On the August 10 episode of AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite, Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley wrestled an excellent match, but one spot, in particular, drew criticism from various corners of the Internet. It was a hard-fought bout that eventually led to CM Punk's electric return. With All Out on the horizon, it was a strong show from start to finish but wasn't without a smidgen of controversy.This violent fight saw Jericho rip out Moxley's earring while The Lionheart got busted open the hard way. Jericho reportedly needed seven stitches to close his wound, while The Death Rider was a bloody mess by the end of the bout. However, it wasn't the brutality and color that led to conversations online about a particular spot. At a point in the match, Chris applied his Walls Of Jericho finisher to Moxley just as Dynamite went to a commercial break. He held the hold throughout the picture-in-picture, and with fans at home unable to hear the audience losing their minds, the submission attempt didn't look great.Dave Meltzer gave the match 4 and three-quarter stars, calling the match "super" in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. From his @davemeltzerWON handle, Meltzer responded to a Twitter fan who criticized the Lion-Tamer-through-commercial-break spot, saying that he agreed with that critique. Jericho shot back from his @IAmJericho account, saying that he disagreed and would be open to debating the merits of the lengthy hold.
On-site reports indicated that the live crowd at Dynamite was eating the spot up, but there's no question that it looked awful for audiences at home. AEW struggles to utilize picture-in-picture regularly, too, and the four-minute Lion Tamer felt like another example of this occurring. For instance, during the Blood & Guts match, there was a spot where one wrestler drug another through a pile of broken glass, all while commercials were going on, and fans at home could barely see what was happening.
This is a situation where there are two very distinct perceptions of what happened. It seems likely that Jericho would defend the move by bringing up the live response, and he'd have a fair point. Those in attendance felt something that folks at home simply couldn't. Does that make it a bad spot? AEW fans know where Meltzer and Jericho stand on that question following their exchange on Twitter.
Sources: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, @davemeltzerWON/Twitter, @IAmJericho/Twitter