When Chris Hero, known to the WWE Universe as Kassius Ohno, was released from his NXT contract during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, fans assumed he'd be back in the ring sooner than later.

Sure, at 40, Hero was no spring chicken, especially for someone who was working exclusively in WWE's developmental system, but with over 20 years of experience in the ring, including legendary runs in PWG, Ring of Honor, and beyond, it felt like only a matter of time before he'd be back in the squared circle, either for a major promotion like AEW or even just back on the indies.

… except, for multiple reasons, that just didn't happen.

From March of 2020 through November of 2023, Hero wrestled exactly zero matches and didn't even start making appearances in professional wrestling until recently, when he took on an authority role in West Coast Pro Wrestling and was finally hired by AEW as a backstage producer after Tony Khan put the full-court press on hiring him for months.

Fortunately, on November 17th, that will all change, as Hero is set to wrestle Timothy Thatcher for West Coast Pro in what feels like a pretty intimidating first match back after a few years away. Discussing his return in a special interview with The Ringer's Masked Man Show, Hero acknowledged that he's very excited to be back, as he knows full well that he can still perform at a high-level post-WWE.

“I never felt like I wasn't going to have another match. There was never a point in me where I felt like, ‘Well, I'm done.' That would be why I got a little irritated when people were like, ‘Yeah, he retired.' Just go to my Twitter and see what I'm doing or listen to one of these interviews where everybody asks me the same thing,” Chris Hero said via Fightful.

“I had some offers. They weren't bad offers, but I didn't want something that I would say ‘yeah' to. I wanted something where I would say, ‘F**k yes. Of course.' I had to really be in love with the idea, and I just didn't feel it. There wasn't anything presented to me where I was like, ‘I had to do this.' I would get opportunities that were pretty good, but it was short notice. I've been out. I need to get my body back in shape, my brain back in shape, and the landscape of independent wrestling; who was doing what, where would I fit in. It took me a while.”

Whoa, pretty interesting stuff, right? Well wait, it gets better, as Hero is bringing way more to the tables in his return to professional wrestling than just a post-WWE greatest hits tour, as his experience as a producer and, dare I say, “Wrestling Genius” could help to set up a new generation of young grapplers.

Chris Hero explains his desire to flex his creative muscles out of WWE.

Continuing his conversation with The Masked Man Show, Chris Hero explained why he's specifically returning to West Coast Pro and why, during this run on the indies, he's bringing much, much more to promotions than a match at the top of the card.

“My journey here was working backstage at Ring of Honor before the hiatus, and they got bought. I did five months or so of those tapings working behind the scenes, refamiliarizing myself with the talent, learning stuff on the other side of the curtain. There was a group I had roots with in Pittsburgh, IWC, I did a signing and a seminar. I was like, ‘How about I write up formats for the show, we have a production meeting on the phone, let me get with each match and talk with them,' and work on developing them from show to show,” Chris Hero explained.

“I did the same thing with West Coast last year. Came in for a signing and seminar, and I felt there was something special about it. They just had their fifth anniversary, they're a young company, I got to know the owner Scott Bregante and kept in touch. I presented the same thing, ‘I can work with these guys.' You go to these shows as an older wrestler and people are like, ‘Did you see that? Can you watch that?' You really only have so much capacity. I can get in there deep, we can watch a ten minute match, and we can spend an hour talking about it, but that's not what everybody wants. Sometimes, they only want a thing or two. For me to really dig my claws in, I have to be there consistently and get someone's number and check in over time and build relationships. I presented him with this, and he thought, ‘I don't think we need that at this time.' Six months later, he came back around, ‘I'm interested, let's see what you can do.' Scott let me come in, he brought me up to a show just to watch and hang out, and we'd talk about stuff, but I was too excited at that show. I just grabbed the microphone. ‘I'm going to be the matchmaker.' An on-screen role to lend my credibility, not that they aren't credible, but to facilitate matches, and then behind the scenes, I'm like, ‘Here is your time, here is the order,' going through rehearsals.”

What does the future hold for Hero as an in-ring performer? Will this match light a fire inside him that brings the Ohno movement to AEW? Or will this instead prove to be more of a rare treat, with only the occasional match booked moving forward to keep his toes in the water in order to avoid a full-time move into a backstage role? Well, considering Billy Gunn is currently an AEW World Trios Champion at 60 years old, it's safe to say as long as Hero has that fighting spirit burning inside of him, there will always be a place for the “The Knockout Artist” to contribute to the business in one form or another.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVlRxYKBSDA