Clearly Kenny Omega’s unfortunate illness situation derailed whatever plans were in place for he and Chris Jericho as The Golden Jets, but whatever pinballing AEW’s been doing with Jericho in the now nearly four months since we last saw Omega doesn’t seem to be accomplishing much of anything outside of getting Jericho to work with, seemingly, whoever he damn well pleases. In the case of he and HOOK, that will now be work with (as in a tag team), as well as against, since it was announced that these two will be facing each other on next week’s “Dynamite.”

Jericho’s place in wrestling history is beyond secure but clearly, he’s lost a step. That goes without saying but there, I said it anyway. Sorry, the truth hurts, but that’s pretty much inarguable at this point. Beyond that, in recent weeks (and I’m not counting “Rampage” because “Rampage” doesn’t count), Jericho has had one-offs with Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, and CMLL’s Atlantis Jr. and Titan, as well as the Eight-Man All-Star Scramble at Revolution which was almost unanimously the only thing that most people didn’t like about that show. (I’m not sure that cluster accomplished anything either, even for Wardlow, since the title shot he earned there has now already come and gone.) Tell me what any of these matches has done for anyone, other than entertain the relative rarity that is a CMLL diehard as far as the Atlantis and Titan matches go.

And Wednesday night, with not much really going for it for the majority of the match in the first place, the tandem finish featuring HOOK’s Red Rum and Jericho’s Lion Tamer was sloppy as hell — becoming a staple of Jericho matches later, said slop! — as was Jericho’s kick to Toa Liona on the outside at the close of the match that featured “Lionheart” just about landing on his face. And since we mentioned the “Lionheart” moniker, let’s wrap it up there: Enough with the greatest hits tour, man. Whether it’s “Lionheart” or “The Painmaker” or “Corazon de Leon,” it’s not working at the moment. There’s nothing that says this guy needs a match every week. He can do something else or nothing at all far more effectively at this point.

Written by Jon Jordan