Chris Jericho made his latest return to WWE on the July 25 edition of Smackdown Live. Kevin Owens was in the ring bragging about how he won back the United States Championship (in controversial fashion) at Battleground two nights earlier. AJ Styles interrupted him, saying he wanted a rematch and then there was a pleasant surprise as Jericho said he never got his rematch from when Owens attacked him back him May. That led to a triple threat match made by Shane McMahon, which started his current issues with Owens, and ended with Styles winning back the U.S. title.
The return of Jericho (drink it in … man) was a great sign that most fans thought would lead to him returning as a regular member of the roster again after he took a break from the ring for nearly three months to tour with his band, Fozzy. As it turns out, the appearance was just a one-time thing. It was reported by Dave Meltzer in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Jericho isn’t advertised for any WWE events going forward and that his main focus is doing appearances to promote his fourth book, is called No Is A Four Letter Word” and will be available on August 29, but you can pre-order it on Amazon now.
As is always the case with Jericho, you never really know what’s true because he’s a big fan of not letting anybody know anything while showing up as a surprise at any time. I thought his return two weeks ago would lead to a full time return and a match at SummerSlam, but Meltzer’s report is likely accurate. Jericho and Meltzer recently did a Talk is Jericho episode about Chris Benoit that I highly recommend, by the way.
Jericho will turn 47 years old this November, and while he’s still performing at a high level, Father Time catches up to us all. Jericho admitted that he loved his recent run in WWE as much as the fans did (the “List of Jericho” was a huge hit among other things), so he may want to return soon. No idea when “soon” might be, whether it’s later this year or perhaps wait until the Royal Rumble next year. With Jericho, you never really know.
If you want to read more about Jericho and his plans for the future, check out our interview with him back in June talking about his wrestling career, his band Fozzy and so much more.
