The Slow Burn of Jericho Vs Mox

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

I don't actually mind the build but it has been a little slower 

We know Mox is going to turn down the offer from Jericho at some point but it does feel a little stretched thanks to the event itself still not happening until the end of Feb and to an extent both guys going to Japan for NJPW 

I would think they kick this feud up another notch in the next 2 weeks or towards end of Jan to have a hot 4 weeks to come into the match

[MolotovMocktail]

A slow build is a good thing, compared to how WWE shoves all their feuds into a pressure cooker.

But the match announcement should hopefully come in the next week or so to allow people to know what the Revolution main event will be.

[Mozenrath]

I actually suspect they're going to use Wrestling Kingdom implicitly or explicitly as part of the build. Like, not saying they interact there, but that it's not going to go without mention if one gets a win and the other does not.

That said, things are going to heat up after to build momentum to the February PPV, no doubt.

[Deleted]

I dont mind the slow build up. If this feud was happening in WWE, we would already had 20 Jericho/Mox matches, a shield reunion/break up, Corbin and Ziggler somehow getting involved, Triple H getting involved just to get a 2020 win on Jericho and Roman Reigns somehow winning the Jericho/Mox feud while Rollin bitching on Twitter about how only real fan would understand the genius booking of this feud.

[Bang Bang Bart]

Jan 2, 2020 15:33:46 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I actually suspect they're going to use Wrestling Kingdom implicitly or explicitly as part of the build. Like, not saying they interact there, but that it's not going to go without mention if one gets a win and the other does not.

That said, things are going to heat up after to build momentum to the February PPV, no doubt.

I do wonder the implications of Jericho losing to Tanahashi and a possible shot for the AEW Title that Hiroshi would get as a result.

[Mozenrath]

Jan 2, 2020 15:52:10 GMT -5 Bang Bang Bart said:

Jan 2, 2020 15:33:46 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I actually suspect they're going to use Wrestling Kingdom implicitly or explicitly as part of the build. Like, not saying they interact there, but that it's not going to go without mention if one gets a win and the other does not.

That said, things are going to heat up after to build momentum to the February PPV, no doubt.

I do wonder the implications of Jericho losing to Tanahashi and a possible shot for the AEW Title that Hiroshi would get as a result.

If they swing that, and it'd obviously be quite the boon, guessing it'd be a TV match where Jericho got his win back, as a goodwill gesture between the companies. But that's obviously a longshot.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Jan 2, 2020 15:53:14 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Jan 2, 2020 15:52:10 GMT -5 Bang Bang Bart said:

I do wonder the implications of Jericho losing to Tanahashi and a possible shot for the AEW Title that Hiroshi would get as a result.

If they swing that, and it'd obviously be quite the boon, guessing it'd be a TV match where Jericho got his win back, as a goodwill gesture between the companies. But that's obviously a longshot.

Yea, that be pretty much it 

Hype up the episode Tana would come and get his title shot with Jericho getting his win back. Create some goodwill between the two companies that could potentially lead to more as people get comfortable 

[Deleted]

Jan 2, 2020 15:30:40 GMT -5 Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) said:

I don't actually mind the build but it has been a little slower 

We know Mox is going to turn down the offer from Jericho at some point but it does feel a little stretched thanks to the event itself still not happening until the end of Feb and to an extent both guys going to Japan for NJPW 

I would think they kick this feud up another notch in the next 2 weeks or towards end of Jan to have a hot 4 weeks to come into the match

That car gettin' f***ed up.

[Facetious]

TV wrestling severely misses slow build feuds.

[Deleted]

There's slow build and then there's, "We all know where this is going, why are you waiting like a month to just get to the damn point?" and this feud's falling firmly in the latter. Probably would've been better off building a filler title feud for Jericho for the cruise with Mox simmering in the background in the meantime.

Really the same reason I'd say the Owens / Jericho feud sucked (not to take anything away from the actual turn, mind you, that was great). They wanted to get it to Mania so they just spun their wheels doing the same thing for months until it was close enough to the show for Owens to turn on him and then once he did they still had two more months to kill so nothing else really happened from there. ... Though I'm sure Jericho / Mox will be a better match.

[bearned]

I don’t mind them stringing it along a bit given the gap to the next PPV and the Japan stuff in between. I could actually buy into a swerve and Mox joining the inner circle for a week or two till he turns on them. That could be entertaining.

[Super Duper Dragunov]

The slow build is fine. How they're doing it is annoying.

I've said it before NO ONE believes that Mox is going to join The Inner Circle.
And dragging it out just makes it even more annoying.

Mox went from "kicking ass and taking names" to "Jericho is a mentor to me and out of respect I'll give it a week to make up my mind".
The crowd boo's and you can see in Mox's face he hated having to say it.
It goes against his character completely.

How it should've went, is that Jericho offers Moxley the shirt, then Mox kicks him in the gut and hits the Paradigm Shift.
THAT'S the Jon Moxley character.

Mox will be fine, but this isn't the way you build him after being the guy who put Kenny Omega through a glass table, and brutalized Darby Allin because he dared answer his challenge. He went from "I'm gonna take out anyone who gets in my way" to "cat and mouse with Jericho with the most drama-less build".

It's just not working for me personally.

I get they have to stretch it out, but there's a lot of different ways you could've done this.

Between this and the MJF/Cody stuff, they're botching what should be the two hottest angles in the company, and both feel unnecessarily bloated and heatless.

[Brian Suntan]

There are slow burn angles, and angles where you feel you could quite easily skip the next three weeks and miss nothing.

