Chris Jericho vs. Jon Moxley

[7.0] "A decent brawl. I didn't expect more so I'm not disappointed but it could be a bit better for a championship match (and for a title change as well)."

[5.0] "Nothing more or less than a competent main event with a welcome title change. Credit to Jericho for getting at least one very good defence under his belt during this reign against Cody at Full Gear, but broken clocks and all that. He was a distinctly dull worker at his best, never mind by 2020, and this doesn't have a lot to offer after the more exciting opening stages where they brawl around the venue and pop off a couple gags. Moxley's eye isn't as much of a factor as it should be. It's not a bad watch and it does the job, complete with Mox getting the post-match Ace speech, but it relies on some bells and whistles to sustain a 20-minute runtime. [**3/4]"

[5.0] "My expectations for this match were truly higher. When two of the greatest wrestlers in history face off, you expect--at the very least--a good match. But it didn't quite deliver. It is evident that Jericho's body is worn down and he no longer has the stamina for a standard, lengthy one-on-one bout; I really wish we had seen a no-rules match instead."

[7.0] "This was started really strong, but kinda fell apart towards the end with all the interference. Fortunately, they pulled it back with the reveal that Moxley could see."

[9.0] "[4.25*] I Have Nothing To Say. THIS HAS ALL THE SEEDS OF A OLD-SCHOOL, ALL-STAR CLASSIC DAMN MATCH! but the story is that moxley's eye. the inner circle punched it in until moxley reveals he could see! he could see! a bunch of interferences, usually hate them but it fits the match like a glove like attitude era overbooking. and...the promo made me shut a tear, this gave jon moxley a character and a role model for everyone! the heart and soul of aew, in fucking deed."

[8.0] "No the work wasn't very dynamic or free flowing but this had the feel of a main event and the necessary aggression between both guys to warrant the build. Lots of American style melodrama with the inner circle interfering multiple times, but I still felt Jericho and Moxley held up their side of the bargain and put on a good show. ****"

[5.0] "Very dull match. The first few minutes were fun but the match never seems to hit that next gear. The interferences were whatever and didn't really add anything to match mainly because the crowd was dead at this point"

[5.0] "John Moxley becomes AEW's second world champion after defeating Jericho for it. This started off with good energy. I thought the brawling style played to both men's. For a Jericho whose abilities have declined a lot, it masks his deficiencies. For Moxley, brawling is just his go-to style when not working an even more violent style of matches. But then action comes back to the ring. Jericho has to work over Moxley. The target is clear: Jon's eye, hurt behind an eyepatch. Chris goes for it, but him working in control is just stale. Not enough variety, not mean-spirited enough either. The shenanigans don't help, and the reveal that Jon's eye isn't hurt is just stupid. He had blood on the "sane" eye and was swinging like he was blind just a minute earlier, without any logical explanation other than to get a pop."

[7.0] "Not the highest octane match but good and did what it was supposed to which was put the title on Mox. However, and I felt this way at the time too, Jericho's reign should've lasted one full year. This was Jericho's last great run to date and he was a very good champion. I felt a brand new title needed a long reign from a legend to give it legitimacy."

[8.0] "Wow, early AEW truly feels like a fever dream. This match, I believe, for better or worse set what AEW would be up until today. Two huge names duking it out, which would already be news enough, but the writing is good enough that a fabulous story could still be attained throughout this predictable, but still very much enjoyable match. The story Jon Moxley is able to tell, that is such a great finish to his shock debut at double or nothing really invigorated my interest in wrestling at the time and led to such a fabulous title reign that would only be surpassed by the next person to hold the belt. This match meant so much to AEW, but maybe it meant so much to wrestling as a whole in 2020."

[5.0] "Starts off interesting but quickly turns to sludge and the middle just stays at that sludgish pace for a bit before it builds up a bit and just kinda ends. Very mediocre from both sides and the interferences were just existing.... Not anything new or exciting"

[6.0] "Not too bad, but it was definitely lacking suspense and urgency. It had good energy to begin with thanks to Moxley and Jericho brawling through the crowd. The latter eventually captures the advantage by focusing on a cut he opens up near Moxley's ostensibly injured left eye. Jericho's work on top was nothing special but serviceable, and he was assisted in maintaining the advantage by periodic interference from the Inner Circle who are eventually ejected from ringside by Aubrey Edwards. That probably got the biggest pop of the entire match. Moxley eventually reveals that his eye was never as injured as he led people to believe, and so he is able to win the decision and the championship after dodging a couple of attempts at the Judas Effect by Y2J. Overall, the match was enjoyable for its twenty minute runtime, but it could have used an extra sizzle. And while I liked Moxley baiting Jericho with the eye, I thought they could have packed a few more nearfalls or big moves into the closing stretch to really up the suspense and urgency which felt somewhat lacking throughout despite it being a world championship bout in the main event of a good PPV. While I don't think this was ever going to top the phenomenal tag team match from earlier in the show, it could've been a tad more exciting considering this was Moxley's crowning moment as world champion. ***"

