Cary Silkin Talks More About ROH Hiatus
“It wasn’t a huge surprise but they didn’t think it was to this level.”
With the wrestling world still reeling from the news that Ring of Honor is going on hiatus for the first quarter of 2022 before restructuring the promotion, former ROH owner Cary Silkin has shed some new light on just what exactly is going on with ROH.
Silkin still works for ROH as an ambassador, and when talking to Ringsiders Wrestling, revealed that he has spoken to numerous ROH employees about the situation:
“Yeah, I mean I spoke to a lot of my friends yesterday who’ve - Jay Lethal, Matt Taven, Dalton Castle, Todd Sinclair, Bobby Cruise and you know, a lot of them are shell-shocked. Some people are - it wasn’t a huge surprise but they didn’t think it was to this level. But as I told - there’s guys like Lethal and Vinny [Marseglia] and this one and that one. I’m gonna leave names out. This could also be a break for a lot of them to do something else.
“I was talking to Vinny, how he’s created such a good character and he’s worked hard at it and he’s laid groundwork. I don’t wanna speak for him but I guess I am so would he rather - he would rather have Ring of Honor existing and have that as his home base but at least the work he’s put in the last many years and we could go down the list; Dalton Castle, this one, that one. The ole ‘cream will rise to the top.’ So, I don’t know what else there is to say about it.”
For Silkin, the writing had been on the wall for many years, and in hindsight, admitted he should have shut shop in 2006:
“I should have closed, you know, as a business, I should have closed by like 2006. As great as it was, financially, it wasn’t working. I held on, I held on. You know, pride, ego but I loved the product and I loved pro wrestling and I knew that I was not - fortunately - I had a cap where I’m not gonna completely jeopardise my livelihood, which many a person has done in the wrestling business. But, I was able to keep it alive and as we’ve talked about, Jim Cornette led to Gary Juster who led to Joe Koff and so, we were able to get to that sale of Sinclair on May of 2011 and they’ve had the company for, you know, ten years plus and once again, it’s not easy.
“People - I’m going to be repeating myself but people think that, ‘Oh! Sinclair!’ And they’re right. Trust me, Sinclair is worth a lot more money than WWE. You know, it’s a freaking massive thing. ‘So how could this go sour?’ But whatever, we talked about it already. So we’ll see. I’m grateful for Sinclair to get us to this point today, to have all that great content and all that great wrestling after I sold it. You know, with the Adam Coles and Kyle O’Reillys and the Eddie Edwards’ and Bobby Fishes and you know, obviously and then The [Young] Bucks. My buddies, The Bucks always being around and then having Marty Scurll and Cody [Rhodes] come in and our relationship with New Japan and then getting to do Madison Square Garden. There’s the dream come true.”
Although the situation at ROH looks bleak, Silkin reserved praise for current COO Joe Koff who didn’t have an easy job: “I have a lot of emotions with this,” Silkin continued “I’m sad, I’m angry, I’m sort of - I don’t know if I’m relieved but yeah. When I owned the company, ‘Oh Cary, he saved Ring of Honor’ and I was bleeding money and I had to deal with that and I had to deal with all the bulls*** and working and all the guys below me. It’s Sinclair [Broadcast Group]. Joe Koff might not be bleeding the money, but, not only does he have to deal with all the bulls*** and all the mechanics and liability of running this and all the moving parts, you know with the traveling and even doing the shows in front of no people but on top of that, you gotta deal with this massive corporation above him. You know, so could this have easily - they could have bought the product from me and after a year or two said, you know - Sinclair, ‘That was a good try but let’s put back on reruns of Seinfeld. It’s much easier.’”
H/T: POST Wrestling
