Anthony Ogogo Says He Was Originally Going To Be Part of the Inner Circle

Anthony Ogogo says that he was originally planned to be part of the Inner Circle in AEW and have Jake Hager’s role. The Inner Circle was Chris Jericho’s first stable in AEW and debuted in October of 2019 when AEW Dynamite launched. The group consisted of Jericho, Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz and lasted through various stages until March of 2022 when it became the Jericho Appreciation Society.

Ogogo spoke with ITR Wrestling and recalled how he was originally planned to have the role of Jericho’s bodyguard in the group, but that Jericho wanted Jake Hager. He noted that Jericho was very helpful to him in his career and talked about learning from Bryan Danielson and William Regal in AEW as well. You can see highlights below:

On the Original Plan For the Inner Circle:

“With Jericho, I was supposed to be Jericho’s bodyguard, part of his Inner Circle group. That was supposed to be me. I think Tony Khan’s idea was for me to work with Jericho and learn from Jericho. But I think Jericho wanted Jake [Hager], he knew Jake from their time in WWE, they had some real life situations with each other.”

On Chris Jericho Being a Mentor:

“But Jericho, especially in the early years, he was the Learning Tree, and I would always ask questions and he’d teach me stuff. He’d always watch my matches and give me critique and say ‘do this, don’t do that. He’s the man who knows how to get over so Jericho is someone I definitely learned a lot from. Just a tremendous performer, and another person I knocked out, he took my punch and sold for me because he’s bloody Chris Jericho, the first-ever Undisputed Champion, the first AEW Champion. So he’s somebody who’s been really helpful for my career.”

On Learning From Bryan Danielson & William Regal:

“He taught me how to wrestle. The whole thing about pro wrestling is you can be who you wanna be. Just because I wrestle like big and strong and do like power moves. Like Regal taught me this as well, Regal taught me this old school British wrestling big guy, tough styles. Just because you do the impact stuff doesn’t mean you can’t learn the intricate stuff. It just thus far hasn’t been called to use, doesn’t make sense for me to be using it. He [Bryan Danielson] taught me so much, again, not just wrestling stuff, but how to get over. He got this thing [the Yes chants] over. And when someone does a move, or a quote and it transcends outside of wrestling, that guy knows what he’s talking about. Tremendous guy, wonderful man. Really really nice guy as well. Super nice guy. At that point I was being groomed to join the Blackpool Combat Club, before it became the Blackpool Combat Club and it never really materialized. So I trained all this time with Danielson and Regal and put in all those hard work in to learn.

“And Regal, as well, someone who knows how to get over. People remember Regal’s time in the Attitude Era, putting in the funny faces. The man could work, he could work with anybody. He was really good. Yes they had the entertainment side of things, but as a true professional wrestler, that guy put the real back into wrestling. Taught me loads and loads. I haven’t been able to get to wrestle on TV, but when I get the go ahead, I am ready.”