Current Ring Of Honor talent Kenny King, sat-down with Chuck Carroll of CBS Sports & spoke on a wide variety of topics regarding Kenny’s life since he has transitioned back into wrestling. King speaks on wanting to wrestle in New Japan as well as giving his take on the new management in GFW.
Here are the highlights:
Wanting To Work In The Tokyo Dome:
“That’s a pretty good way to put it. The only way to make a name for myself or make any noise is to go up against one of the best they have. Not as far as one of the junior heavyweights or the heavyweights, but KUSHIDA is one of the best they have in the company. So for me to go out there and make my stamp on this by taking the TV Title off of Kushida, that’s definitely got to open some eyes in New Japan.”
NJPW & Ring Of Honor Working Together:
“You’ve got two of the most dynamic wrestling promotions that are based on actual wrestling. New Japan does have their theatrics and the Wrestle Kingdom shows are very much a spectacle, but their bread and butter is in between the ropes, just like Ring of Honor. That’s what would make it a good and seamless transition. Wrestling in Ring of Honor is a very high-impact style and New Japan is the same way.”
Comparing His First Stint In ROH To His Second:
“My first stint was a lot about me finding myself as a wrestler and coming into my own. I was trying to find out where I belonged in the hierarchy. Let’s look at who was on the roster; you’ve got Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Jerry Lynn, Nigel McGuiness. These were the best of the best of the best, if you wanted to see your name on the card, you have to be willing to compete. The ending of that was just that; I felt that I had shown that I could compete and earned my right to see if there was interest in other companies, or if I’d increased my worth in the company.”
“This time around as a veteran, the communication is a lot better. There’s no insinuations about what I want or what their expectations are. The communications are right there on the table, that’s how you breed happy employees. Having open lines of communication was one of the reasons I chose Ring of Honor to come back to. I always had such an open line of communication, even when I wasn’t there; with guys like [COO] Joe Koff and Hunter [“Delirious” Johnston]. This is the manifestation of that, we have great relationships and whenever there are any concerns, we just come right out and talk about it.”
The New Owners In GFW:
“It’s a really bold move to switch the name and the lineage and erase the past, it’s a strong move and I respect it. Unfortunately, the in-ring product was never the issue, the brand had just taken hits time and again over the years. When I was there, we tried to blow the roof off the place every night, we can’t control what the office was doing. My job is to show up and wrestle. It seems as though they finally want to establish a solid brand and move in a positive direction. I’m all for Global Force being successful, I know a lot of people there, have a lot of friends there. I don’t want anybody to be out of business, I want the wrestling business to thrive.”
King On The “Broken” Gimmick:
“It can be a frustrating situation, but it can be two ways. Contractually, there is a thing called intellectual property. When I entered into my contract with Impact Wrestling, I was asked to list the intellectual property that I owned and claimed going into it, that’s what I entered with. Anything that came after that is their stuff.”
“But The Hardyz had a sweetheart of a deal. They were pretty much able to do whatever they wanted and work with whoever they wanted. I don’t know how their intellectual property was worked out, but for a long time The Broken Universe was the only reason why anyone was watching Impact. I can understand why Matt, Jeff and ‘ole Reby are frustrated, when there wasn’t a whole lot going on [beyond] what they were creating, The Final Deletion was this crazy creative art that was creating buzz around the company, that’s why they pay dudes in suits and carrying briefcases to sort these things out.”
