During the post-ROH Death Before Dishonor media scrum on Saturday night, AEW President Tony Khan was asked about whether his purchase of Ring of Honor was to use the promotion as a developmental brand for All Elite Wrestling.
Additionally, Khan revealed that he had originally planned to have Claudio Castagnoli debut at Death Before Dishonor. Those plans wound up being changed when Bryan Danielson was injured.
You can check out some highlights from the media scrum below:
On buying ROH and if ROH is AEW’s developmental brand: “It happened really quickly. I had an opportunity and had to make a decision that day. Take it or leave it or it’s going to sell to the other obvious person that it would sell to. And I thought for many reasons it was the right move. It worked out so great as a business move for everyone involved. I don’t see Ring of Honor as developmental for AEW at all. I see AEW ‘Dark’ as developmental for AEW.”
On the original plan for Claudio Castagnoli: “Originally, my vision when we spoke was for Claudio to come back at Ring of Honor and debut as a mystery wrestler. I think there would have been a lot of anticipation for who it was going to be, but I also think that it would have been a great delivery, and I honestly think that if the fans had gotten drawn to the possibility of who it could be, wishing and hoping that it was going to be [Claudio], who I believe was the best free agent wrestler available, it [could have led to more anticpation]. I also knew when we spoke there was a possibility that he would come in as the replacement for Bryan at both Forbidden Door and the Blood & Guts match. So, everything worked out great.”
On opening Death Before Dishonor with the World title match: “I thought it would be setting a tone, creating a great moment, a great opportunity for a classic match. And of course, with 2/3 falls, it made sense to go with [FTR vs. Briscoes in the main event]. We at least considered putting that up as a double main event. As Ian [Riccaboni] explained on commentary, it was a coin flip, and we decided to go with 2/3 falls. Normally, the world title match is at least in consideration, as it was here, but it was a double main event to open and close the show. Both were great main event matches.”
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