000s. But since he was “old”, he was treated like an over the hill legend who existed to get others over when he should have probably been getting serious world title reigns. It was stupid. Age should not factor in.

And as far as the hypocrisy of his Lesnar comments, it fits right in with his heel character. Troll the internet and be a hypocritical bastard. It’s harder and harder to make a heel nowadays. If you’ve gotta can me off as a scummy guy online to do it, so be it.

Also, the fact that he was a WWE main eventer shouldn’t factor in. He’s a star. Showcase him while you’re building homegrown talent. This isn’t TNA taking anyone who ever had a cup of coffee in WWE and making them champion over all their guys for a decade +. It’s a new company putting the title on their biggest star and then, hopefully trying to build up their own guys organically instead of just throwing the title on a midcard guy and crossing their fingers ala WWE. Make the title a big deal and THEN put it on the star you made.

<iframe width="1439" height="557" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N8EK2osMg08" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This Battle Royale just got better.

And are these recent Jericho comments more than just that sarcastic tweet he sent about Lesnar? Has he said more on the subject that I missed?

He has cut plenty of promos about being in the ring makes soandso a bigger deal because of Jericho's name. Can easily run that.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Holy shit I thought reddit was kidding. XFINITY’s preview image for Double or Nothing really is a WWE 2k created arena <a href="https://t.co/m4jOxMWhfV">pic.twitter.com/m4jOxMWhfV</a></p>&mdash; Soundwave (@LocalSoundwave) <a href="https://twitter.com/LocalSoundwave/status/1131392616317247489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I thought we wanted AEW to be an alternative to WWE. Not more of the same. WWE gets shit on when they bring in legends and thrust them into the main event. Everyone whines about it.....but hey this is AEW so it's fucking awesome to bring in an old legend and thrust them into the main event. WHAT?

And we're just going to dismiss the shit Jericho said on twitter because hey it conveniently fits in with him being a heel? LOL that's rich. Do we give Lars a pass for saying racist shit because it's totally a heel move and he was just setting up his character to be hated?

It's like you're picking and choosing when certain things are acceptable based solely on the company/person doing them. People/companies you like get a pass, the ones you don't get grief.

I'm probably just too high and reading too much into this. You're probably just shilling for Jericho (can't blame you, he is the titties) or AEW.

Jericho made himself relevant on that scene with his awesome performances in New Japan. He didn't just get 'thrust' into the scene OUTTA NOWHERE

Also age does matter. Let's not pretend it doesn't. When competing at the highest levels of any physical event it usually tends to be age that causes people to start dropping off in skill/strength/speed at an ever increasing rate. There is a huge difference between Jericho now at 50, and Jericho 10 years ago or 20 years ago. I wouldn't have an issue at all with a 40-42 (give or take here, but not much older) y/o Jericho being in this spot at the onset of AEW. But he's 50 now. He's not the same guy he was. 50 is.....pushing it to be acting like he's the best you've got when you have a bunch of physically superior guys that are 10-25 years younger.

And Jericho is always in the main event or adjacent to it in WWE. But he isn't universal champion. I just don't think he should be the first champion. It's not a good look to me. I'm probably using the term main event too liberally here because I don't mean it as in the whole main event scene, I mean it as in the main event of this particular show. That's the context I'm talking about here.

And I'll reiterate because of your point; I take issue with how Jericho recently talked about Brock. Brock didn't just randomly get thrust into the main event; he's the most credible guy in the business just because of his UFC run, like it or not. Brock is far more believable as a credible champion at this point. FAR MORE.

AEW needs to be presenting itself as something entirely different. I have no issue with Jericho being at the top of the card in terms of programs he's working. But I want that first champion to be someone awesome that is different, that hasn't been a long time WWE guy, that isn't old and nearing the sunset of his career, someone AEW can build into THEIR guy. Taking legends from WWE and making them your champion for a quick draw is so TNA.

Just found out the PPV is on Saturday.... working anyways... not that I'd get it for 50 bucks....

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hangman Page Says He's &quot;Not Allowed&quot; To Wrestle At AEW Double Or Nothing <a href="https://t.co/8qxLuP2p0J">https://t.co/8qxLuP2p0J</a></p>&mdash; Fightful Wrestling, MMA, Boxing (@Fightful) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fightful/status/1131631903553933312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Anybody read the latest Jim Ross bullshit interview with ESPN??

Sits there saying the people who run WWE are "administrative" but don't know wrestling.

Could this asshole be gripping any harder???

He is legit turning me off on him having any involvement in AEW.

Does this dumb prick really not realize he is working for a dude that used his daddy's money to subscribe to the fucking wrestling observer newsletter, and that somehow means he "knows wrestling"??

I want AEW to stand in its own, not be the newest place ex WWE people go to bury WWE because they aren't as important to WWE as they think and WWE did them wrong.

JR trying to turn this into TNA version 2.0 because he has an axe to grind. Boomer Sooner blaaaaaah

Shawn Michaels retired at 44 years old.

And as great as Jericho is, he was never 'The Top Guy".

It's really not an Apple to Apple comparison saying a 48 year old is the same thing as the guy many consider the best ever was at 44 when he retired.

And no it doesn't play into his heel character, he is trying to be a babyface to AEW fans despite being a heel within the company, by bashing WWE, because like I just posted about JR, the BEST WAY to get a new company over is by having EX WWE guys talk about how bad WWE is.

WWE is frustrating as hell, so why would I go out of my way to watch a DIFFERENT show that is talking about WWE. It is the dumbest business model I have ever heard of.

Observer confirmed the rumors from Jericho's recent podcast show of AEW being on ITV for the UK market.

Still waiting for AEW to officially decide which day of the week to run their weekly show before the deal can be made official.

Dude, why are you looking for reasons to hate AEW? It's bordering on creepy at this point. Don't understand your 'deal.' Your posts are annoying as fuck and you add little to no insight.

He’s not wrong.

And if you watch interviews with Tony Khan, it’s clear that he has a genuine love for pro wrestling. He may not know wrestling as well as someone who’s worked in the industry but I’d bet money he knows a lot more than the execs in WWE.

More details on PAC-Page being pulled from Double or Nothing:

Also seems they already timed out the matches for DoN's card so a draw result was out of the question unless more changes were made. Also wanted to save their first draw result for a much bigger match in the future.

Exactly what did I say about AEW? I said JR and Jericho. Just because they work for AEW doesn't mean I said anything about AEW.

In fact I literally said JR is making me wish he had nothing to do with AEW, because I don't want his negativity and bullshit bitterness at "The E" to give AEW the perception they are like TNA.

Quite frankly it pisses me off that you equate what I said about 2 people running off at the mouth means I hate AEW, and feel the need to attack me. maybe if you weren't so far up their asses you wouldn't be so blinded by loyalty that you can't handle any negative aspects about anybody associated with AEW.

I'm sorry I'm not willing to blow JR or Jericho just because they are in AEW, and when they say stupid shit I'll say it's stupid regardless of what Wrestling Company they work for. Stop being so biased and maybe you won't get such "hurtfeels" every time somebody post something other than how they are busting a nut in their pants while thinking about AEW.

hmm nah I think you should just stop being a dipshit.

I saw some promo for this with Jericho acting like it was real cage match stuff. He did some weak kicks and a back elbow called Judas something...

Then he swore.

He has Ric Flair tits now.

I've seen his matches with Omega and Naito. Both were the fucking tits (not his saggy man tits, just v good).