[6.0] "another jericho match that went way to long this match felt like a slog other then a few spots, it gets good towards the end as the crowd pops for Mox being able to see but before that there dead which also takes away from the story of Mox coming back against the odds, it was a fine enough match just shouldnt of mainevented and had the saem issues as Hangman v Jericho but Mox was selling which gives it a 6"

[7.0] "This was a pretty good match, but doesn't necessarily feel main event standard after some of the other great matches on this show. This was pretty solid of a walk and brawl for a while. This may have gone on a while longer than necessary in my eyes. Jericho was relatively protected enough here while Mox looked strong in winning the title. The eye reveal from Mox finally happened here. Intrigued to see what comes next."

[9.0] "The match where Jericho passed the torch to Moxley in a great fashion. This feud was so good really enjoyed it and I missed this Mox so much instead of the shit version of him we've got the last couple of years. Great match."

[5.0] "The way I remembered feeling about this match on the night still stands to this day. Which is to say, it's kinda weird that in the main event you have two guys who made their name in WWE fighting for the world title in a pretty limp match on the same show that had an absolutely insane tag match with people who made their name outside WWE. It obviously made business sense but as far as the direction of AEW it portrayed a stark contrast and kind of illustrated exactly where AEW should focus its attention in my mind."

[9.0] "A great match and main event with a really good story, fast paced in ring work and a fantastic way for Jon Moxley to be crowned AEW World Champion for the first time ever."

[7.0] "In which Moxley proves hes still got it in him to do a proper wrestling match instead of the deathmatch style weve seen from him on PPV up to now. Enjoyed the storyline here, Jericho turning it into a scrap ultimately being his undoing was great and made perfect sense given these characters, and there was some great Boston Crab reversals. Whats letting this down for me is the brawl at the start which was too slow and unengaging compared to the genuinely great in ring work they got up to once Jericho called his own win."

[7.0] "This was a really good match that crowned the second ever AEW World champion. There it was a clear babyface/heel dynamic with Jericho being despicable heel meanwhile Moxley was the underdog who had to fight from underneath. I really enjoyed the first of the match with the brawl through the crowd, my favorite part of the match. In-ring action was good too. Moxley and Jericho never had a really good chemistry but this was easily their best match up to that point. The interference by Inner Circle was well done and the crowd got super behind Moxley. The ending with Moxley revealing his eye had healed was very satisfying and him winning the title was such a cool moment. Not the best match from a technical standpoint but entertains and, in the end, satisfies with it's pay-off. ***3/4"

[7.0] "This was a decent main event. Jericho worked as a heel and stacked the odds against an underdog Moxley. The wrestling in the ring was decent and the Brawling on the outside was fun. Moxley got his big title win."

[7.0] "This was a pretty good match. The in ring work was solid but the brawling the best part of the match. There was the Inner Circle at ringside and Jericho was playing the heel with the numbers games and got the crowd behind Mox. Moxley got the win and won the title."

[7.0] "Good main event: a funny brawl in the beginning and once they get into the ring Jericho takes advantage. Good comeback by Mox, great heel work by Jericho and great interferences by Inner Circle. I think that the match went for too long but Jericho's work on the eye only for Moxley to reveal that his eye was healed and win the match was very satisfying. Great moment for Moxley! 7/10 - 3.5*/5*"

[7.0] "This was a really good main-event. Moxley gave a great performance here and Jericho was good as well, though some of his work on top wasn't very interesting. The eye-patch reveal was fun and Jon winning the title was great. ***3/4"

[3.0] "Where I was able to find the style of wrestling I like to watch and enjoy in this company just before in the show with Allin vs Guevara, The Elite's tag and PAC vs Cassidy, I found here typically the kind of matches I hate. These kind of clichéd big world title main events can be great when the overbooking is good, and can be detestable when it's done badly as was unfortunately the case here. I had quite a few expectations for this match as in my memory it wasn't that bad, indeed the result and Moxley's moment was perfectly cool but when that's literally all there's to remember about a twenty-two minute big match there's something wrong with it. I don't see anything wrong with wanting to replicate the type of big, overbooked Attitude Era main events that worked back in the day, but to me that style is unique to WWE and in this case it was extremely poorly booked. The typical Inner Circle overbooking, Jericho's long heat, Aubrey's omnipresence, Jericho's botches... outside of the crowd and the final sprint with Moxley, everything is just flat. By far the worst PPV main event in the short history of All Elite Wrestling, not good at all."

