Chris Hero explains what it would take for him to get in an AEW ring.
The former Kassius Ohno was released from WWE in 2020. He took some time away from the ring until he recently returned to in-ring competition. Hero defeated Timothy Thatcher on November 17 at West Coast Pro Whiplash. He’s also started working for AEW in a producing capacity, which has led to fans wondering when or if Hero could lace up his boots there.
During a recent episode of AEW Unrestricted, Hero opened up about how his AEW deal came to be in the first place. (H/t Skylar Russell of Fightful for the transcription)
“I have known Sonjay Dutt for a very long time, and Sonjay was kind of the go between for a couple of offers that were made for me in the ring in the past year or two,” he said. “I’ve stayed in touch with Sonjay, I think I first met Sonjay in ’02 or ’03 and we’ve just been buddies off and on for years. I had expressed to him, I had just kind of been telling him what I’d been doing and where I came in and helped out with ROH in the last six months of the Sinclair era.”
Chris Hero Details Landing in AEW
From there, Hero helped out a couple of indies like IWC in Pittsburgh and later West Coast Pro. When AEW Collision came to fruition over the summer, the company started looking to add to their producing/coaching staff.
“So Sonjay had asked if I was interested in that,” Chris Hero continued. “I was like, ‘Yes, but, this, that and the other.’ So what we worked out was, I would come in for five dates. He’s like, ‘Let me know what your schedule is.’ That was Chicago, there were two in Toronto, and two in Hamilton. Then, once that was done, we kind of reconvened and thought about it long-term.
“I had a couple of conditions, I didn’t want to give up any of the stuff I was doing with West Coast. I wanted to make my return elsewhere before even thinking about doing anything with AEW because if I end up doing something in the ring with AEW, I want it to be as special as possible and not something that’s done for the spontaneous moment of it and then it’s over and it’s done. That’s where the whole TK tweeting, I’m chipping away at him thing [came from], because I sit next to him at the desk every week.”
Chris Hero On Potentially Wrestling In AEW
Chris Hero then elaborated on what it would take for him to potentially work a match in AEW. He stated that he would not be satisfied with just doing a one-off match.
“The thing is, it’s never that I didn’t want to wrestle for AEW. It’s just [that] I realized how complex and vast the company is,” Hero said. “I wouldn’t be satisfied with just doing a one off thing, whoop, I’m here, I’m there. I would prefer to do something with some thought put into it and that builds for the future. Also, I’ve been out of the ring for three and a half years. I gotta get my head right, I gotta get my body right. Those were my conditions, and [they said], ‘Yeah, no problem, we need the help and we’d like your help specifically,’ so let’s work on a deal and we’ll get you on every Collision except for when you have West Coast, and then maybe you make it up on a Dynamite or an extra pay-per-view or something.”
Hero concluded, “So far, so good. It’s been a lot. I haven’t been on the road this much since maybe even before I went back to NXT. It’s been a challenge to hit the road hard again, but it’s been great. Everybody’s been wonderful and appreciative but also understanding. I got to Full Gear late because of travel. That sucked, I didn’t like that, but it still worked.”
WrestleZone will provide more information about Chris Hero’s in-ring future as it becomes available.
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