RVD ‘can’t imagine’ Chris Jericho receiving a WWE retirement tour
Wrestling veteran and inaugural AEW World Champion Chris Jericho has been heavily speculated to return to WWE after spending years at All Elite Wrestling. While Jericho was previously rumored to return at the January 5th, 2026 edition of Raw, it unfortunately did not happen. Now, speaking to GamesHub, Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam, aka RVD, has opened up on Jericho’s potential WWE return as well as the chances of him receiving a retirement tour similar to John Cena.
“It could be. But I feel like what they did with Cena retiring was really special. I don’t remember anybody’s retirement being built up and pushed to mean that much. But then again, it seems all I’m reading is that Brock Lesnar is going to be the next guy to get a retirement tour. Then as soon as I read that, it feels like it waters down the importance of that being what it was,” RVD continued. “So I don’t know though. Maybe retirement tours will be a popular thing. Maybe we’ll all do it. But I can’t imagine he’ll get one. And not to take anything away from Jericho’s career, he has done more for the business than anyone and has all of the accomplishments to go with it, but Cena was like an era, he was the number one guy the whole time I was in WWE.“
Van Dam further opened up on Cena’s retirement tour, “They had him come in during 2001 and I think he had just come up from Ohio Valley, if I’m not mistaken, somewhere around that time. And then he’s just always been like the guy to beat. He’s been the top guy. He has been the guy that’s wrestled all the other top guys, keeping things marching forward, so automatically when other wrestlers are talked about doing retirement tours, I have to start comparing the importance, the weight of this guy retiring versus the Cena retirement tour which was the biggest thing of 2025, right?“
Jericho was last seen wrestling at AEW Dynasty 2025, when he lost the ROH World Championship to Bandido.
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
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