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With what may be the final Ring of Honor PPV, Final Battle 2021 set for this Saturday 12/11 in Baltimore, PWInsider.com has reached out to current and former Ring of Honor perfomers, personalities and fans for their thoughts and memories of the promotion. Every day this week, we will be running memories and comments. Enjoy part five of a very special look back at Ring of Honor.
Joe Hendry:
"Well, I remember the first time ever wrestled for Ring of Honor in 2016. I started wrestling training in 2013, so that was pretty early. At the time I'd say even more was known as like a kind of character or entertainment based wrestler when it's like Ring of Honor, especially at the time was very much a sort of workrate based company, you know? So it was one of those moments where CM Punk often talks about when he wrestled Eddy Guerrero that he realized, 'Oh, I thought I was good until this happened.' And, you know, being on that show in 2016, it kind of gave me a snapshot into what wrestling was going to evolve into and what I would need to do to exist and Excel in that space.
So I think that was a really good experience for me. That kind of gave me the hunger for it as well, because I was always making my entrance, as I walked down and I saw the old school Ring of Honor logo barriers that the fans were banging on and making noise. As I made my entrance, I was just like, 'Damn, I've seen that logo since, you know, the early 2000s.' I remember seeing Ring of Honor in 2002 on The Wrestling Channel in the UK...Nigel McGuinness and also Doug Williams as well. I wrestled Doug Williams probably two weeks ago on a match for Wrestle Carnival in the UK, they've kind of got a working relationship with Ring of Honor, sometimes they show the matches on ROH Week by Week.
So me and Doug wrestled on that show, so I thought that was technically going to be my last match under the Ring of Honor banner. So, it was pretty cool to wrestle Doug under those circumstances because I remember seeing Doug and Nigel on The Wrestling Channel for Ring of Honor. I think I saw Doug maybe in 2003, maybe and Nigel shortly thereafter. So, to even be seen or thought of in the same bracket as that, you know, that's the wrestling history to me. Forgive the pun but it's an honor.
I don't even think it's just Great Britain. I think it's to be as Britain's just part of that global wrestling scene in terms of how much Ring of Honor has influenced them. If you look at the modern style of wrestling, I do feel that Ring of Honor was very much the birthplace for that. It's probably been one of, if not the most influential wrestling companies of the last 20 years. I think you can see Ring of Honor's stamp on every major promotion in the world. It's had a huge contribution to professional wrestling and it's been a huge part of why [pro wrestling] is the way it is today.
Like you pick any of your favorite companies and look at the roster, even just looking at the roster, you can see Ring of Honor's fingerprints all over it. I hope that Ring of Honor continues to get credit and gets more credit for what it has contributed to the rest of the scene and also on a personal level as well.
Like again, you know, before I got to Ring of Honor, it was, it was very much a struggle. It's always a struggle for any up and coming wrestler, but I was very smart with my money. Everything I earned from Ring of Honor, I reinvested. I've got a training school. I've got investments. Now, I've got a mortgage on a house. I paid off my car. Like, I, I did not do anything of excess. With all the money I made., used it to set up myself for the rest of my life and Ring of Honor has allowed me to do that. So I'm very grateful to them on a personal and a professional level, because what people don't know is I've been getting paid as normal the entire time through the pandemic. Don't get me wrong. I'd rather work.
That's why I'm was moving mountains to get me over here [for Final Battle]. I want to work, I want to contribute. I'm very grateful for the fact that they have supported me throughout this, this pandemic and beyond as well. It's going beyond the show as well,. They're paying me for beyond the show, you know, to help me make my next steps in life, you know? I don't know if enough people knew that, but Ring of Honor could have just terminated us on that day and then paid us as a one-off for final battle. But, you know, they've been honoring contracts for quite a bit longer than they had to. So I'm very grateful for that and it's allowed me to set myself moving forward. So, I'm grateful to the company personally and professionally for everything they've done."
Joe Hendry has been making appearances for Ring of Honor since 2016 and signed with the company in 2019.
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Moose:
"It is always sad to hear when a company goes out of business or is shutting down or taking a hiatus or whatever you wanna call the status of what they're doing. I feel bad for the boys as there's going to be a lot of guys and girls who are gonna be left without jobs and trying to figure out, to find a new place to call home, you know? Without Ring of Honor, I definitely wouldn't be where I'm at today as a performer, as a wrestler, as a person and Ring of Honor was a huge part of the reason why I'm Impact World Champion today."
Moose wrestled for Ring of Honor from 2014 through 2016 and is currently the Impact Wrestling Champion. He will headline the 1/8/22 Hard to Kill PPV for that promotion.
Taylor Rust:
"Ring of Honor itself has just always been kind of like a real big dream. I've always wanted to kind of be a part of Ring of Honor and put myself in there. When I first got into wrestling, I want to say started watching Ring of Honor and the tone...I thought Paul London. He was the first guy that kind of captivated me and it just opened my eyes. Everything that independent wrestling can really be. After Paul London, it was Bryan Danielson and then Samoa Joe and his matches with CM Punk, but they're all through Ring of Honor as thing over the years. It was all the work they were doing with Ring of Honor over the years that was really opening the eyes to the rest of the world to this amazing talent that was the independent wrestling scene. To imagine an independent wrestling scene without Ring of Honor, that's something that sounds pretty weird."
Taylor Rust returned to Ring of Honor following his run with WWE NXT this past Fall and will be competing on tomorrow's ROH Final Battle PPV.
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Joe Koff on what he was most proud of for Ring of Honor in recent years, 10/28/21:
"Well, the last couple of years is the care and responsibility we took for our talent. There's no question about that. As you said it, you said it, I didn't have to say it, everybody was taken care of, watched, made sure that they were whole through this whole process. That's the last two years.
If we want to go beyond the last two years and talk like I said, in my retrospective, look, what other promotion has been in Madison Square Garden other than the WWE? For Jay Lethal and for Matt Taven, The Briscoes, do you know what else? For me, it was the gift that I think will give forever because A - we sold out the building as you know, but they got a chance to be in the greatest spotlight of sports in wrestling history and we did that. We had stars, we had our people touring Japan and the UK.
We saw the most amazing people grow out of Ring of Honor. If I start naming them, I will forget too many of them, but if you look at what's going on in other promotions, not only AEW or WWE or even Impact, the Ring of Honor legacy and brand will always be there because these guys whether they wrestle for what other name or umbrella title they are, they're always going to be Ring of Honor wrestlers. They know it, the fans know it, we know it.
What more can somebody ask for from a pride standpoint or from contribution than that? I couldn't be prouder than that. The people that work with us, that work for Ring of Honor, that wrestle for Ring of Honor, they are the finest people that you could ever have assembled to do this.
Again, I don't want to get too emotional because we're at the end of the call. So thank you for that, but I feel I've been privileged to be able to work with these people, to see those wrestlers excel the way they did, to watch people just grow in their own skin and grow in their own character and allowing them the collaborative efforts that we have from day one to develop their own personalities inside of our organization and for us to open and be open to every door that was open to us with them.
Mike, I will say this and just because I can, I'm hoping that they realize in time, because today obviously they have to process, that this was the greatest time of their lives, and for me, and it will continue to be, it's the greatest time of my life."
Joe Koff brought Ring of Honor under Sinclair Broadcast Group ownership and has serves as the company's Chief Operating Officer since that time. His comments were reprinted from an October 2021 article conducted minutes after he informed the promotion's roster of the shutdown that commences after tomorrow's Final Battle PPV.
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