Bryan Keith has become a pivotal part of The Learning Tree, alongside Big Bill and Chris Jericho. While he's learning from one former AEW World Champion, there's another former AEW Champion with whom Keith wants to tangle.
"In AEW, there's so many guys...but there's one that stands out above them all for me and it's really because of the influence...watching this person for so long, it's number-one as far matches that I need," Keith told "Battleground Podcast"recently. "I know it's a tall order but when we talk about guys that literally influenced me, he's up there."
Keith and Joe minorly tangled during Joe's feud with Chris Jericho, as well as the preceding feud with Hook over the FTW Championship, but Keith has yet to get that one-on-one match with his hero. Joe joined AEW in 2022, following Joe's near-decade long run with WWE, and won the AEW World Title in December 2023 at AEW Worlds End. Keith joined AEW the year after, following a successful spell on the independent scene, and was quickly taken under the wing of Chris Jericho.
Currently, Keith and his tag partner Big Bill are embroiled in a feud with AEW World Tag Team Champions Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin, known as the Hurt Syndicate. Big Bill is hoping to once again hold the AEW World Tag Team Titles that he held with now-WWE NXT North American Champion Ricky Saints (fka Starks). As it stands, Keith has yet to win a title in AEW or ROH.
