AEW had a really nice little set up for an organically great moment on this coming Wednesday night’s episode of Dynamite when Chris Jericho takes on MJF in the fifth and final “Labour of Jericho.” Here was that setup:
.@The_MJF is taking away the Judas Effect - AND JUDAS (!) - when he faces @IAmJericho NEXT WEDNESDAY in Houston on #AEWDynamite in the Fifth and FINAL Labour of Jericho. pic.twitter.com/ZjJsgd2BKv
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) August 12, 2021
The idea, of course, is that fans won’t be able to sing along to his entrance song, the Fozzy hit “Judas,” as they typically do for any entrance anywhere ever.
The organically cool moment, then, would have been the fans in Houston, Texas deciding they didn’t need the music to sing along with, they would simply sing it together themselves. Fans on Twitter almost immediately talked about doing so, in fact!
Then, just today, AEW tweeted this:
Wednesday's #AEWDynamite, everything #Judas is banned. The last thing we'd wanna do is make @the_MJF angry, but suppose everyone read these lyrics & maybe sang as loud as they can in Houston, it could be a loophole to MJF's stipulation for his match with @IamJericho, right? pic.twitter.com/kg27kqyTY5
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) August 15, 2021
Who needs subtlety, eh?
I suppose there’s an argument to be made that they want to ensure the moment happens and this encouragement will go a long way towards accomplishing that goal but there’s something lost within that. It’s not organic anymore. It’s not fans rebelling against the heel because they’re into the story, it’s fans simply doing what the promotion is asking them to do. What sucks is they were going to do it anyway!
It’s still going to be a cool moment when it happens, of course. It’s just not going to be as cool as it could have been.