Armchair Booking: Cody’s Road To The AEW Championship

Now that AEW’s Full Gear has been and gone, we are left with the question: What’s next for Cody? With the stipulation in place that he may never again challenge for the AEW Championship, his loss to Chris Jerico has seemingly cemented the future for the fan favourite. So, by conventional logic, the question of a title run is moot, but over the years professional wrestling has shown us that conventional logic is never a top priority. However, considering AEW’s want of a legitimate title picture that’s based on a win/loss system, a title shot for Cody would have to make sense.

For a start, there’s a few issues to tackle: How do you get around this stipulation? Should the Executive Vice Chairman of AEW win the title at all? How can you build other main event talent for a title run if it looks like Cody’s rise to the top in inevitable?

Before we answer these questions, a quick recap of Cody vs Jericho at Full Gear.

 

Cody vs. Jericho

Thirty minutes of sheer storytelling that was a joy to watch from start to finish. With Cody targeting Jericho’s arms in an attempt to stop the Judas Effect, Jericho purposely going after Cody’s legitimately injured ribs and head, and Cody’s refusal to quit leading to MJF throwing in the towel and following betrayal, this was one of the greatest championship matches in quite some time.

Speaking of MJF, both he and Jake Hager played their respective parts wonderfully. Interfering at the right times, playing to the crowd and all the while not seeming overly intrusive.

On a pay-per-view card that had the variety that Full Gear had, this Championship match came at exactly the right time. If it had followed the excellent Moxley vs Omega, which seems to have split the internet wrestling world down the middle, then the crowd would’ve been burnt out for the slower bout.

Full Gear may not have been AEW’s best pay-per-view as a whole, but considering the height of the bar set by the previous shows, falling just short can still leave you with something outstanding.

 

Should Cody Win The Title At All?

To put it simply, yes. Even though he is the Executive Vice President of AEW, to dismiss the thought of him winning the strap would also discount Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, and who’d not want to see, arguably, the best wrestler and the best tag-team on the planet in the main event?

This isn’t to discredit Cody, either. The ‘Grandson of a Plumber’ has proved that he is both exceptional between the ropes – with every match so far in AEW – and that he’s incredible on the mic — take a look at his promo on the Full Gear go-home show.

The thought that the booker booking himself to the title might put a lot of people off, but it shouldn’t. Instead, just see him as Cody the wrestler, not Cody the EVP, because whose favourite incarnation of Triple H is COO Triple H?

 

The Road

Considering the stipulation of the match against Jericho meant that Cody can never again challenge for the AEW Championship, let’s honour the result for at least a year and start building for a Championship match at 2020’s Full Gear. With the revelation that AEW’s pay-per-views will be quarterly, we have another three big shows to build for during this time.

PPV Quarterly Schedule:
Q1: TBA
Q2: Double or Nothing
Q3: All Out
Q4: Full Gear.

For this to work it requires that Cody doesn’t get his revenge on MJF, for now. We’ll begin with the build to AEW’s first PPV of 2020 – which is yet to be named. MJF quickly joins the Inner Circle, on following episodes of Dynamite Cody attempts to challenge MJF but it results in a beat down for Cody. Jericho announces that for Cody to get his match, he first needs to go through Sammy Guevara. We get more of the quality segments of Cody at home preparing, as well as more Jericho parodies.

Having Cody chase MJF leaves the title scene open and the, presumed, current number one ranking will be Hangman Page after his win against number two ranked PAC. Even though we will see Page vs Jericho for the title again, which might be a bit deflating, lets have Jericho retain a second time. This pushes Page way down the rankings and allows for a babyface rise to the top for ‘The Hangman’.

Cody defeats Sammy in the opening match, echoing Dynamite’s debut show.

TBA PPV (winners in bold):
Cody vs Sammy Guevara
Page vs Jericho
Moxley vs Omega
MJF vs Jimmy Havoc

Jericho tells Cody that he now needs to beat Santana & Ortiz alongside a partner of Cody’s choosing, out comes Dustin Rhodes. The match is set for Double or Nothing 2. The match will need to see Santana & Ortiz come out strong for their own tag-title race, so we’d see a dominating display for the duo, but an attempted distraction from Jake Hager will backfire and result in a Cross Rhodes with accompanying pinfall.

More shenanigans allow for Omega to take the DQ win against Jericho, ‘Le Champion’ retains. MJF’s sneaky win over Shawn Spears means he is the new number one contender due to a Moxley vs Pac time limit draw.

Double or Nothing goes as follows (winners in bold):
Cody & Dustin vs Santana & Ortiz
Moxley vs PAC (time limit draw)
MJF vs Shawn Spears
Jericho vs Omega (DQ, Jericho retains)

We return to Dynamite where Jericho is telling MJF that he needs to lay down for the pin at All Out 2’s Championship match and he can stay under the protection of the Inner Circle. He holds out a hand to seal the agreement when MJF low blows Jericho, a call back to his betrayal of Cody, and the Championship match is on.

All Cody has to do now is to defeat Jake Hager at Full Gear 2 for his agreed shot at MJF. Jericho’s main muscle has remained undefeated in dominating victories up to this point, setting him up as the biggest threat to Cody yet.

At Full Gear 2, MJF wins his Championship match against Jericho and Cody defeats Hager. On the next episode of Dynamite we have a contract signing for a match between Cody and MJF. The ultimatum is thrown down by MJF: Cody can have a championship match, bypassing his agreed ban of challenging for the title, if he agrees to resign as Executive Vice Chairman of AEW if he loses.

It’s agreed. In what would be an incredibly unexpected moment, Cody loses and resign.

A month later, Cody returns under the agreement that he’s now just a contracted wrestler, keeping to the match stipulation. This will of course just be in a kayfabe sense. For the next year he is working his way back up to the title picture, while MJF retains for the entire year by superseding Jericho as leader of the Inner Circle.

Cody vs MJF will take place at Full Gear 3 with a colossal moment as the fan favourite becomes the first face AEW Champion.

 

What is achieved?

We not only get Cody to the championship while still sticking to the original stipulation, but we: make MJF the top heel in the company under the guidance of the ageing Jericho, keep the title picture open for the likes of Omega, Page, Moxley and PAC, have it so Cody isn’t an authority champion which will keep the fans happy, and we’ve booked a long term story with unexpected twists that will result in many memorable moments.