If Chris Jericho returns to WWE, his run will likely include an induction into the company’s Hall of Fame.
Rumors of a Jericho WWE return have been going on for months now. Jericho himself has not given any definitive answers, leaving the door open to either stay with AEW or return to WWE when his AEW contract expires at the end of 2025. But a potential spoiler regarding his decision appeared to emerge this week when no AEW wrestlers were listed among the first batch of advertised names for his 2026 cruise.
“Chris Jericho announced his next Jericho Cruise from November 7 to 11 in 2026 from Miami to the Bahamas and the lists of guests has nobody from AEW. Now it’s been noted to me the last time he did a cruise he announced nobody from AEW until a few months out,” Dave Meltzer wrote while providing an update on the situation in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Meltzer added that, if Jericho does end up going back to WWE, the promotion’s idea is for him to have a retirement tour and be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“He’s either going to WWE or he wants people to think he’s going to WWE to up his price from each side,” Meltzer wrote. “The idea is that Jericho is coming for a retirement tour and Hall of Fame induction. It also should be pointed out the cruise has nobody from WWE either but I don’t know that WWE would allow their talent to go even if he was with the company.”
In the past, Jericho has mentioned that a WWE Hall of Fame induction isn’t something that means that much to him. He does not want to go into any Hall of Fame while still an active in-ring performer.
Jericho — a star in WWE for nearly 20 years after arriving in 1999 — has not wrestled for the company since 2018. He joined AEW when the promotion was founded and was the first-ever AEW World Champion. Since April of this year, though, he’s been away from AEW TV. Tony Khan has spoken highly of Jericho amid the contract rumors and said that he would like to have Jericho back in AEW.
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