On the April 22 episode of AEW Dynamite, the feud between Matt Hardy and the Inner Circle was teased to go in a new direction. After weeks of back and forth between Hardy (and his trusty droid, Vanguard 1) and the Inner Circle's leader, Chris Jericho, Hardy called out another member of the group: Sammy Guevara.
Hardy gave Guevara credit for being the only member of the Inner Circle to mention his name in the previous week's "Bubbly Bunch" segment. He invited Guevara to come to the Hardy Compound to take his boss's spot in the match Hardy challenged Jericho to on April 8: the Elite Deletion.
A (presumably) cinematic match with Hardy would be a huge spot for Guevara, and would easily be the biggest match of his young career to date. That's saying something for a man who wrestled in the first match in Dynamite history against Cody and challenged Kenny Omega for the AAA Mega Championship. That said, taking the Elite Deletion match might not be all it's cracked up to be for Guevara's career.
The common denominator linking all of Guevara's high profile singles matches in AEW so far is that they've all been losses. That includes his most recent big match, a loss to Darby Allin in the first round of the TNT Title tournament. Losing to Hardy as a stand in for Jericho wouldn't do Guevara's career any favors.
While it's not a certainty that Guevara would lose to Hardy, he really ought to. Hardy needs to keep home field advantage at the Hardy Compound in order for that to be an effective setting for matches and he also needs to beat Guevara to set up a match with Jericho down the line.
Guevara resembles Evolution-era Randy Orton in a lot of ways. He's a young, talented and brash member of AEW's top heel stable. Where he differs from Orton is that he's yet to be more than a henchman for Jericho. Orton's "Legend Killer" gimmick afforded him an agency that Guevara lacks. Wrestling and losing in Jericho's place wouldn't do much to change that.
Guevara's life outside of doing Jericho's dirty work will likely be on hold until AEW can run the Blood & Guts match between the Inner Circle and the Elite. That match is still on the back burner as the company works through its recent set of Dynamite tapings from Georgia. The company's next pay-per-view, Double or Nothing, is still scheduled for May 23, but it's unlikely it will play host to Blood & Guts, though.
Like all of AEW's (and WWE's) recent shows, Double or Nothing will be performed with no fans in attendance. AEW seems intent on debuting its version of the classic WarGames match in front of a crowd, for understandable reasons. It also needs to get everyone involved in the same arena, which is impossible while half of the potential competitors (Adam Page, the Young Bucks, and Proud and Powerful) are unable to attend shows.
Until Blood & Guts can happen, Guevara and the rest of the Inner Circle should be focused on the Elite, especially now that Jon Moxley has ended his feud with Jake Hager. Guevara will get invaluable experience working with some of the top performers in the business. He could also be the focal point of his team in the eventual Blood & Guts match. He makes the most sense as the man who starts the match for the Inner Circle, and could definitely make the most of being in the match for its duration, alternating being on offense and taking it from the Elite.
Guevara will benefit from working with the Elite, win or lose, as they're some of the best workers in the business. But he won't be able to gain any momentum until he stops being Jericho's right hand man and gets to fight his own battles.