Ring Of Honor (ROH) COO Joe Koff recently spoke with AV Club to talk about a variety of professional wrestling topics. Koff talked about whether or not he finds the term “indie wrestling” as a pejorative, if he thinks Daniel Bryan would ever return to ROH, and the ROH streaming service. You can check out the highlights below:
If he finds the term “indie wrestling” as a pejorative:
“I don’t see it as pejorative at all. When we bought the company from Cary Silkin back in 2011, Ring Of Honor was considered one of the top independents in the country. We’ll always be labeled as that because that’s how we’re remembered, and sometimes memories are much stronger than present tense. But I hardly look at us as an independent promotion.
“We’re in the middle of a four-day, four-city tour. We have weekly television. We have incredibly distribution. We’re on internationally. I don’t think we’ll ever get that [indie connotation] out of the hardcore fan’s mind. I’m not insulted by it by any means. But when you lump everything into that category, then we’re either at the top of that category or we shouldn’t be included in it at all.”
Does he think Daniel Bryan will ever return to ROH:
“I’m not gonna give you odds, I wouldn’t even know how to set those. Bryan’s under contract with the WWE, from what I understand, until September 2018. If he chooses not to renew that contract, and he is able to wrestle from a health standpoint, I would welcome him. It would be a triumphant return.
“I think we would be the right place for him, the right fan appreciation, the right respect from the industry plus management plus everybody. But there’s so many variables in that. Even though it’s not far away, a year in wrestling is a long period of time. But he is more than welcomed to come back and I would love to have him on our roster.”
The ROH streaming service:
“It’s in development right now. I would expect it to be around the first of the year or a little bit after.”
You can check out Koff’s full interview with the AV Club here.
