Chris Jericho revealed on the latest edition of Talk Is Jericho some of the names originally considered for the Inner Circle included MJF, Pentagon & Fenix, and Anthony Ogogo.
Here are the highlights:
MJF:
“So it was kind of right from the start, I kind of had an eye on you [Sammy Guevara] but the first choice, I can’t even remember who the first choice of the different guys were, but I know at one point I was like, I’d like to have MJF, and they said he’s gonna do his own thing, well, then I think Sammy is the same idea. I wanted a young, kind of upcoming, charismatic guy.”
Pentagon & Fenix:
“Then I wanted a tag team. And one of the ideas that was suggested was Pentagon & Fenix, and I said, it’s too gimmicky, I don’t want gimmicks. And then right after that, it was, what about LAX, at the time, Santina & Ortiz.”
Anthony Ogogo:
“One of the ideas was that they wanted a guy called Anthony Ogogo, who I think is signed with us now, I think he’s a boxer from the UK, obviously he’s stuck in the UK right now, but they were saying what do you think of this Anthony Ogogo guy? I said, ‘Well, he’s never wrestled,’ I said, ‘How tall is he?’ They said he was like 5’11” or whatever, I said, ‘No, I need a big guy,’ and I got the guy. And I approached Tony Khan, and the thing about Tony, is he is beyond a fan, he’s very smart, as well as know, he’s very almost bullish, he knows what he wants, and he also knows his guys. I said what do you think of, at the time, Swagger. He was like, ‘I always loved Jack Swagger, I always thought he was great.’ I said, ‘I think I can get him, he’s the guy.”
H/T to 411 Mania
