{"id":150194,"date":"2026-01-07T20:02:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=150194"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:51:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:51:56","slug":"tony-khan-comments-on-chris-jerichos-aew-status-as-wwe-return-speculation-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/01\/07\/tony-khan-comments-on-chris-jerichos-aew-status-as-wwe-return-speculation-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Khan Comments on Chris Jericho\u2019s AEW Status as WWE Return Speculation Grows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Jericho has been making all the headlines lately. Fans are curious about his current status and whether or not he&#8217;ll re-sign with All Elite Wrestling or return to WWE again.<\/p>\n<p>On the January 6 Monday Night Raw, fans speculated that Jericho would return. That didn&#8217;t happen, and both <a  href=\"https:\/\/pwinsider.com\/article\/203827\/chris-jericho-raw-notes.html?p=1#goog_rewarded\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PWInsider<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Fightful\/status\/2008347687746150574\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fightful reported<\/a> that he was never supposed to be there.<\/p>\n<p>When AEW first started, Chris Jericho became an integral part of its programming. Over the years, fans got tired of seeing him again and again, so the company minimized his involvement with the product. Jericho hasn&#8217;t been seen in AEW for 9 months now, and his WWE return rumors have been stronger than ever.<\/p>\n<p>Tony Khan recently commented on Chris Jericho&#8217;s current status in a recent interview, and here&#8217;s what he said.<\/p>\n<h2>Tony Khan Says Chris Jericho Has Been A Huge Part Of AEW Since The Beginning<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking with <a  href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/3vqVEdKs6WU\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adrian Hernandez<\/a>, Tony Khan was asked to share an update on Chris Jericho. Khan said he is grateful for Jericho and his involvement in the early days of AEW and being a huge part of their success. Although he didn&#8217;t necessarily give much insight into Jericho&#8217;s contract status with these comments.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>\u201cI\u2019m really grateful when I talk about people that have been here from the beginning and talk about that first show in Las Vegas. None of it would be possible without Chris Jericho, who&#8217;s been instrumental in AEW from the very beginning. I love Chris very much and I would say that Chris is always a big part of the AEW, and I think this promotion is here to stay. Chris Jericho is a huge part of our history and we&#8217;re really proud of what we&#8217;ve been able to accomplish, and Chris is an instrumental part of it.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tony Khan on Chris Jericho\u2019s AEW Status <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pTRQgJ2RVy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/pTRQgJ2RVy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adrian Hernandez (@AdrianRadio93) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdrianRadio93\/status\/2009020205339644094?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Fans are now hoping to catch a glimpse of Y2J at WWE&#8217;s upcoming Royal Rumble premium live event, which airs on January 31 from the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p><b>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay tuned to the <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for more on <\/span><\/i><em>Chris Jericho, AEW,<\/em> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out WWE programming on<\/span><\/i><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81788927\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Netflix<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Raw), <\/span><\/i><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">USA Network<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (SmackDown), <\/span><\/i><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.cwtv.com\/shows\/wwe-nxt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The CW<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (NXT), and <\/span><\/i><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peacock<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (archives and premium live event streaming). You can follow WWE on social media and relive top moments on <\/span><\/i><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WWE\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">YouTube<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Jericho has been making all the headlines lately. Fans are curious about his current status and whether or not he&#8217;ll re-sign with All Elite Wrestling or return to WWE again. On the January 6 Monday Night Raw, fans speculated that Jericho would return. That didn&#8217;t happen, and both PWInsider and Fightful reported that he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5645,"featured_media":149973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4677,2,12,2192,4,3],"tags":[107,4132],"class_list":["post-150194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew","category-featured","category-news","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-chris-jericho","tag-tony-khan"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150194"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150282,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150194\/revisions\/150282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}