The Inner Circle have been together since the first episode of AEW Dynamite, and the group is still going strong. Together Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana and Ortiz have found success, but the group almost looked very different.
Chris Jericho recently spoke to Chris Van Vliet about the formation of the Inner Circle, and he noted that names like Fenix, Pentagon and MJF were originally considered for the group.
“So, I think the original tag team, one of the the ideas that was banding around – it might have been by me – was Fenix and Pentagon. And then I thought, ‘I don’t want gimmick guys/mask guys.’ And then Santana and Ortiz came up, and I was like, ‘I know them from the cruise because they were on the first cruise, but I don’t really know much about them.’ But The Bucks were saying how good they were on the first cruise. I said, ‘OK, lets throw those guys in there.’ And then I wanted MJF, but I think Cody wanted to do stuff with him.”
“He says, ‘well, how about Sammy Guevara?’ because I scouted Sammy Guevara and brought him to the table. I never met him before in my life. I just watched him on a NWA PPV that Cody was wrestling [Nick] Aldis, and I saw him. I was like, ‘this guy’s good’, and he’s miscast as a babyface. He just looks like an a–hole. So, Sammy? That’s cool. And then, for the heater, there’s a guy called Anthony Ogogo, who is a boxer, and they were suggesting him. And I was like, ‘I don’t want that because I had that in WWE a couple of times.’ They gave me heaters that were smaller than me or the same size. I want a big guy, and I did kickboxing training– hadn’t spoken to him in years, but I was kickboxing with the same trainer as Jake [Hager] was, getting ready for his Bellator fights.”
“And I just started talking to him like, ‘Are you interested in coming back?’ He’s like, ‘I’d love to’. And I pitched it to Tony, and I said, ‘this is the guy I want.’ I’ve always been a big fan of his. I wanted him to be my heater back in the WWE, but they just miscast him. They didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know what to do with a 6’6″, good looking blonde guy who can work, and had a character that can talk in the right circumstances, ‘What the fu–?’ But that’s fine, and so, we got him involved.”
Jericho also pointed out how the group has been together for a year now and a breakup hasn’t been teased once. He indicated that the group likely won’t be breaking up, but could instead add more members in the future. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
H/T Wrestling Inc.