The story just isn't very good, and certainly hasn't shown the substance to be worth dragging out for three months.

[Ecks Ecks Ringout Ecks Ecks]

I could have done without the paint-by-numbers "will he join the Inner Circle?" deal, but yeah, the pacing is pretty nice.

I love that AEW has far fewer PPVs/supershows than WWE, who have demonstrated that more isn't always better. There's a point where the product gets oversaturated with them, and the "filler" PPVs don't feel any more special than normal weekly TV. Even flawed angles turn out better when they're given more time to breathe.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Jan 2, 2020 19:07:48 GMT -5 Super Duper Dragunov said:

The slow build is fine. How they're doing it is annoying.

I've said it before NO ONE believes that Mox is going to join The Inner Circle.
And dragging it out just makes it even more annoying.

Mox went from "kicking ass and taking names" to "Jericho is a mentor to me and out of respect I'll give it a week to make up my mind".
The crowd boo's and you can see in Mox's face he hated having to say it.
It goes against his character completely.

How it should've went, is that Jericho offers Moxley the shirt, then Mox kicks him in the gut and hits the Paradigm Shift.
THAT'S the Jon Moxley character.

Mox will be fine, but this isn't the way you build him after being the guy who put Kenny Omega through a glass table, and brutalized Darby Allin because he dared answer his challenge. He went from "I'm gonna take out anyone who gets in my way" to "cat and mouse with Jericho with the most drama-less build".

It's just not working for me personally.

I get they have to stretch it out, but there's a lot of different ways you could've done this.

Between this and the MJF/Cody stuff, they're botching what should be the two hottest angles in the company, and both feel unnecessarily bloated and heatless.

I think the PPV being so far away is the problem. The Cody/MJF feud is suffering from the same problem. They're both programs that don't really need long builds but because the PPV is still almost two months away they have to be dragged out. Both would be so much better if the PPV was in late January instead of late February.

Cody/MJF has been built up enough and doesn't need another two months of build with MJF"s betrayal happening back in mid November, three and a half months before when Revolution is going to take place. Moxley/Jericho is worse due to Moxley as his aggressive character is one that doesn't work well for long feuds. I understand that they have to drag things out but I think they are also going about it the wrong way.

Jericho has a bunch of other guys in his group and I don't think they're using that to their advantage enough. Maybe they will after Moxley makes his predictable decision but as of now I think they're going about it the wrong way. Instead of doing the whole "is Moxley going to join?" story instead they should just be having Moxley beating Inner Circle members every week. Goes through Sammy first, then Santana, then Ortiz, and then lastly Hager on his way to getting the title shot against Jericho. Unfortunately other then Hager they've done a poor job protecting the other Inner Circle cronies which is another problem in itself and also hurts the story they're trying to tell with Moxley in this feud. Sammy and Proud and Powerful have lost too much. If the end game of the Inner Circle is for them be the dragon for Moxley to slay it's not going to be as impressive as it should be with Sammy and Proud and Powerful taking L's to midcarders like Luchasaurus and Private Party. It also hurts the story of it being a tough decision for Moxley in whether he should join or not. It would be one thing if the Inner Circle were booked as a super powerful and elite group where joining them would be a big benefit to his career, but they really haven't despite the fact that they're supposed to be the main event heel group. Sammy and Hager screwing Dustin over and getting the better of him this week was a step in the right direction as it put over how dangerous the Inner Circle could be and the benefit for Moxley if he joined (people watching his back). However it was a little too late imo.

[RKTaker]

as I’ve said in the dynamite thread I don’t think Jericho and Mox are gonna face until the ppv which is still ovrr a month away which means they’re probably trying to pad the feud as much as they can to make it last till then

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Jan 2, 2020 19:07:48 GMT -5 Super Duper Dragunov said:

The slow build is fine. How they're doing it is annoying.

I've said it before NO ONE believes that Mox is going to join The Inner Circle.
And dragging it out just makes it even more annoying.

Mox went from "kicking ass and taking names" to "Jericho is a mentor to me and out of respect I'll give it a week to make up my mind".
The crowd boo's and you can see in Mox's face he hated having to say it.
It goes against his character completely.

How it should've went, is that Jericho offers Moxley the shirt, then Mox kicks him in the gut and hits the Paradigm Shift.
THAT'S the Jon Moxley character.

Mox will be fine, but this isn't the way you build him after being the guy who put Kenny Omega through a glass table, and brutalized Darby Allin because he dared answer his challenge. He went from "I'm gonna take out anyone who gets in my way" to "cat and mouse with Jericho with the most drama-less build".

It's just not working for me personally.

I get they have to stretch it out, but there's a lot of different ways you could've done this.

Between this and the MJF/Cody stuff, they're botching what should be the two hottest angles in the company, and both feel unnecessarily bloated and heatless.

I didn't even think about it that way in regards to the Mox character but you're right

It is a bit weird how he went from no one gets in my way to playing the waiting game with Jericho. Even if the character respects Jericho, there was probably a better way to go about it in regards to not really having Mox lose his edge 

Plus, in using their WWE history you leave a bit of a gap for the people who somehow never heard of these two. So yeah, they were friends and enemies in WWE but technically they are supposed to be diff characters on a diff show 

[Deleted]

Moxley joining the Inner Circle would be so'oh WCW so it's only fitting to happen in AEW.

[Bang Bang Bart]

The closing segment was a bit long tonight, but did its job well, and we got to our destination (Mox telling Jericho to screw off).

[Terry McConkey]

I'd rather have a slow build that gives us greatness than a fast build that peters out (WWE style).