Former WWE Star and current AEW Star Bryan Danielson recently appeared on Busted Open Radio and spoke about the shocking news that ROH will be going on a temporary hiatus after their Final Battle: End Of An Era PPV Event on Saturday, December 11 from the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena (formerly the UMBC Event Center) in Baltimore, Maryland.
Bryan Danielson said:
“I was just sad and especially, I guess what the hard part in all of it is, I think of the people in the jobs right, you know what I mean. They’re not going to do the full-time contracts or anything like that anymore, or that sort of thing and then we’re coming, this is coming in a year where it’s like, okay we’ve still got the pandemic going on, we’ve got a lot of people getting cut from the WWE side, there’s not a ton of full-time jobs out there and you know, people who sign these contracts and they buy houses on these contracts, they think it’s guaranteed money and all that kind of stuff and where that really hits hard for me is like, I was fired twice by WWE and it’s funny, because both times I was fired shortly after I had bought a new car and you have to think, none of these are nice cars and they are used cars or whatever, but like, in both of them, I wasn’t able to pay it off in full, but the first time, especially in 2001 when I got fired, I had a $350 a month car payment, all of a sudden that car payment, I was having to work two jobs between that and insurance and all that kind of stuff.”
“I bought the car with the idea that, oh I’m going to make $500 a week for the next three years, or whatever it is and all of a sudden, you don’t have that guaranteed money coming in and you’re trying to find stuff and you don’t have a college education and you’re making $50-$75 per indie show and whatever it is, like it can put you in a rough spot and especially now, if those contracts are much higher, I assume than my developmental stuff and that’s with the Ring Of Honor and the WWE cuts, people are buying houses based on that and then, all of a sudden, they’ve got a mortgage, all that kind of stuff, so my first thinking in that is the people, I’m concerned for the people.”
“Secondly, there’s just a sadness there of like, if it weren’t for Ring Of Honor, I probably wouldn’t be where I’m at today, because that was the main platform where people got to know me and that was the main platform where I was able to show my ability to wrestle and that kind of stuff, so yeah, it makes me a little bit sad, but what I hope is that they’ll come back with a sort of re-invigoration, kind of with a plan and come back and be awesome, because I think the more awesome wrestling companies there are, the better it is for everybody. I think that’s one of the things that’s been great now is AEW’s been great for wrestling fans, but it’s also been great for wrestlers you know, it’s been great for me to be able to have that kind of choice when my contract was up, I could’ve stayed in WWE or go and do something else, so I think yeah, I think it would benefit a lot of people if Ring Of Honor were to be able to stick around and then be a great promotion.”