[7.0] "A somewhat unexpected title change that led to an awesome reign by Moxley. The match itself was good, but not spectacular. ***1/2"

[0.0] "It was bad. Chris Jericho is unfortunately even worse than Goldberg in the ring these days. Not a lot of wrestling and holds, but a lot of overkicks and headbutts. It would have worked as a breakout match between a team match and a real main event, but it just ruined the show and made me question the immediacy of the show."

[7.0] "Not a very compelling match since I think everyone saw Moxley was going to win, but it got the job done and the finish with Mox removing the eye patch and hitting the finish was a great moment."

[6.0] "Jericho's title run was so weird. Had great promos and segments but all of his matches were just so dull for the most part. Crowd was flat for most of this but they popped for Mox's win, which I guess is all that matters now."

[2.0] "The year-end rewatch didn't do this match any favors, because after that, I have a hard time coming up with anything good about this one. What killed this match for me was Jericho and his dreadful work on top, and that just happened to cover most of the match. Yeahh. His boring, slow, generic, uninteresting work sucked all the energy & spark out of the match, and played a part in most of Moxley's hope spots/comebacks feeling hollow & cold. I guess Moxley's selling was solid throughout, so there's that at least & the eyepatch-reveal at the end was pretty fun, but this wasn't a good match at all."

[5.0] "How to describe this match? Well of all the matches on this show, it was definitely one of them. It was worked the same way a heavyweight main event from WWE would be worked - some alright spots that lean towards brawl-y moves interspersed with rest holds after each. Each man would go on to have far more interesting matches in the company and the result of this one will be remembered more than the match itself. Long, slow, but not inherently bad. Just about on par with the standard American style main event without doing anything memorable. 2 and 1/2 stars."

[8.0] "The match suffered (like Jericho vs Page did from a few months before) for having a main event that was less high octane or immediately engaging than contests that followed before. However, unlike Page (who truly found his immense skills in 2020) Mox has exactly the right tempo and character motivation to work immediately with Jericho. Even in the slower stages of the match, it never felt dull or like they were struggling to invest audiences, it felt like a big fight and the stuff with Moxley's eye was genuinely amazing. Having him take off the eyepatch sent shivers down my spine, perfect set up and payoff. 2019 was inconsistent for Big Match Jericho with bangers with Naito, Darby Allin and Jungle Boy being contrasted against main event disappointments against Page, Omega and Cody. But 2020 has been everything for him, with this probably being his weakest high profile match to date, and it's a banger! A great title victory, proof that their 2016 feud was nowhere close to the content they were capable of together, and a great end to AEW's best PPV."

[7.0] "I thought this match under-delivered. It was sloppy in some places, and was great in others. In all, I'd say that it failed to live up to the hype, although I feel that the torch passing to Moxley was the right move. ***1/4-***1/2"

[7.0] "This was a very good match held back by interferences and a few flow issues. These two did a great job of getting a strong reaction from the audience and really made this feel like a FIGHT, but by the end it just felt like it was missing something. Strong performance, was just barely held back from reaching that next level though. ***3/4-"

[6.0] "I would have liked this match a whole lot more if we hadn't t already had a bunch of run-ins and other assorted nonsense throughout the night; having it yet again was overkill, and it came off like whoever is in charge has no sense of restraint, and isn't the great booker that some tout them as being."

[8.0] "**** rating. Good match. Quality mainevent. Could have been slightly shorter but still good. Jericho working over Moxley's eye was great only for Moxley to reveal that his eye was fine was great storytelling. Perfect title change."

[9.0] "This was a really fun brawl. As a previous comment mentioned, this really did have a big fight feel. Lots of brutal-looking spots with Mox faking out Jericho with the eyepatch. Ortiz & Santana did great too. The finish was very satisfying as it was a long time coming. (****1/2)"

[10.0] "Moxley is top of the mountain again. It wasnt an athletic spot fest but more of a badass baby face over coming a brute with a bunch of cronies aiding the heel. Classic wrestling booking with the right guy going over, anyone rating this lower then 6 are clearly trolls"

[7.0] "These two have never had much chemistry with each other so I wasn't exactly expecting a barn burner. The match was still good however and was what he needed to be. A classic hero taking down the heel faction until its just the leader left, then he reveals one last trick up his sleeve and wins. The eye patch reveal should've happened before Jon hit his finisher since he didn't actually need to take off the patch to actually win though."

