>>16651469Kenny will be a permanent chaser if he doesn't have some sort of reign where he's not in full creative control. He needs to be put on a bit of a leash so he doesn't derail his entire reign with stupid shit that fucked his other ones.
>IWGPReign was too focused on Bullet Club vs. Golden Elite stuff. Cody had two separate shots at the HebbyQ and, despite developing into a far better wrestler in the future, was not there yet. Not even close. Robbed us of a proper title match with Ibushi. Ishii and Tanahashi matches were good.
>AEWTwo big things fucked it up.
1: A comedy heel champion. I understand that Kenny has a "comedy side" to his wrestling, but man this really didn't translate well into the product. It's such a weird tonal shift to what people were expecting from Kenny as a world champ that I suspected the gimmick was meant to be a shot at someone in the industry. Either way, it blew chunks and killed a lot of the hype for Kenny as the top guy.
2. Added "Belt Collector" gimmick. Look, it was good for the cameras but it sucked. Most of the matches save for like two were even noteworthy. Combine that with the fact that the AEW belt was seeing some turbulence itself and the belts were devalued, moreso the AAA and Imoact titles. It wasn't until the Christian match where the Belt Collecter gimmick was killed and the AEW title picture got more interesting and Kenny got some fresh challengers. The comedy still persisted but one head of the beast was still hacked off, never to recover.
I love Kenny, but that also means being one of his harshest critics. His time as a chaser has been some of the most defining work of his career, and I still wish for a great run with the strap. But he needs to start learning from his mistakes and have some sort of guidance throughout the process, that's what will make him a good champion.
