Chris Jericho made history by becoming the first AWE (All Elite Wrestling) heavy weight championship at their All Out Pay-per-view.
It’s another step in what has been a hall of fame career. Jericho was the inaugural WWE (then WWF) Undisputed (currently the Universal) Champion in 2001 following another tournament.
Firsts have become a trademark of Jericho’s career, but two days after his historic AEW win, he lost the title. Well, the title belt, anyway.
Accidents happen
While out to dinner Tuesday night, the belt was left in the airport’s limo. Jericho had reportedly picked up the wrong luggage, so the driver returned them to the airport while Jericho ate. When the limo returned to pick him up, the belt was gone.
Jericho did what you’d expect and filled out a stolen property report with the Tallahassee police and the news shot across the internet, including the AEW creative team reportedly creating a promo of sorts with a video of Jericho jokingly claiming he had launched a worldwide investigation to find his title.
On Wednesday, an individual turned the belt in to the Tallahassee Police Department after finding it alongside the road.
The belt is valued at $30,000 and no arrests have been made as yet.
The spin
It’s easy for something like this to give a promotion a black eye that is often difficult to recover from. As fans, we take for granted that any news that comes out is storyline related, so when something serious like this happens, we either laugh or look at the promotion with a WTF? mindset.
AEW’s spin worked wonders and turned any negative feedback on this into a positive and they’ll come out of this all the better as we will laugh this off and they got some nationwide attention free of charge (especially since they got the belt back).
One thing that is certain, we’ll be able to see how much the AEW is fear in the coming days and weeks as other promotions mention this in an effort to embarrass the promotion.
It’s safe to say, AEW won’t care. They’ve done their part and will reap the benefits.
Oddities and championships go hand in hand
History is on AEW’s side in this, as various championships have had interesting histories when in the hands of their respective champions. A memorable on was the Stanley Cup. In 1991 or 1992 after the Pittsburgh Penguins won, the prized trophy was reportedly at the bottom of Mario Lemieux’s pool during a party and its side was indented from someone sitting on it.
After that, having their championship belt stolen seems tame in comparison, but it probably stopped a few hearts in AEW executive branch.
It also brings up the question as to how fast other promotions decide to include something similar in their storylines. Having belts stolen isn’t a new gimmick, but it could become the new trend pretty quick.
Like in other sports, the phrase “it’s a copycat league” comes to mind.
