ROH recently held their Final Battle: End Of An Era PPV, which was their last PPV prior to going on a major hiatus until April 2022. ROH COO Joe Koff recently appeared on the ROH Strong podcast and spoke about how he believes Hunter Johnston (Delirious) is one of the smartest in the wrestling business as well as in any other business for that matter because he is a good thinker and he understands what is supposed to happen in the ring.
Joe Koff said:
“I know he doesn’t like to hear about this, and I’m not really going to spend a lot of time because anything I would say here, I’ve already said to him personally. He has been a remarkable partner for me. He is one of the smartest minds in the business, and he would probably be one of the smartest minds in any business because he’s a good thinker. He’s a critical thinker. He’s emotionally non-emotional. He understands what is supposed to happen in the ring. He’s wrestled in his past and sometimes still wrestles. He knows what’s going on. He knows what it’s supposed to feel like. He’s not someone who’s asking anyone to do anything he hasn’t done himself. That to me is very pivotal in my leadership team. I want people who are followed because they believe in what they believe in. Hunter is a classic example of that. I never even knew this was a statistic, but someone told me he’s the longest continual booker of any promotion. The reason he is that is because he knows what I’m looking for and he knows how to execute that. It’s his vision, it’s my vision, it’s our vision. I’m not going to tell him who should be in what match. I don’t know enough about it.”
Joe Koff also talked about how at the end of the day ROH is still a business that he runs and when it comes to business you need to make decision, with some of them not necessarily being popular and them going on a hiatus is one of those decisions, but that is something that is his choice and he lives by it, so he's not asking anyone else to take responsibility for that as he will take responsibility for the outcomes and it all falls on his shoulders and no one else's.
Joe Koff said:
“I run Ring of Honor as a business unit. It’s a business and you make decisions for business. Yes, some of them are not popular. Some of them may not even be warm and fuzzy, but they’re businesses because we are in business. If I could independently operate Ring of Honor, maybe I would think differently, but I don’t think so because I’m a businessman. I’ve always been a businessman. I’m a capitalist. I like to believe in the entrepreneurial spirit, and sometimes you just have to make certain decisions that, yeah, unfortunately, they might not seem to be popular or the right thing to do, but it’s my choice and it’s my decision. I live by that. I’m not asking anyone else to take responsibility for that. I’ll take responsibility for the outcomes. No one else but me. I’m responsible for that. I’m ok with that. I think that everyone loves the romance and the sexiness of the sport, but it’s still a business, and all businesses have to run operationally sound, and you make decisions to get yourself in that position.”
You can check out Joe Koff's full comments at this link. H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.