[5.0] "The worst of Attitude Era brawls comparison below is pretty apt here, I think. Everything just seemed to fall flat and feel so plodding. It's the kind of match which would be absolutely nothing were people not invested in the characters. It felt like they were going for the Gargano vs Cole over-booked ending but they fell flat on that too. Although this match doesn't reach that worst offender tier, but it's still boring and proof once again that Jericho makes for a good TV champion but shouldn't be headlining a PPV. Moxley is a limited performer himself."

[7.0] "Jericho brought the NJPW formula for this match, giving us a solid, but too long and somewhat repetitive main event. This started like a big fight, with a great atmosphere, but they struggled to keep the same level of intensity throughout the match. In the end it was an average brawl, but maybe we could have expected something more from a main event that has been wonderfully built in the previous weeks. Nonetheless, the title change felt like a big deal and this will remain in history, notwithstanding the actual quality of the match. ***"

[3.0] "Very, very poor. This was not a wrestling match, the number of holds could be counted on one hand and I don't think there were more than a couple of throws. A slow paced, plodding exchange of forearm smashes best sums it up. The limits of Moxley were exposed as were (sadly) the aged Jericho. An awful main event to a pretty average and highly disappointing show."

[3.0] "Welp, this sucked. This felt like an attitude era brawl in the worst way. I didn? t expect a bland walk-and-brawl to start this match but that? s what happened. Add interference distracting from most of the match and a flat finish, and you got a bad match. Seriously, that finish sucked. What was the point of the eyepatch? It just made no sense and most of the crowd didn? t get it either, as proven by the lacking reaction. They decided to go right to the finish after this, leading to a really anticlimactic ending. Jericho is really hit or miss these days, and this was a miss unfortunately."

[10.0] "Moxley has now the potential to create a great modern-day title run in the US. Good match, Jericho is and will be remembered as how amazing he was. Great passing of the torch."

[7.0] "Similar to Cody vs MJF this had a lot of repetitive and unwanted moments, but it definitely managed the pacing of the match better. The storytelling was solid except for the "twist" at the end. Moxley winning the title from Jericho has been in the minds of everyone for a long time. Not an excuse, but respectfully they managed well to be at least a bit close to these imaginations."

[5.0] "The result was cool but the match was fine, not much happened besides a powerbomb through a table, meh."

[5.0] "Build to match was great, but the actual match itself was not very good. Probably the worst actual match on the show. Title change was needed though since Jericho beat all the faces. **1/2"

[9.0] "Jericho's best AEW match in my opinion, he looked excellent, especially covering for the hard cut by Moxley. This was an old-fashioned brawl with that would not have been out of place in 1998, but on this night and this pay per view, it worked. We already had oldschool storyline with the Cody match and high-octance, modern extravaganza with the tag match, so having a slugfest here was a good choice. Also, Moxley is just an animal and always looks like he is ready to go completely unhinged -- I guess that's the point of the gimmick, so it works. Putting the title on him is striking the iron while it's hot and I like that it gives AEW a new dynamic for the next few months. His babyface promo after the match was a tiny bit out of character, but he salvaged it gracefully by going " What the fuck? " when his music started to soon. Beautiful."

[5.0] "I just didn't find much to like in this match. I think these two were a weird fit for each other even when they were younger men, let alone now with Jericho at the age he's at. The early walk and brawl segment was fun enough, but it kinda kept going and lost me, and never pulled me back in. It started to feel overbooked for what it was, especially when Moxley was going over anyway. It was just kinda flat, overall."

[6.0] "A pretty respectable main event. They hit their notes well with nice pace and intent behind it. The crowd popped for what they were supposed to and it built to a nice finish. ***1/4"

[7.0] "Typical Jericho circa 2019 brawl throughout. Didn't necessarily make it bad but it was pretty uneventful for the most part. Moxley gets busted open real quick with a nasty-looking crash through the time keeper table, which certainly helped make things a bit more interesting. A lot of interference spots but they at least played into the build where Moxley was alone against the Inner Circle. Finishing stretch was fantastic though and it was definitely the right move to put the belt on Mox right now."