This is simply the greatest piece of television this year, and quite possibly the past decade:
There’s a great risk that if I try and explain everything that’s going on here, we’ll tumble down the weirdest rabbit hole in history. Even Lewis Carrol would raise an eyebrow and curl a lip, so I’ll do my best.
Everything about this is a complete capture of what makes wrestling wonderful to people like me (admittedly tetched). It is incredibly stupid and silly, while the characters aren’t even keenly aware of how silly and stupid it is yet the performers are not only acutely aware of how stupid and silly it is, but never for a second want to make you think that there’s anything wrong with being stupid and silly. WWE would almost certainly have someone staring or rolling their eyes at the camera to try and placate anyone who doesn’t get it or doesn’t want to, but this is what separates AEW.
It’s Chris Jericho the performer having Chris Jericho the character completely parody himself without having any idea while the performer leans completely into it. And this is Chris Jericho, the character that has hilarious old-man long hair (and blowing ever so gently in the Florida wind here is only helping), a pretty much gross body that he won’t put a shirt on under a glowing blazer, with his awful band performing his awful theme song that he’s somehow turned into a giant singalong, and even has a dumbass finisher. But Chris Jericho the performer knows all this and knows that not only is it ok, if you package it all correctly, it comes off flawlessly.
And here is the character treating a goddamn drone as he would anyone else that could be an obstacle, first by tearing it down and then promising salvation by offering it a place in his faction and dousing it with whatever riches Jericho can imagine a drone might desire (never once thinking about how a drone wouldn’t have any desires) that he ultimately can use for his benefit. It’s absolutely sublime.
This is the same Jericho that had a video package that showed him breaking down into tears over the chore of finding a place for him and his cronies to drink champagne. Simply majestic.
They’ll be studying this in various college classes for years.
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