AEW RISING AND FADING STARS: Ciampa and Jericho should be embarrassed, Keny Omega has become like a good old-ish country song

Welcome everyone!

It felt like AEW sure did not care about Forbidden Door and was ready to put it in the rear view mirror. Maybe that should tell TK something because I think a chunk of the fanbase is ready to put that PPV in the past.

We got an AEW World Title match on Dynamite, which I thought was a nice touch since there was not one at the PPV. Surprisingly, though, we are getting another AEW World Title match this week.

Let’s look back at last week and see how I felt it shook out. My apologies to a couple of veteran wrestlers.

RISING STAR OF THE WEEK

KENNY OMEGA

In my humble opinion, Kenny Omega has had his best year in AEW, talking-wise, outside of what happened leading up to Forbidden Door with Zach Sabre Jr., that is. That was just meh, but then they killed it in the ring.

Otherwise, when there is a segment where Omega is talking, you need to listen. His backstage interactions after the last three PPVs with Will Ospreay alone are better than most of what Omega has ever done to forward his character within the AEW world. It’s almost like, after 7 years, we have a fully developed character fans will want to get behind.

Omega now is like that old-ish country song that goes “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” Something people understand. Omega and I are close in age so I get it and I’m sure other people who are past physical prime age will get it. Younger fans have watched their parents get older, so they get it.

This week will be a big week for Omega and AEW as a whole. Omega winning the title will, potentially, set up Omega vs Ospreay at All In London. A match that has years of backstory to pull from. If Omega loses, then we have another good story to be told with MJF just knocking people out of AEW World Title contention forever. Like it or not, it’s very MJF.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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FADING STAR OF THE WEEK

TAMMASO CIAMPA AND CHRIS JERICHO

What the hell was that backstage “brawl” they had on Dynamite? That felt very 2000s WCW in the worst way. What they were trying to accomplish could have been done in such a better way. Instead, it looked like something that was called on the fly. There is no way most of those spots were pre-planned, but if they were, both Ciampa and Jericho should be embarrassed.

Ciampa has been all over the place since joining AEW. He cuts babyface promos, at times, against top babyfaces like he did with Darby Allin. Then wrestles a style in AEW that will get him the “This is Awesome!” garbage-ass chant. Now it feels like Ciampa is getting to work with someone he has, in some ways, looked up to over his career. The issue is that Jericho is in his 50s and Ciampa is in his 40s. This feud would have been more exciting ten years ago.

Jericho, well… I wanted to give Jericho time to work through his new gimmick. The issue is there is no new gimmick this time. So what we have is an older Jericho who is not as funny and can’t wrestle his way out of a bad feud.

I am all for having veterans or legends on the roster, but when guys like Christian Cage & Adam Copeland are hitting more than missing, it makes Jericho look that much worse.

I really have no positive notes to end this one on. I am just ready for Ciampa and Jericho to be done with this feud. I am ready for Ciampa to be a consistent character or he will quickly become the next jobber to the stars. Jericho… it is time to move on.

On a serious end note, maybe both should be in tag teams with younger guys. If AEW dedicated more time to tag teams, this would be a great way for each of them to try to get over. It worked for Sting.