The Inner Circle has reigned supreme as AEW’s top heel stable. As stacked as Chris Jericho’s new stable is already, there’s always room for a new member.
On the series premiere episode of AEW Dynamite, Chris Jericho aligned himself for the first time with Sammy Guevara, Ortiz and Santana of Proud ‘n’ Powerful, and a debuting Jake Hager. Since then, all five men have been elevated on the roster as a result of uniting.
Proud ‘n’ Powerful made an immediate impact upon entering the tag team division as one of its premiere duos. Jake Hager immediately catapulted himself into the main event picture, most recently garnering a World Championship shot as a result from the momentum he gained. Guevara has been able to highlight himself as one of the company’s most charismatic breakout talents.
Even after Chris Jericho lost his AEW World Title, he still feels like one of the top stars in the promotion. Which is not just a testament to his skills as a performer, but also to how the wrestlers around him have helped elevate Jericho’s star power with and without his title.
Clearly, all of these men are stronger and better together than they have ever been apart. The Inner Circle experiment, testing these five men together, worked with flying colors and as a result, it would not be hard to imagine adding a sixth wrestler to benefit their career as well.
But who could join The Inner Circle next? Let’s take some guesses.
Bea Priestley
Priestley has mostly kept herself busy in Japan, but as she is still apart of AEW on a part time basis, the door is always open for a return later down the line. And when that line is finally drawn, Priestley could use a boost by being a member of The Inner Circle.
For as many members in the group as there are, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the stable embarking on a quest to win every single title in AEW and holding them all at once. The only title they’d be missing is the Women’s Championship, but by adding someone with an equal level of snark and charm, that quest finally feels possible.
Kip Sabian
Surprisingly, for a guy who won the first singles match in AEW history back at Double or Nothing, Kip Sabian has pretty much done zilch since then. The promotion has only just started to use him in the past few months, but it’s only amounted to him losing a bevy of matches and failing to make it past the first round of the TNT Championship tournament.
He’s most recently joined forces with Jimmy Havoc, who given their polar opposite characters, make for an odd couple of sorts. For someone as naturally charismatic as Sabian, he’d make a better fit to join a group that bursts with charisma, like The Inner Circle.
MJF
A bit of an obvious choice, since so many thought that MJF was on track to join the group a few months back after he and Chris Jericho hate their “We hate Cody Rhodes!” promo segment, but it is that exact promo why so many of us want to see the two form an official alliance.
A lot of people praised that as one of the most entertaining promos of the year. In just a handful of minutes, Chris Jericho and MJF had instant chemistry. We have not seen the two in the same ring together since then or even before it happened and as entertaining as that promo was, that fact is absolutely criminal.
Not only would want another promo between two of AEW’s best promo specialists, but we would love to see them cut promos on a regular, consistent basis together as members of The Inner Circle.
Of course, Jericho and MJF still need to get around the “Do you want to join the Inner Circle? Do you want ME in the Inner Circle?” thing, but when they can finally answer that question of who wants who in the Inner Circle, we could finally get some incredibly fun segments featuring both men.
Hangman Page
If you can’t beat them, join them, as the saying goes. Ever since he failed to defeat Chris Jericho for the inaugural AEW World Championship last summer, Hangman Page has been on a downward spiral of sorts.
Loss after loss turned Page into an erratic cowboy who can’t keep a bottle of bourbon out of his hands. Even after finally starting to pick up wins and a Tag Team Championship (courtesy of help from partner, Kenny Omega), his allegiance to The Elite remains in question, especially following the mysterious attack on Nick Jackson.
A lot of people are speculating that all of these signs of uncertainty will eventually lead to a heel turn for Hangman, but that turn could come at Page being revealed as a sixth man for The Inner Circle. Jericho and Hangman could finally be on the same page (pun intended).
Keeping in mind how much the fans love Hangman, the turn doesn’t have to be turned forever. It does not even necessarily have to be official, which Page working as a mole of some sort. Ultimately, however it goes about would be a good move to plant the seeds for a Page vs. Jericho rematch, where Page finally gets his win back.
EC3
EC3 is currently coming off of the heels of being released from the WWE following a disappointing run on the main roster, but judging from his social media, he is ready to bounce back even better than ever and ready to put WWE in his rear view mirror. While his next post-WWE career seems unknown at the moment, AEW seems to be an easy guess for a lot of people.
Another look at his social media tells us that EC3 is good friends with Chris Jericho, which has already led people to speculate this as a case for why EC3 will be going to AEW. Which is a stretch, but EC3 does at least seem to be leaning into this speculation by playing “Judas” by Fozzy in a workout video.
Granted, Mr. 3 might just like the song (it is a really good song, to be fair), but given his friendship with Jericho, it would certainly make for fun chemistry on camera if he did decide to make the jump.
Jericho’s chemistry with Guevara, Ortiz, Santana and Hager continued to grow with every episode of Dynamite the closer they got, but his chemistry with a pre-existing friend should be able to shine right through the screen. We’d love to see it.