Sammy Guevara On Original Name For The Inner Circle, Chris Jericho Booking Return From Suspension
Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards welcomed Sammy Guevara onto the AEW Unrestricted podcast where they discussed Guevara's AEW career so far. Guevara is part of The Inner Circle, and he talked about when he found out he would be in The Inner Circle as well as one of the group's proposed names.
"That was probably around like All Out," Guevara recalled. "I think it was Nick Jackson. He came up to me. He's like, 'you know what you're doing?' I'm like, 'not really.' He's like, 'yeah, you're going to be in this group called The Fist. I don't know. They're working on the name with Jericho,' and I'm like, 'The Fist?' He's like, 'yeah.' I'm like, 'that's kind of a whack name.'
"That's kind of a take off of The Hand with Marvel Comics," Schiavone added.
"Exactly, especially since there's five of us. One for each finger," Guevara said. "Makes sense, but I remembered thinking like, 'oh, he's ribbing me,' especially because Nick, he's always messing around. So I was like, 'there's no way he's serious. I'll believe it when I see it.'"
Guevara also reflected on the creation of The Inner Circle at the end of the first night of Dynamite. He talked about the gravity of the moment and the praise he received from WWE Superstar Randy Orton.
"That was a crazy, crazy day," Guevara expressed. "I remember just thinking like standing in the ring, there's Jake Hager, Chris, Santana and Ortiz. The whole Elite, Dustin and Cody, they're all on the ground, and I'm just like, 'this is nuts. Like, wow,' and then, the next day I think, is when they announced I was the main event for week two with Jericho. We're teaming up, and then I think even Randy Orton put me over. And I just remember thinking like, 'this is just so wild to me.' Crazy, I'll never forget any of that."
Guevara admitted that he was always a fan of Chris Jericho growing up. He talked about how surreal it is that he was copying Jericho's moves with his friends to now being on t-shirts and cardboard cutouts with him.
"Oh, yeah, it's great man. I used to do Code Breakers back in the day on my trampoline and Walls of Jericho with my friends, and now, all of a sudden, I'm teaming with this guy," Guevara stated. " There's a freaking cardboard cutout. I'm on a t-shirt with him. We're in The Inner Circle. Life's crazy. Definitely crazy."
One of the most iconic AEW moments this year was Guevara getting run over by Matt Hardy riding a John Deere cart. He admitted that while he was looking at the members of The Inner Circle, he knew that he would be the guy taking crazy bumps.
"I saw everyone else in the group, and I saw me. I like to believe I'm pretty self-aware," Guevara noted. "So when I saw it, I was like, 'oh cool, I'm in this group,' and then I thought about it. I'm like, 'oh, I'm taking all the bumps for this group.' I'm the punching bag, but hey, I'm cool with it man. I used to take some crazy bumps in front of nobody. So at least if I'm taking these crazy bumps, a lot of people are watching now."
Guevara talked about the original plans for The Inner Circle and Mike Tyson where Guevara was supposed to get knocked out by Tyson. Guevara said he wouldn't have minded that since it would have been a once and a lifetime experience, but he was still happy that he got to be in the ring with Tyson.
"So I think Chris has said this before, the original plan was for Mike Tyson to knock me out which I was all for," Guevara revealed. "I remember people were coming up to me like, 'hey just don't move. You'll be fine,' and I wasn't scared at all. I was like, 'hey, even if he hits me and I wake up in a hospital, like it's going to be a hell of a moment,' and what a story, like hey Mike Tyson knocked me out. Who can say that?
"I don't know who really wants to say that, but if I'm gonna get knocked out, what a guy to get knocked out by. Then it ended up changing. He couldn't do it or something, but I remember just being in the ring. There's him, Henry Cejudo. I'm just thinking like, this is wild. We did the Double or Nothing. Now, I'm in the ring with Mike Tyson. This is nuts."
Jericho has revealed that it was him that booked Guevara's return on the July 22 episode of Dynamite. Guevara confirmed that, and he also revealed that he didn't know what the plans for him were until an hour or two before the show started.
"Jericho told me he had an idea for me to come back. I didn't really ask too many questions," Guevara admitted. "I was just like, OK, cool, and I was more just working on doing the training and stuff like that. Then when I finished it, it was like OK, cool. We'll send you the flight and all that. I didn't know what I was doing until probably like an hour-two hours before the show started.
"Someone was like, 'you're going to be Serpentico.' I was like, 'what?' Like I had no idea what I was doing. That's my own fault for just not asking questions, but I also trust Jericho, the genius that he is. I'm like whatever it's going to be, I'm sure it's going to be great, and from the response, from what you just said, I think it went off pretty well."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.