Chris Jericho Says He Turned Down Joining the NWO in 1998

Even though more than 40 WCW wrestlers wound up in the New World Order in some shape or form, Chris Jericho was never one of them. But, as the reigning AEW World Champion explained in an interview with Jim Varsallone this week, that was an idea that was on the table with WCW's booking team back in 1998. That year saw the faction balloon in size and split into two warring factions — nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolpac, which Jericho apparently wanted no part of.

"I never really wanted that [to be in a faction]," Jericho said. "I remember back in '98, one of the suggestions was for me to be in nWo and I was like absolutely not. There's 15 guys in the nWo. They don't need me and I don't need them."

Jericho's philosophy of never working in a faction changed when he joined AEW. On the first episode of AEW Dynamite he debuted his new group, The Inner Circle, with Sammy Guevara, Santana, Ortiz and Jake Hager as the other members.

"I think it's a group of five guys, who were all chosen for their specific personalities and their specific wrestling styles," Jericho said (h/t Wrestling Inc. for transcript). "Everyone has become a much bigger star because of the Inner Circle, including me, because you have a very exciting faction that there's a reason for. You've got a great tag team of street thugs. Sammy Guevara, who's got that quality about him that people don't like. He's also a great looking guy that the girls like-he's the bad boy, super talented in the ring. He's become my co-pilot when it comes to promos and stuff. Then you got Jake Hager, who's an undefeated MMA fighter at this point. We've pushed them that way."

WWE will induct the NWO into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2020, but only Hollywood Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall will take part in the induction. After the initial announcement fans started wondering why Eric Bischoff, who was heavily involved with the group onscreen and behind the scenes, was left out of the induction. However he seemed unbothered by it.

"I love those guys, especially Hulk [Hogan], these are guys that I have deep affection for and respect for," he said back in September on a podacast. "So I couldn't be happier, and I'm just going to let it go at that."