Matt Hardy declares former WWE Champion as the "MVP" of AEW's first five years
AEW presented the Dynamite Fifth Anniversary special this past week. While the company celebrates its flagship show, a hot topic of discussion has been talents that have carried Tony Khan's promotion so far. Matt Hardy just named a former WWE Champion as the brand's MVP(most valuable player) over the past five years, while also making curious remarks about the Executive Vice Presidents.
Dynamite premiered on October 2, 2019. Cody Rhodes defeated Sammy Guevara in the opener, while Chris Jericho, Santana, and Ortiz beat Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks in the main event. MJF defeated Brandon Cutler, PAC defeated Adam Page, and Riho defeated Nyla Rose to become the inaugural Women's World Champion. The episode aired days after Jericho defeated Page to become the inaugural World Champion at Double Or Nothing.
The Learning Tree is the MVP of Dynamite's first five years, according to Big Money Matt. Hardy's four-year AEW run came to an end in April, but he was present for many of the brand's key moments from his time at the promotion. Speaking on his Extreme Life podcast, the North Carolina native praised Jericho for what he'd done for All Elite Wrestling. Matt named the 26-time WWE champion after being asked who the Most Valuable Player of the first five years of Dynamite was.
"That’s a great question. I do think that... Chris Jericho is kind of reminiscent of Hulk Hogan at WCW, to a degree, because he was the guy that came in, he was the big star, legit top guy, and he was a great representative for people that were just going to tune into AEW, like, 'I don’t know all these guys that are here, but I do know Chris Jericho.' So, Jericho is the first person that pops in my mind when you think about the first five years of AEW because he’s been the guy that has represented AEW more than anything," Matt Hardy said. [From 44:04 to 44:42]
Hardy added that The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, along with Cody Rhodes, were the heart and soul of the promotion. He pointed to how much time Omega has missed due to injuries since the company launched and agreed that it was hard to name The Cleaner as MVP due to that unfortunate stat. Matt reiterated that nobody stands out more than Jericho when it comes to representing AEW.
AEW set for another Dynamite special
All Elite Wrestling will present yet another special episode this summer as next week's Dynamite is the third annual Title Tuesday show. The event will air live from the Spokane Arena in Spokane, WA, with an earlier start time of 9 pm ET.
A big tag team main event has been announced for Dynamite as The Blackpool Combat Club drama heats up. PAC and Claudio Castagnoli will face their fellow World Trios Champion Wheeler Yuta and former stablemate Bryan Danielson.
Officials will also tape Rampage on Tuesday night, to air the following Friday. This will be the 166th episode, but no matches have been announced as of this writing.