Ian Riccaboni Calls ROH Working With Other Promotions “Amazing"
Riccaboni has called ROH Title matches for IMPACT and GCW
Despite being on hiatus, the essence of Ring of Honor is alive and well, due to collaborations between ROH and numerous other wrestling promotions, such as IMPACT, GCW, and others.
ROH commentator Ian Riccaboni has seen these evolving relationships grow firsthand, having commentated on ROH Title matches in IMPACT Wrestling, a fact he told WrestleZone would have seemed impossible several years back:
“I don’t think it would have happened a couple years ago,” said Riccaboni. “There were times and it’s documented, I know PWInsider covered it, I know The Wrestling Observer covered it, where IMPACT and Ring of Honor could not get along. There was the very kind of famous public spat regarding the Hardy Boyz, the Hardys and the Young Bucks, and there’s public information on that. And it just was oil and water for a while. I remember when Austin Aries was technically a free agent, but he was the IMPACT Champion and he was on a pay-per-view with us, and I couldn’t mention the IMPACT belt because we didn’t know where we stood in the relationship or how it was there. So there was always kind of tip-toeing around IMPACT.
“But with the hiatus, I think everybody’s eyes are opened a little more. Scott [D’Amore] was awesome, he allowed any talent that wanted to send in a video [for Final Battle]. He encouraged talent to send in video, as did Jimmy Jacobs, who’s a part of their team, as did RD Evans, who’s a part of them. And we love Jimmy, we love RD, and we’re getting to know and love Scott as well. So that was a big olive branch right there. And then Deonna [Purrazzo], him allowing Deonna and IMPACT allowing Deonna to be on our pay-per-view, another big olive branch. So for us, there’s suddenly water under the bridge there, and there’s all these new exciting opportunities.”