ROH World Heavyweight Champion Jay Lethal recently did an interview with Brian Fritz of SportingNews.com where he talked about a wide range of topics. This includes making history by surpassing Samoa Joe’s record of 645 days for having the most combined days as champion.
“When I was pulled aside and they said you know, you’re about to beat Joe’s record of holding the belt for a certain amount of time, I said, ‘No way! That’s insane!’” Lethal exclaimed. “I remember being in Ring of Honor when Joe was champion and I was his protégé and I would come to the ring holding his towel. I didn’t think anyone would ever beat his record.”
Since the beginning of this year, there have been some big names that have left the company that includes the likes of The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), Cody Rhodes, and Adam Page for AEW (All Elite Wrestling).
This has been something that ROH has had to face for years now as in the past, Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, and Adam Cole made their names known in Ring of Honor before signing with WWE.
Lethal understands this and thinks that ROH needs to keep doing what they’re doing which is to continue to make new stars.
“I feel that Ring of Honor has always been in the rebuilding phase,” said Lethal. “Ring of Honor, in all the time I’ve known it, it’s never been fully settled. It’s always in this rebuilding phase because other rosters out there constantly pluck from the Ring of Honor roster to make their roster better. Look at all of the companies out there and their champions. Most of them came through and from Ring of Honor. I think the winning formula is you don’t try and replace those guys.”
