When AEW formed, the burgeoning company needed some big names in order to legitimise it as competition for the industry leader in WWE it intended to be. Thus, hiring Chris Jericho, one of the most decorated and talented performers of his generation, was a no-brainer for Tony Khan who had already joined forces with The Elite.

RELATED: 10 Things Chris Jericho Never Accomplished In Wrestling

Since then, Jericho has been an integral part of almost every AEW Dynamite and pay-per-view that the company has produced, with his already all-time great career getting even better as he moves well into his 50s. For the most part, 'Le Champion' has been great in AEW and has frequently offered up some of the promotion's best work. However, not all of his output has been great, particularly when it comes to his feuds with other wrestlers, which have generally offered up mixed results.

10 Ricky Starks

The most egregious example of Chris Jericho’s tendency to piggyback off the momentum of other wrestlers was when he feuded with ‘Absolute’ Ricky Starks earlier this year. The matches between the pair were not at all bad, but it halted Starks’ rise up the card a great deal.

Jericho was even labelled a ‘Clout Vampire’ in the feud as an open acknowledgement of his spotlight-hogging tendencies. The Jericho Appreciation Society and Action Andretti’s involvement in the feud also made it feel much less like a heated rivalry.

9 American Top Team

Dan Lambert’s AEW run was hit-and-miss for the most part, with the American Top Team versus Inner Circle feud being the worst example of his influence. Whilst it seemed like a good idea to incorporate UFC fighters in AEW, the feud often devolved into the two groups hurling abuse at each other, leading to a lot of problematic things being said.

It also embodied how much AEW had relied on stable warfare and the decline of the Inner Circle after the group was so important to the company’s beginnings.

8 Orange Cassidy

‘Freshly Squeezed’ broke through as a major star in 2020 after being ridiculed for being too unserious when he signed for AEW. His rise was signified by being paired up in a feud with Chris Jericho, who had just come off his inaugural AEW World Championship reign.

RELATED: 5 Best Moments Of Orange Cassidy’s AEW Career (& 5 Worst)Cassidy held his own in the feud but the matches never lived up to the hype, whilst it also began the worrying trend of Jericho getting involved with the hottest wrestlers and taking some of their momentum.

7 Blackpool Combat Club

AEW enjoys using stables, which has been successful in getting over many wrestlers at once. However, the repeated use of faction warfare as a storytelling mechanism has led it to grow stale, with the JAS versus BCC perhaps being the tipping point for this last year.

The two groups feuded based on the idea that the BCC was a wrestling group whilst the JAS were Sports Entertaining. Not only had the idea of sports entertainment become passe, but it didn’t really feel like a good use of the Combat Club which seemed promising to begin with. Anarchy in the Arena was amazing though, so at least it offered that.

6 Adam Cole

When Adam Cole returned from injury it was important to heat him up to the level he was before, so putting him with Chris Jericho did make sense. However, the ‘Clout Vampire’ accusations will fairly have caused some to doubt whether this was a good idea for Cole who needed all the attention on himself.

To his credit, Jericho was great in the feud and demonstrated how giving he could be with his feud against Cole, including in a great match against Roderick Strong before their big blow-off at Double or Nothing earlier this year. Sadly, the match was the only thing that let the feud down, but Cole has gone on to do great things with MJF as a babyface so it all worked out in the end.

5 Jon Moxley

Chris Jericho’s ‘Le Champion’ run was seminal and he was the perfect first holder of the AEW title, just as Jon Moxley was the right person to take it from him. The Inner Circle was at its peak when Jericho was champion, whilst Jon Moxley seemed like a modern-day action hero fighting off the whole group on his own.

RELATED: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About AEW's Jon MoxleyMoxley’s joining the Inner Circle fake out, as well as his ‘eye for an eye’ match with Santana was tremendous in building up the match perfectly.

4 Eddie Kingston

Eddie Kingston can work any fan into believing that he genuinely hates the person he is feuding with. Given how different Chris Jericho is from the ‘Mad King,’ Eddie did not actually have to do much to convince the audience of his issues with Y2J.

Their feud was much better than the BCC versus JAS feud that it devolved into, with their first match at Revolution 2022 being one of the best of either man’s AEW careers. It is a shame that it ended on a whimper, as their Barbed Wire Deathmatch fell completely flat.

3 MJF

The feud between MJF and Chris Jericho was long, but well thought out with the former trying to infiltrate the Inner Circle before forming his own group in The Pinnacle. The first part of MJF’s scheme was actually the best part, providing memorable moments such as Le Dinner Debonair and their short tag team feud against The Young Bucks.

Ironically, The Pinnacle did not quite reach its full potential as a group, while Blood and Guts and Stadium Stampede 2 were fun but not the best multi-man matches the company has offered. Still, the feud set up MJF as a future world champion and offered some all-time great moments.

2 Cody Rhodes

The first every-world title feud on AEW Dynamite featured the company’s biggest face Cody Rhodes against the best heel in Chris Jericho. ‘Le Champion’ was an unbelievable television character whilst Cody was offering up his best sort of material, which made AEW immediately feel like a big-time competitor to WWE.

RELATED: 10 Biggest Booking Errors Of Cody Rhodes' Wrestling CareerThe highlight was possibly when the Inner Circle mocked Cody’s own video package alongside Sammy Guevara, Santana, Ortiz, Jake Hager, and Virgil of all people. The match was great as well, though it did mean Cody could never challenge for the world title again.

1 The Elite

Whilst faction warfare may have grown a bit stale in AEW nowadays, the original incarnation of it between The Elite and Inner Circle is one of the best feuds in the company’s history. It coincided with the start of the pandemic too, which makes its achievements all the more special.

The Elite had taken a bit of a backseat when AEW first started, allowing talents like SCU, Darby Allin, and MJF the space to grow into television characters. The feud with the Inner Circle completely brought them up to speed though, as the matches between the factions were always so exciting. The first Stadium Stampede match was special, particularly at the time when promotions were limited in what they could do in front of fans.