AEW Hot Take: Why Jon Moxley Must Join Chris Jericho and Inner Circle Faction

Jon Moxley would never, ever join Chris Jericho's Inner Circle. Right? Right.

Which is why it should happen.

Imagine for a moment if one All Elite Wrestling's most beloved superstars went out on an episode of Dynamite and went against everything fans thought he stood for, joining Jericho and his lackeys in a faction at a time when everyone in the company seems to be ganging up.

Chaos—of the fun kind. AEW has dragged out the storyline longer than necessary as it is. It seemed like Moxley would give an answer on the New Year's Day episode of Dynamite, only to rattle off a couple of sentences and push back the drawn-out storyline another week.

If Moxley isn't joining, it seems this was mostly for naught. While it would be fun to see Moxley decline and trash the car the Inner Circle scraped cash together to buy in an effort to woo Moxley, the better idea might be to have him join up.

Joining up doesn't mean working with Jericho and Co. or going bad.

And let's be honest, little Moxley can do will get him booed. He's bulletproof, so at least joining up with Jericho will let him show some flashes of different-feeling character work. Yeah, he's a deranged, angry, yelling guy who fancies himself top of the food chain, but let's see him rocking out in that sweet car, lady-killer style. Let's see some nuance so he doesn't get tired quickly.

Call Moxley joining up a good way to pass the time. AEW has a long stretch before its next big event and plenty of time to fill, so getting Moxley into some fresh-looking events and interactions will keep things moving at a nice pace.

But joining this sort of faction and hiding behind attempts at fitting in could take another angle for the lone wolf too: Moxley could pick off the Inner Circle one by one.

And how he would go about it would be a sight to see. Maybe he just punched Sammy Guevara in his (very punchable) face. Maybe he costs Santana and Ortiz big matches and affects their standing in the tag rankings, humorously playing off the accident. He's certainly powerhouse enough to take out Jake Hager, barring just causing enough problems to let someone like Luchasaurus get the upper hand.

Don't forget Jericho himself.

Watching Jericho frantically get more suspicious and worried as a sleeper agent of sorts picks apart his protection would be fun because he can make anything work. Maybe Moxley doesn't help Jericho lose the title but eventually gets his own shot.

That's where this has all been leading anyway—Moxley is going to get his shot at Jericho. That he spends weeks and perhaps months playing mind games, besting Jericho at his own game, could make the whole ride even better.

The best part? There is genuine respect here that both performers have made sure to touch on multiple times. These guys have a long history, starting in WWE at a minimum before Jericho probably played some small part in AEW signing one of the best performers on the planet. There's plenty of emotion in all of this before fans finally get to see the payoff—Moxley screwing over Jericho in an unforgettable moment or making his life hell before taking the belt off him.

What's the alternative to Jericho's Inner Circle? Having The Elite take it down would have been too predictable, if not boring. They are having problems of their own within thanks to "Hangman" Adam Page. The Dark Order did a big belly flop on cement and is trying to recover.

No, dismembering The Inner Circle from within sounds like a job for Moxley. So in that sense, almost anything other than him accepting Jericho's offer and joining up soon would register as a disappointment.