Chris Jericho RETURNS On AEW Dynamite After Months Of WWE Rumors (AEW News)

Despite those WWE rumours, Chris Jericho is back in AEW.

by Andrew Pollard
Chris Jericho
AEW

After several months of speculation over a WWE return, Chris Jericho made his return to AEW on last night's Dynamite, looking to be in phenomenal shape.

With Dynamite taking place from Jericho's billed hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the inaugural AEW World Champion came out to interrupt Tony Schiavone prior to a contract signing between MJF and Kenny Omega.

Fozzy's Judas hit, the Canada Life Center crowd reacted strongly, Jericho received chants of "Welcome Back!" and "Welcome Home!", before the adulation was soaked in for a solid few minutes, until Le Champion had four simple words: "Winnipeg... AEW... I'm home."

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And that was that.

While the initial reaction to Chris Jericho was an impressive one, it did admittedly start to wane as the segment went on, with Jericho himself trying to stir a little more life into the crowd as the minutes went on, largely to no avail. Still, some fans in attendance have taken to social media to say that the reaction was a lot louder than it came across on TV.

Of course, this return has been met by the usual mixed response online, with those WWE fans eager for a Jericho return now deeming him old and past it, and those AEW fans who'd deemed him old and past it when it looked like he was on his way back to WWE are now welcoming him back into the fold like some sort of messiah.

As for those rumours and rumblings, it was at one point believed that Chris Jericho's AEW deal was up at the turn of this year, leading to fans' fantasy booking his return at Raw's one-year Netflix anniversary, at the Royal Rumble PLE, or even being in the mystery crate that was unboxed at Elimination Chamber; a crate that ultimately contained Danhausen and his dancers.

By all accounts, Jericho's AEW deal was extended due to time away from the company, and his recent trademarking of the term "The Cornerstone" had plenty of people talking about this being linked to an All Elite return.

Chris Jericho had last appeared for AEW nearly a whole year ago, on the post-Dynasty edition of Dynamite - 9th April, 2025 - where he told Big Bill and Bryan Keith that he was stepping away for a while after losing the ROH World Title to Bandido. And now, it remains to be seen what's next for the 55-year-old legend in the land of All Elite Wrestling.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.