Austin Aries Says ROH Is “A Shell Of Its Former Self”

TNA star Austin Aries, the only man to ever hold the ROH World title twice, recently spoke to Sports Vibe UK to promote this past weekend’s TNA LockDown pay-per-view. During the interview, Aries had a harsh critique of today’s Ring of Honor product, saying it’s a far cry from its glory days:

“I’ll be really honest with you, the Ring of Honor today is not anything like the Ring of Honor that the likes of C.M. Punk, Daniel Bryan, and myself came from. Obviously they are still operating under the same name, but the company has changed so much over the years and it’s really a shell of it’s former self in terms of the vision and thought process.”

He added, “The original Ring of Honor and the Ring of Honor today are two completely different things, I like to call it Smokey Mountain of Honor.”

Aside from the creative aspect of the company being in bad shape, Aries also thinks [the lack of] money is a big issue that could lead to ROH losing it’s most important asset – talent.

“There is no money in Ring of Honor, and that means they will only be able to secure talent for a certain amount of time before they move somewhere else.”