Sammy Guevara has instantly become a massive babyface in AEW after telling Chris Jericho on February 10 that he was finished with The Inner Circle. He was fantastic as a heel for over a year since The Inner Circle’s formation on the first ever episode of Dynamite in October 2019.
The stable was originally formed to give The Elite a rival faction to feud with for the time being. That came to fruition in May 2020 at Double or Nothing in the first Stadium Stampede match. The Inner Circle had simply run its course as there was not much of anything left for them to do together as a stable.
Sammy Guevara has been treading water since he challenged Kenny Omega for the AAA Mega Championship back in April 2020. A couple months later in June of last year, Matt Hardy tried to get Sammy to buy into the fact that he might never have the level of stardom he dreamt of if Guevara stayed with The Inner Circle and under the shadow of Chris Jericho. Mind you this was several months before MJF even came into the picture, Sammy’s issues with Maxwell were just the final straw.
Unfortunately, Sammy did not listen to Matt Hardy at the time as this turned into a full-fledged feud which culminated in a brutal match at All Out in which Matt Hardy was nearly rendered unable to compete in the match because he hit his head early in the match. The end of The Inner Circle will provide an excellent springboard for Sammy to jump off and begin the rest of his career as he is still not even 30 years old.
Don’t expect Chris Jericho to ever do anything again related to The Inner Circle. Jericho has never been a fan of relying on nostalgia to get a cheap pop from fans as is so commonplace in wrestling – nostalgia is a big thing in the world of professional wrestling. It’s refreshing that Jericho never opted to use the strategy throughout his entire 30-year career.
That’s part of the appeal of Jericho – you are always going to get something new with him. Some of it works and some of it doesn’t, for example Le Dinner Debinair with MJF (I didn’t love this musical segment, but I respected Jericho for being willing to try it) or Chris Jericho’s Rockin’ Rager at Sea cruise in January 2020 (which was a major hit). Kenny Omega and Hangman Page even won the AEW World Tag Team Championships on that ship.