Chris Jericho was recently spotted with a WWE personality, intensifying rumours around his AEW exit.
Jericho is one of the pillars of All Elite Wrestling, being among the first major signings for the promotion in 2019, and also becoming the inaugural World Champion. However, recently, there have been many speculations that he may be leaving the Jacksonville-based company once his contract with them runs out at the end of this year.
The Learning Tree, for his part, has been vague about the matter, with his cryptic social media activities only furthering the speculations. He was also recently sighted at a public event with WWE NXT announcer, Mike Rome, adding fuel to the fire.
Rome attended Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood, where The Nueve was also in attendance. The two posed for a picture together, which Rome shared on his Instagram. While the NXT announcer didn’t specifically mention Jericho, the image was enough to get the rumor mills running. You can see their picture in the second slide in the post shared below.
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Chris Jericho Breaks Silence On AEW Status, Addresses WWE Return Rumors
At the same event, The Painmakeraddressed the ongoing speculation in an interview with the Daily Mail (via Denise Salcedo), where the 54-year-old wrestling icon commented that the Tony Khan-led promotion was the best thing that could happen to wrestling, as it gave everyone more options.
He clarified that he was still with All Elite Wrestling and won’t be leaving it for a while; however, he remained open to a return to the Stamford-based promotion:
The best thing that could happen in wrestling is AEW, and the fact that there’s two huge promotions that you can choose from just makes it better for the guys. It makes it better for the fans and everybody in between. So I’m not going anywhere for a while.
I’m still with AEW for right now. Would I go back to WWE? I wouldn’t be opposed to it. we’ll just have to see what happens. But the best thing that could happen is to have two great teams that you can play for, and that just makes everything bigger and more exciting.”
Though he maintains that he is staying with AEW, his willingness to return to his former promotion is what got everyone speculating about his next move.
Seems that fans will have to wait until the end of this year to see how this situation plays out.