Partial Source: Pwinsider.com
UPDATE x 2: Davey Richards issued his announcement of his parting of ways with Ring of Honor after he was informed that he would no longer be booked with the promotion for Final Battle on December 14. The belief among wrestlers is that Richards made his farewell on his own and not part of a planned ROH angle.
Richards was also reportedly “unbooked” (one person used the term “fired”) from the last set of ROH shows in Ohio and Michigan because the promotion was upset about comments he made in the British magazine, Total Wrestling, saying the ROH titles were not as important as they were previously portrayed. (See below)
Following this, Richards was said to have gotten himself back on the dates and made it a point to claim in front of the locker room that his comments from the magazine were incorrect and taken out of context, per several ROH talents. Richards was also reportedly unhappy with the plans for his last scheduled appearance at the Final Battle event, which could have factored into ROH removing him from the show. According to a number of sources, the tryout Richards had in WWE with NXT did not have any bearing on the situation that led to his exit. WWE was going to allow him to work the Final Battle show.
Richards’ tag team partner, Eddie Edwards, is still set to appear at Final Battle on December 14 at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
As far as the comments to Total Magazine are concerned, we posted the following on November 6, 2013:
Total Wrestling Magazine recently interviewed former ROH talent Davey Richards and they’ve sent us some exclusive quotes from their must-read interview.
The link to the full interview and magazine: http://www.twmag.co.uk/Magazine/TW2.pdf (this is where readers can view the full 88 page mag for free).
Here are some highlights:
Do you think changing the tag titles on three separate shows helped the ROH tag team division in any way?
“Nah. Those belts don’t mean nothing anymore, anyway.”
What do you think of the iPPV issues that ROH has been experiencing (which we look at in depth elsewhere in this issue)?
“I don’t care. It doesn?t bother me. If they can’t get their crap together that’s their problem. I just worry about showing up, doing my job in the ring and they can do whatever they want with that stuff. It’s their deal.”
You’ve been ROH Champion yourself ? what are your thoughts on what it means to be at the top of the tree and the responsibility that comes with it?
“In my opinion that title has been devalued vastly for the last few years. The booking of it has been really substandard and screwy. It helps guys get bookings when they’re holding it, but it’s kind of a death touch because you work hard to get it and then it’s like you realize how screwy things become. And now the booking is so screwy with it, it’s just like a piece of metal, unfortunately. It has a rich history: I mean, look at the guys who have held it. Most of them have been very deserving in my opinion.”
The rumor doing the rounds right now is that TNA is up for sale. Do you think the upshot of a TNA sale may be more talent heading over to ROH?
“Who’s even in TNA? No idea. Apart from Aries, Joe; guys like that. Oh, and TJ, but they’ve got him wrestling as some stupid skeleton man.”
The full interview is available in this months issue of Total Wrestling Magazine.
UPDATE: Davey Richards posted the following on Twitter today…
To clarify, it was ROH offices decision to not have me at Finall Battle. Not mine or any other company’s.
— Davey Richards (@RichardsWesley) December 1, 2013
ORIGINAL: According to Pwponderings.com, Davey Richards announced the following today…
“With a heavy heart I can announce that myself and ROH have parted ways for good and I will not be at Final Battle. Please continue to support them and the incredible talent they have. Thanks for the memories. It was an amazing ride.”
Richards and tag team partner Eddie Edwards were recently at the WWE Performance Center, and worked the last set of NXT V tapings. They are both expected to sign with WWE shortly.
We will be attending the ROH Final Battle event in New York City on Saturday, December 14th. We would love to meet up with you guys prior to the show. Drinks are on us as we want to personally thank you for your continued support of the website. We can’t thank you guys enough. If you’re interested in meeting up for drinks on us, please email me now by clicking here and we’ll work out the meeting details. Thanks for your continued support and we hope to see you in New York City on December 14th!
