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Former ROH TV Champion Punishment Martinez, who lost the title tonight during a TV taping in Las Vegas, is officially finished with Ring of Honor, PWInsider.com has confirmed. Martinez was saying his goodbyes to the locker room at tonight's taping, which was his final scheduled date with the company.
Martinez's contract expired last month, just prior to the "All In" PPV, multiple sources have confirmed. Martinez opted not to sign a new deal as he wanted to be contractually free going forward. Obviously, someone with his size and skill would make a smart, logical addition to pretty much any company out there.
Update 11:42 PM EST: PWInsider.com has confirmed with WWE sources there has been interest in Martinez for the NXT brand for some time, so that appears to be his most likely destination.
Martinez broke into the business training with the Monster Factory in New Jersey and became a regular with ROH after a strong performance in the 2016 Top Prospect Tournament, which was won by Lio Rush. He was signed to a contract in July 2016. During his run with the company, Martinez was aligned with Kevin Sullivan and BJ Whitmer, won the 2017 Survival of the Fittest and toured with New Japan via ROH's working relationship with that company.
The next move for Martinez should prove to be very interesting as he has a lot of potential and was someone ROH had obviously invested a lot into over the last several years.
PWInsider.com Elite subscribers can listen to previous interviews with Martinez on Page 2.
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