Immediately following this past Friday night’s ROH Supercard Of Honor XV Event, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan, who is also now the owner of ROH, took part in a media scrum and talked about how he likes Brian Cage and how Brian Cage wasn’t in his plans when he first thought about purchasing ROH and also how it didn’t make any sense for him to be around Taz and Team Taz anymore, so he thought putting The Machine and Tully Blanchard together is a good situation, especially because FTR and Tully were done.
Khan also spoke about how he couldn’t tell Brian Cage that he wanted to buy ROH and have him make his return there and repackage him until about a month ago, but Cage told the media that his AEW contract has been picked up and he thinks it was good because the fans wanted to see him come back and it made it that much better.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“I really like Brian Cage, I’ve always really liked Brian Cage.” “It was funny because when I first started thinking this might be a possibility [purchasing ROH], I hadn’t worked Brian Cage back into my plans yet. I couldn’t tell Brian Cage [about ROH], especially when it’s confidential. Based on where we were going with him I thought Team Taz are in a really strong position right now and with Swerve and Keith Lee coming in, it didn’t make any sense having Brian fighting with Ricky and Will because right now Swerve had a great main event with Ricky and this week Will had a great main event with Keith [on Rampage]. It was a kick ass match and a kick ass situation after.”
“For Brian, I didn’t think it made sense for him around Taz and those guys anymore. I also thought him and Tully here could be a good situation, especially when FTR and Tully were done. It’s funny because with the situation of confidentiality and stuff, I couldn’t tell Brian I wanted to buy ROH and debut you and repackage you here until about a month ago. It’s funny because Brian, gotta love Brian, he told the media I picked up his contract. I was like, ‘Jesus Brian, why did you tell people that’? I never told him not to, but I also couldn’t tell him what I was doing with it but I should’ve told him not to. That being said, I think it was good because people wanted to see him come back and it made it that much better.”
Tony Khan also talked about how he didn’t know he was going to purchase ROH early on and if there was someone else who had bought it as well as how they would have gotten the benefit of what they did for Final Battle and how he would have been fine with it, but he still felt like he wanted to send videos and tributes from all the great ROH wrestlers in AEW who used to be in ROH and in the end it paid off as he ended up buying ROH.
This is what Tony Khan said:
“I didn’t know I was going to buy ROH and if someone else had bought it, they would’ve gotten the benefit of the stuff we did for Final Battle and I was fine with that.” “I knew that I might not end up with the company and it didn’t really look like I was going to end up with the company. My gut was that I probably wouldn’t but I still felt like the right thing to do in December was to, at first, send all videos and tributes from all the great ROH wrestlers in AEW who used to be in ROH.”
“I was happy to do that for them and when Bandido got COVID, I was very happy to send Jay Lethal. Did I know that was going to pay off in a great angle later on? No, I didn’t but sometimes these things work out very well. I did a lot of stuff, sent FTR, Jay Lethal and sent a lot of videos from a lot of stars. Then this thing really came together and paid off.”
You can check out Tony Khan’s comments in the video below:
