As another AEW event passed without even a hint of Chris Jericho’s return, company president and head of creative Tony Khan was asked about his first World champion on Busted Open yesterday (Oct. 20).
Word is that Jericho’s AEW contract expires at the end of the year, and speculation he’s returning to WWE persists — probably because it’s occasionally prompted by Jericho himself. Khan indirectly confirmed that the 54-year-old could become a free agent soon, and heaped praise on the legend. Otherwise,
though, he gave his version of “wait and see”.
Here’s what TK told Dave LaGreca:
“I love Chris Jericho. He’s a huge part of AEW, he’s been here since the beginning and, you know, we’ll see what happens here in the coming months.
“Chris is always a welcome — big part of AEW, we’d always want to have here. So I am absolutely so grateful to Chris Jericho for everything he’s done. And you mention that AEW book — looking at the history, well, Chris Jericho is a huge part of that history. The very first AEW World champion, and somebody who’s now a nine-time world champion, and has won several of those championships here with us.
”So, I am very, very grateful to Chris, and Chris is always a very welcome — huge part of AEW.”
Off television since April when in-storyline he left after telling his Learning Tree disciples Big Bill and Bryan Keith he was disappointed in them, there’s a possible outlet for him to return via picking that angle up back up. But most people seem to be assuming Jericho’s headed back to WWE for a farewell tour. TK could be making the same assumption, and just signaling to someone who helped give his promotion a lot of early credibility that they’ll always have a spot there.
As he says, “we’ll see what happens here in the coming months.
