Chris Jericho Reflects On Rumors of Possible Jump to WWE Before He Returned To AEW

Chris Jericho was the subject of massive speculation about his future while he was away from AEW, a situation that he recently reflected on. Jericho was away from AEW for nearly a year, and it was reported in late 2025 and early 2026 that he was becoming a free agent, with speculation that he may return to WWE. Of course, that didn’t end up happening and he made his return to AEW in April.

Jericho was asked on Ringer Wrestling’s The Masked Man Show about the rumors. He noted that he knew there would be people who would be happy or angry about it no matter what happened. He said he was never a part of any of it and that the fans’ speculation became fact to them. He notably chose to leave the question of whether he did in fact speak with WWE “for another day.” You can see the highlights below:

On the Rumors During His Time Away:

“Well, the interesting thing about fans, and going back to what we said earlier about having a career where you can watch anything online, is that fans in this day and age then form their own opinions. And then it becomes, you know, law because the opinions spread. So whatever people believed or didn’t believe, I was not ever a part of any of it. You know what I mean?

“And I think the best part was, there was so much speculation of, ‘What is he going to do?’ that either way, with the tribalism of wrestling nowadays, there would be people happy about it and not happy about it. And ‘This is the worst thing ever,’ and ‘This is the best thing ever.’ I’ve never really focused on that side of like, ‘This is terrible and it’s never going to work.’ Because to me, anything can work and you always want to do your best to make it work. And I focus on the people who are excited about things, and the people who want to be entertained and want to be happy and want to have fun. That’s kind of the crowd that I focus on.”

On If He Had Any Conversations With WWE Or Elsewhere:

“I never said the rumors came fact. I said that the rumors became fact to the fans, right? Yeah. But yeah, I’ll leave that for another day. I like the idea of the intrigue.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Ringer Wrestling with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.