Chris Jericho’s return to WWE has been heavily rumored ahead of the first episode of “WWE Raw” in the new year, but as the company speeds toward Royal Rumble season, “Y2J’s” arrival back to WWE may not be as entirely clear as it initially seemed to many. According to Fightful Select, nobody within AEW has given them any indication that Jericho has departed the company.

According to the outlet, the former AEW World Champion re-signed with the company after All Out 2022, and the deal was announced as being through 2026. Jericho disappeared from AEW programming in the spring of last year, after dropping the ROH World Championship to Bandido at Dynasty, and telling his Learning Tree stablemates Big Bill and Bryan Keith he was disappointed in them and it was “best if he left” until they got it together. Fightful reported they had not learned if Jericho’s deal had been extended due to that time off.

As of this writing, Jericho also remains on the AEW roster page after three stars were removed on Monday following their deals expiring. The outlet also reported that when they asked AEW in official capacity whether or not Jericho had departed the company, they received no response.

According to Fightful, when they spoke to WWE sources, they indicated that Jericho had not been brought up in creative plans and was not factored in to Monday’s plans for “Raw” that the sources had seen. The sources, however, admitted it wouldn’t be the first time that they had also been worked.

WWE does seem to be teasing Jericho’s return, however, as “Raw” General Manager Adam Pearce used the phrase “who can break down the walls” in a social media video outlining plans for the show. Both Fightful and PWInsider Elite reported ahead of the show that Jericho had not been spotted backstage at the Barclays Center.