Fan speculation regarding the status of Chris Jericho kicked up once again when a mystery box, technically big enough to conceal a human, showed up on “WWE Raw” on Monday. The box was marked with the message “Do not open until 2-28,” the date of Elimination Chamber in Chicago, Illinois, but according to a new report, fans getting their hopes up for an imminent Jericho return may be disappointed.
According to Fightful Select, Jericho is still “firmly” under contract with AEW. The outlet was told that the belief around the former AEW World Champion is that his deal was frozen after he took time off in 2025. Fightful reported a number of factors could have led to the extension of the deal, including injury time being added, or Jericho re-signing. It was noted that even if the injury time wasn’t substantial, other talent, such as Matt Hardy, had their deals extended by a few weeks.
No internal memo has reportedly gone out within AEW about Jericho leaving the company, which is said to be the standard. It was previously revealed that no AEW talent were currently scheduled for the Jericho Cruise in November. In addition to the cruise, Fightful reported that sources have indicated to them that Jericho is still accepting convention dates for the upcoming months, something that usually does not happen when a talent is signed to WWE. Sources told the outlet that Jericho has said he’d be open to a WWE return, but was worried he would have to give up his remaining outside projects to do so.
There is currently no word on when exactly Jericho’s AEW deal is up. His last match for the company was at Dynasty in April, where he lost the ROH World Championship in a title vs. mask match against Bandido.
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