Chris Hero is one of the biggest indie stars to never wrestle for AEW, although that is not through want of trying by the company.
Despite his former tag team partner Claudio Castagnoli joining the company in mid-2022, Hero has been decidedly absent from the company.
As Claudio has become a main event star with the Blackpool Combat Club, Chris Hero’s career has been rather quiet.
He wrestled his last match in 2020, when he was still signed to WWE. Chris Hero’s last match as Kassius Ohno came in NXT UK, and was a sad end to a legend of the ring.
That is not to say he has not had any offers to wrestle. In fact, Chris Jericho wanted to wrestle against Chris Hero in AEW, even offering the match to the former ROH star.
Chris Hero Rejected AEW Match With Chris Jericho
The three years off from wrestling for Chris Hero has been completely by choice – he has not been short of offers since leaving the WWE.
He had been contacted by All Elite Wrestling for an appearance in 2022, during Chris Jericho’s crusade against other former Ring of Honor Champions.
This storyline came about after Chris Jericho beat Claudio Castangoli to win the ROH Championship at AEW Grand Slam 2022. He faced the likes of Bryan Danielson, Colt Cabana and other ROH alumni in this run, but Chris Hero remained absent.
Chris Jericho confirmed in an episode of his Talk is Jericho podcast that he originally wanted to bring Chris Hero in to face him during his ROH Championship reign.
Sadly for the fans, Jericho claimed that Hero wasn’t available for the match, so the planned bout was cancelled.
Hero vs Jericho is a dream match of sorts, a match up that fans never expected they could ever see – even when the pair both wrestled in the WWE.
Jericho also named PCO and Dragon Lee as wrestlers he would have loved to face, but ultimately could not get over the line, for one reason or another.
I wanted to do another match with an outside guy. We had a couple of ideas, one was PCO, once again, but he wasn’t available. The other idea we had was Chris Hero, but he wasn’t available either, couldn’t do the gig. Same thing with Dragon Lee, another idea that Tony had, but he couldn’t make it.
I was like, ‘Does anybody want to wrestle me?’ We were thinking that maybe we could use Chris Daniels, I suggested Samoa Joe or Jay Lethal, but they’re in different programs. Finally, Tony says, “What about Ishii?’ ‘That is great.
AEW also wanted Chris Hero to be part of MJF’s “Labors of Jericho”, although he was eventually replaced by Juventud Guerrera for the match.
“I think we need some Labors of Chris Hero. But I will say you’re welcome for getting Juventud in the mix because whatever was speculated, I believe that was what ended up happening,” Hero said in a 2022 interview.
As of the time of writing, Chris Hero has not signed for AEW and has not wrestled anywhere else since leaving the WWE.
He has claimed he is not retired yet, but his latest appearance in a promotion showed him as a matchmaker, and not as an in-ring performer.
Who would be your dream opponent for Chris Hero in AEW? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.