WWE Fuels Chris Jericho Rumors Posting John Cena, Roman Reigns Matches on Anniversary

Amid rumors of Chris Jericho leaving AEW to return to WWE next year, a pair of Jericho matches from the past were uploaded to the WWE Vault YouTube channel this week.

Jericho's match against Roman Reigns on the Aug. 22, 2016, episode of Raw and his match against John Cena on the Aug. 22, 2005 edition of Raw were posted on Thursday and Friday, respectively:

Friday was Aug. 22, meaning it was the ninth and 20th anniversaries of those particular bouts.

Rumors ran rampant regarding Jericho's future this week with Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t WrestleTalk) reporting that some people in AEW expected Jericho to return to WWE, potentially as a surprise entrant in the men's Royal Rumble match in January 2026.

WrestleVotes (h/t Steve Carrier of Ringside News) added that there is "a lot of enthusiasm" in WWE about Jericho potentially returning, and a deal is "expected to be completed" once his AEW contract expires.

Joe Otterson of Variety reported in October 2022 that Jericho signed a three-year contract extension with AEW, which suggests his deal could be up very soon unless it was frozen at some point due to time off or injury.

Jericho has not been seen on AEW programming since April, shortly after he dropped the Ring of Honor World Championship to Bandido. It is unclear if he had planned to take time off or if AEW simply decided to stop utilizing him.

There is no doubt that Jericho deserves a ton of credit for helping AEW get off the ground, as he was the company's first major signing outside of the executive vice presidents in Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks.

Signing a legendary performer like Jericho may have helped AEW land its first television deal, and he was rewarded in the form of being the inaugural AEW world champion.

While Jericho was a key player for the first few years of AEW's existence, he has faded into more of a midcard role over the past year or two, and it has started to feel like there is nothing left for him to accomplish in AEW.

As a result, a return to WWE makes a ton of sense for the 54-year-old veteran since it would allow him to have a retirement run with the promotion that saw him win six world titles and a record nine intercontinental titles from 1999 to 2018.

Returning to WWE would likely also set the stage for an induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, which would be a fitting end to a legendary career.