Chris Jericho Shares AEW’s Original Plans For The Exalted One

All Elite Wrestling’s Chris Jericho divulged AEW’s original plans for the Dark Order’s Exalted One. Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, Talk is Jericho, alongside his guest Luther, Jericho mentioned Luther’s initial audition.

Jericho noted how AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes was a fan of Luther’s audition. Acknowledging how the Dark Order was “kind of Nick and Matt’s thing,” Jericho confessed he sent the audition to Cody and AEW President Tony Khan for consideration.

“Cody is like, I like his delivery, he’s got that cadence of Jake Roberts,” Jericho said. “And then they said, let’s bring him in for basically a screen test, that’s kind of what it was.”

Chris Jericho shared how Matt and Nick Jackson were lobbying for Ring of Honor’s Marty Scurll to be the Exalted One “right off the bat.”

When it became unlikely that Scurll would be joining AEW, they then wanted Matt Hardy for the role. This then “morphed of course to Luke Harper.”

Jericho shared how Luther was “out of the equation” at this point as The Young Bucks ultimately had other guys in mind for the character. Luther would instead debut as a part of the ill-fated Nightmare Collective.

Chris Jericho is scheduled to compete against Best Friends’ Orange Cassidy during AEW’s upcoming two-week event Fyter Fest. The two clash on July 8.