During a recent interview with ESPN, AEW and ROH Chairman Tony Khan spoke about the potential return of the Blood & Guts match, along with other topics that were also discussed below:
On the short-term plans for Ring of Honor: “It’s hard to say. I am very grateful to AEW’s media partner, WarnerMedia, who allowed me to do this show. I really tried to make it a Ring of Honor show — with the Ring of Honor announce team and using a lot of people that had recently been wrestling for Ring of Honor — and then having some faces of the past, some of the great legends of Ring of Honor either appearing on video or in person as a surprise. Like the Young Bucks. Or Samoa Joe returning to Ring of Honor and signing with AEW that night. I did utilize some resources from AEW with permission from Warner with the understanding from them that I was not going to make this an AEW show. It would be a Ring of Honor show. I was asking them to utilize some AEW resources to make this a great pay-per-view event. For Ring of Honor, it turned out to be one of the most successful events in their history.”
On if ROH will get a weekly show: “WarnerMedia was really cool about me doing Supercard of Honor. I think there’s great potential in continuing Ring of Honor as a weekly series. I do own it as a separate entity from AEW. But I also have a TV contract with Warner that I’m going to produce wrestling shows for them. I’ve been having these conversations with Warner, because I think it would make sense for everyone. And I think they’re open to it. But in the short timeline we had, what I asked for was basically an exemption for it being outside the portfolio. I’ve been having more conversations with WarnerMedia about what we can do together to grow Ring of Honor. I think it would make sense for Ring of Honor to continue as a weekly series and major events, like we just had with Supercard. I think the success of Supercard, critically and commercially, will bode very well for WarnerMedia really taking an interest in Ring of Honor, as well as AEW. I think there’s great potential to have a complementary wrestling brand.”
On AEW signing so much talent and properly using everyone: “I think people can look at it a little differently after we had the success with Ring of Honor’s Supercard, because I think we’ve taken some people that have been important in AEW and presented them again now in a new light in Ring of Honor. For example, Tully Blanchard and Brian Cage together in Ring of Honor, and Tully Blanchard starting Tully Blanchard Enterprises with Cage and a new tag team, Kaun and Toa Liona. I think that’s a great example of how potentially there could be fluidity between the roster of AEW and Ring of Honor, which would be great for both companies.”
On if he was surprised by Cody Rhodes going to WWE: “No. It’s a binary decision. He wasn’t going to be here and based on the conversations we were having — he never outright told me — but it was obvious that was what was happening. Like I’ve said, I appreciate the things Cody and his wife, Brandi Rhodes, did in AEW and I saw Cody show up in WWE. Like I said before he showed up there, it’s all still true: I still like him and wish him the best. I’m appreciative of the stuff he did in AEW. We spent hundreds and hundreds of hours together and know each other very well. I think we parted on very good terms.”
On Blood & Guts: “Yeah. I’d say to expect Blood & Guts this summer.”
On Stadium Stampede: “That I’ll have to get back to you on. I’ve thought about it. It’s a very different wrestling world now than it was during the pandemic. I think it’s a great match, a signature match for us that people really enjoyed. But some of the reasons we presented that match were because of the challenges that existed in the world because of the pandemic, as far as presenting sporting events with live fans. That doesn’t really exist in this live-event pandemic.”
