New Chris Jericho Rumors on How Surprise AEW Return Happened amid WWE Buzz

After nearly one year away and amid rumors of a move to WWE, Chris Jericho made his surprise return to AEW programming during Wednesday night's episode of Dynamite in his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), there was "about a week" where his AEW sources were largely convinced Jericho was going to WWE, but that changed over the weekend when a source informed him that they believe Jericho was indeed returning to AEW.

Sapp added that Jericho traveled to Winnipeg "under a shroud of mystery" on Tuesday night, leading to his shocking return to AEW on Wednesday.

Prior to Wednesday, Jericho had not been seen in AEW since April 2025 when he dropped the ROH World Heavyweight Championship to Bandido at Dynasty and then essentially disbanded his Learning Tree stable on the following episode of Dynamite.

Per Sapp, a source told him about a month ago that AEW had "frozen or extended" Jericho's contract to account for his time away.

It isn't clear how much time was left when the deal was frozen or how much time was added, but PWInsider.com (h/t Wrestle Ops) reported Thursday that it is believed Jericho came to an agreement on a new contract with AEW in conjunction with his return.

The 55-year-old Jericho was a huge factor in AEW's immediate success, as he was the company's inaugural world champion, and his star power and name recognition may have played a role in AEW getting a television deal in the first place.

While Jericho was involved in many of AEW's biggest matches, rivalries and moments over its first few years of existence, he dropped down the card in more recent years and had become something of a midcard act.

Because of that, it was widely assumed by fans and observers that Jericho might favor a return to WWE, which is where he performed on and off from 1999 until 2018.

Jericho is an all-time WWE great, having held six world titles in the company in addition to being a nine-time intercontinental champion, seven-time tag team champion, two-time United States champion and one-time European champion.

However, Sapp shed some light on why Jericho may have decided against a WWE return, noting that Jericho values his outside projects, and may have had to have given some of them up had he signed with WWE.

Instead of a WWE homecoming, Jericho is back in AEW, and the fact that he interrupted an AEW World Championship contract signing between MJF and Kenny Omega suggests that he could be going back to his roots as an AEW world title contender.