How Bryan Keith Ended Up In AEW Faction

Another year, another faction for Chris Jericho in AEW. From The Inner Circle to the Jericho Appreciation Society, the former AEW World Champion has always had followers in AEW, but now he has a new group, The Learning Tree, comprised of himself, "The Redwood" Big Bill, and "The Bad Apple" Bryan Keith, the latter of whom joined at Double or Nothing 2024.

Keith was recently a guest on "Talk is Jericho" to discuss key moments in his life and career, and revealed that before joining forces with the FTW Champion, AEW had other stables in mind for the former "Bounty Hunter." "I remember hearing other groups that I would potentially be in, like four different groups, and none of them were The Learning Tree" Keith said. "One of them was potentially Shane Taylor Promotions. Another was ... I know they were throwing around like maybe House of Black possibly something like that, I don't know for sure, and I don't remember what the other one was."

Jericho himself noted he wasn't initially sold on being the leader of another faction in AEW, and was more than happy to just have Bill as his muscle. However, AEW President Tony Khan suggested Keith as an understudy, and the rest is history. "I was like 'that really fits. I don't know why it fits but it does,'" Jericho said. "As soon as he suggested your name I just thought 'that's really cool and let's kind of see what we can do with this.' We didn't really know each other, just passing whatever, and then I remember asking if you had any ideas, throw some stuff out there, and you actually came up with the idea of "The Bad Apple" which was great."

Please credit "Talk is Jericho" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.