Chris Jericho won the AEW Championship by beating Adam Page in the main event of AEW All Out 2019. This made Jericho the first ever AEW Champion in history, an accolade that makes him one of the most important figures in company history.

In his sixth-month reign with the title, he successfully defended the belt three times. All three matches were different, and booked for vastly different reasons (one even ruined one wrestles AEW). Jericho eventually lost the title to Jon Moxley, in his fourth and final title defense. In this article, we’ll go through match and give our star rating, as well as Dave Meltzer’s star rating and the fan’s Cagematch rating.

This list does not include Chris Jericho’s match with Jungle Boy. Even though he was AEW Champion at the time of his “10-minute challenge” against Jungle Boy in 2019, the bout was not for the AEW Championship, and as such will not be included on the list of Chris Jericho’s title defenses.

Chris Jericho vs Darby Allin (AEW Dynamite 16/10/19)

Chris Jericho’s first AEW title defense was in a bid to create new stars, just as the company had started their new TV show, AEW Dynamite. After winning a number-one contenders match against Jimmy Havoc, he earned the right to face Jericho for the title on the October 16th, 2019 episode of Dynamite, which was just the third episode ever of the show,

The match was contested under Philadelphia Street Fight rules. This was the same as a regular Street Fight, but it took place in Philadelphia, as per wrestling tradition. Naming the street fight after the name of the town the match was in is a classic wrestling tradition, and may include items synonymous with the area being used as weapons.

Which the hardcore stipulation usually favoring Darby Allin, Jericho used all his experience (and the help of Jake Hager) to force Allin to tap out to the Walls of Jericho. However, the match brought nearly a million eyes of Darby Allin, and helped grow his profile as a future main event talent, while also making Jericho look strong as the first world champion in his first title defense.

The match was also called “amazing” by none other than Hulk Hogan.

• Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Did Not Rate
• Cagematch Rating – 7.44 Stars
• Atletifo Rating – 3 Stars

Chris Jericho vs Scorpio Sky (AEW Dynamite Thanksgiving 2019)

Six weeks after his first title defense, Chris Jericho did what nobody else in AEW has managed to do – he made Scorpio Sky look like a potential main event star. While he had already become the first ever AEW Tag Team Champion (alongside Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels), Sky’s short feud with Jericho gave him a platform that he ultimately failed to jump off.

After pinning Jericho weeks before in a tag team match, Sky earned a shot at Jericho in the main event of Dynamite. This match was slightly misplaced, as it competed with a Kenny Omega vs PAC match earlier on in the card. Despite this, both men gave it their all and did their best to make Sky look like a star.

And it worked. There were points in their 12-minute match where you actually believed Scorpio Sky could walk away with the AEW Championship, despite it being clear he had no chance of winning. This was the beauty of Chris Jericho’s title defenses in the early days – with AEW in its infancy, you never know what was going to happen. Obviously, Chris Jericho won the match, but it was a spirited performance from Scorpio Sky.

• Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – Did Not Rate
• Cagematch Rating – 6.78
• Atletifo Rating – 3 Stars

Chris Jericho vs Cody Rhodes (AEW Full Gear 2019)

This clash between two of AEW’s top stars (at the time) is one of the biggest “sliding doors moments” in the career of Cody Rhodes. In this one match, the decision to make him lose changed his entire career trajectory and eventually turned the crowd on him and facilitated his return to the WWE in 2022.

The reason was that the stipulation placed upon himself for this match was stupid. In a promo leading up to Full Gear 2019, Cody imposed upon himself a stipulation that if he lost the match against Chris Jericho, he would never be able to challenge for the AEW Championship.

The match itself was good. Jericho hadn’t quite slowed down too much by hen, and the two sold a fantastic story of Cody struggling to get the best of his opponent, seeing his dream of becoming a World Champion slip away. He lost when MJF threw in the towel while Cody was locked in the Walls of Jericho, and then the young star menacingly attacked him after the match, setting up Cody’s next story.

This inability for Cody to challenge for the title eventually led to his “Codyverse” booking, the crowd turning on him for his isolationist feuds and inability to move into the main event, and was what made Cody Rhodes join the WWE again in 2022.

• Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating –
• Cagematch Rating –
• Atletifo Rating –

Learn more about why Cody Rhodes left AEW.

Chris Jericho vs Jon Moxley

The last of Chris Jericho’s title defenses was when he finally dropped the belt to Jon Moxley, half a year after first picking up the belt at All Out 2019. This was his fourth and final title defense, and came in the middle of a fantastic program against Jon Moxley.

This rivalry saw Moxley feign joining The Inner Circle, but swerving the group and stealing their car instead. In retaliation, they blinded him in one eye after an attack with one of the spikes from Jericho’s jacket. For months, Moxley wrestled with an eye patch, even in his matches for NJPW. However, he tricked Jericho by removing it just before his match at AEW Revolution, revealing that he was fully healed and ready to face him.

The match was mainly a big brawl between the two, playing up the story. Both men had tried to seriously injure each other in the build up, so some technical chain wrestling was clearly out of the equation. It came at the end of a long show, which saw some of the best AEW matches ever, but the fans did their best to carry the energy of the bout as they saw Jon Moxley win the AEW Championship in Chris Jericho’s last AEW Championship defense.

• Dave Meltzer’s Star Rating – 3.75 Stars
• Cagematch Rating – 7.22
• Atletifo Rating – 4 Stars