Chris Jericho has revealed in a recent interview that he wanted MJF to be an original member of The Inner Circle prior to its formation.
Speaking to Chris Van Vilet, Jericho gave an overview of the faction’s formation prior to its debut including suggesting MJF for the group’s “up and comer”; Fenix & Penta El Zero M being considered before Santana & Ortiz; and why Sammy Guevara was ultimately selected for the group:
“There was always going to be the idea of a tag-team, an up and comer and a heater so to speak. The original idea bandied around for a tag team, and it might have even been by me was Fenix and Pentagon. I thought, I don’t want gimmick guys or masked guys. Santana and Ortiz came up and I knew them from the first Cruise but I don’t know much about them. The Bucks were saying how good they were. I thought, let’s throw those guys in there. I wanted MJF but I think Cody wanted to do something with him so I said Sammy Guevara. I scouted Sammy Guevara and brought him to the table. I’ve never met him before in my life. I watched him on an NWA PPV. I said this guy is good. He looks like an a**hole.”
Jericho also praised MJF for how advanced he is, despite only being 24:
“He is way more advanced than I was at his age. He just turned 24 years old. He’s definitely what you would call an old soul in that I can’t believe how good he is with the experience he has. What blows my mind is how much better is he going to be with experience over the next couple years and what he is going to learn from me and learn from Cody and Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard in his ear. It’s amazing to me just how good he is. There are certain guys you see and say we can do something together. It’s just the natural progression.”
This follows last week’s Dynamite Anniversary Show where MJF asked Chris Jericho if he could join the Inner Circle. The current members of the faction were heavily against this but Jericho said he’d think about it and invited MJF to a “Dinner Debonair” on tonight’s episode of Dynamite in the meantime.
Keep up-to-date with all the results and analysis from tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite, as well as all the latest AEW news, right here at Inside The Ropes.
h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcriptions