Update on Chris Jericho’s Wrestling Status After Royal Rumble 2026
One of the biggest talking points of wrestling discourse since the new year has been where Chris Jericho will be appearing. There have been rumors of the future Hall of Famer making the jump from All Elite Wrestling to WWE once again, after leaving the company almost 10 years ago.
Let’s take a closer look at one major update that was released regarding the status of ‘Y2J’ following the 2026 Royal Rumble.
Chris Jericho is not currently factored into WWE plans
Fightful Select posted a report on Chris Jericho’s status on Sunday, revealing he is not currently factored into any WWE plans at the moment.
“Despite reports elsewhere claiming that Jericho’s deal had officially expired with AEW and that he was WWE bound, we’ve been told for weeks that Jericho has not been factored in to WWE plans. The 55-year old Jericho was never brought up for the Raw on Netflix anniversary show, and was not a Royal Rumble participant. Sources in WWE that we’ve spoken to say there is interest in Chris Jericho from WWE should he become available. However, that just hasn’t happened yet. … He remains on AEW’s roster page and under contract.”
The official end of Chris Jericho’s current contract is unknown, as it was speculated that his AEW contract was going to expire at the end of 2025. However, we do not know if he signed an extension or if there was any additional time added. Jericho has been part of All Elite Wrestling since its inception in 2019, being crowned the first AEW Champion.
Jericho’s last WWE match was in 2018’s Greatest Royal Rumble as one of the 50 entrants in Saudi Arabia. After that, he would wrestle for New Japan Pro Wrestling, including wrestling Tetsuya Naito, which was the match that gave Tony Khan the idea to begin his own wrestling promotion.
He has not wrestled since the AEW Dynasty pay-per-view, where he lost the Ring Of Honor Championship to Bandido. It will be interesting to see when we will see Jericho back in a wrestling ring and for what company it will be with.
