Ring of Honor COO Joe Koff spoke with Paste Magazine about various topics heading into last week’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view event.
A few excerpts from this interview were not about the show. One of those topics was about Will Ospreay’s role in ROH and the reason for him being limited in the company. It should be noted that Ospreay lost to ROH World Champion Jay Lethal at this show.
“He was originally signed with Ring of Honor in conjunction with New Japan,” Koff said of Ospreay. “But the travel got to Will so he asked if he could work specific and selective dates, which we accommodated.”
All In took place last month and was a big success for Cody and The Young Bucks. Although it wasn’t under the ROH banner, the promotion did offer to help with the show that includes having their talent and production staff work. When asked how it was received by Sinclair Broadcast Group officials, Koff stated that he doesn’t think one show would ever have that kind of impact and that this show, as well as the event at MSG, showed the capability and where they are in the short period of time that they owned.
“There’s a lot of validation inside of a company when good things happen. It’d be on different than buying a new syndicated show and all of a sudden it’s the number one show in the market. “Koff continued by stating that they put the same disciplines and the same foundational logic to every event but All In was just special because there was a specialness to it.
“All In was an unbelievable success not because of Ring of Honor; if there was any success attributable to Ring of Honor, it’s just that these were wrestlers contracted to us, and we saw the potential of this event and how important it is for the industry, for them, for what they were trying to put forth, and we were very supportive of that. That’s very indicative and very much a part of who we are.”
