Chris Jericho Wanted To Break Up The Inner Circle

The Inner Circle was formed during the debut episode of AEW Dynamite and they have gone through a lot since then. There was a time when Chris Jericho wanted to break up the stable and go their separate ways.

While speaking to Stephanie Chase, Chris Jericho revealed that he wanted to “respectfully disband” the Inner Circle. Everyone has their own path in AEW and he didn’t want to hold them together as a faction. When it came down to it, the decision was made to keep the stable intact.

“My idea was for us to respectfully disband and go on our own ways. Tony didn’t want to do that. He said, ‘Why would you want to disband? You don’t have to be together all the time, but you’re still The Inner Circle.’ After this year, the whole storyline was based around MJF wanting to join, Wardlow is in the Inner Circle, The Pinnacle, five-on-five and that sort of thing. It was a well told year long story with the five of us. It’s good for us to go our own ways and not be in each other’s business every week. It’s good that we’re still aligned.”

“For me, I thought it was a good time for us to go our own way, but we can still do that without officially disbanding the band or breaking up the band. I love the fact that we’ve been a faction since day one in AEW and really never had fights amongst us. There has been a few minor things, but we never turned on each other. Half the group didn’t turn heel and half the group didn’t turn babyface and fight with each other. We never did that. I think that’s a pretty cool accomplishment, especially in wrestling because factions come and go quickly and it seems like they are put together just so they can break up and feud for two or three weeks. We never wanted to do that, we wanted to make it a long-term thing; five guys who like each other. We started as heels, we turned babyface together, and we all remain friends and on the same page. That’s the way I’d like to keep it.”

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The Inner Circle and The Pinnacle had a feud that spanned a couple of matches, but both factions are still together. Members of those stables might get preoccupied in their own stories, but in the end the Inner Circle is still together and led by Le Champion. Nothing can last forever, but AEW made the call to keep that popular faction together even after their massive babyface turn.

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Thanks to Fightful for the quote