ROH has made concentrated efforts to listen to their stars.
In April, Fightful reported that Ring of Honor held a talent meeting at their headquarters, and invited everyone on the roster in to give their feedback on changes worth implementing. At the time, PJ Black told Fightful that the company had already integrated a significant portion of those recommendations, but Joe Hendry expanded on the situation to us in an exclusive interview.
"Yeah. I was there. It was in Baltimore. They literally had this little stand at the front of the room and they were like, “Anybody on the roster that wants to speak to the entire room, to the company will have the opportunity to do so right now.” Right now I can tell you first hand how awesome they’ve been at listening to suggestions. For example, I worked with a guy called Dave Hodgson, who does the YouTube stuff for Ring of Honor. I’d worked together previously and got on great and he got what I did. He was in between projects and I had the opportunity to say to management, “I think this person would do a great job here,” and who am I? I’m a member of the roster. They wouldn’t need to listen to me on anything like that," Hendry said.
Ring of Honor did listen to Joe Hendry. They brought in Hodgson, who had done some work in the past for IMPACT Wrestling.
"He’s here and he’s doing an awesome job. It’s great for everyone. It’s great for Ring of Honor. It’s great for Dave to have this opportunity, and it’s awesome for me because I feel totally valued and respected and now, he’s proved the suggestion right. Which is awesome. We all make suggestions, I’m not taking credit for that in any way. I’m just giving an example in that I was allowed to speak freely to management on that. That’s the kind of structure that we have. We know that the structure that’s in place. But, if I have an idea that I want to pitch to Greg [Gilleland] or Marty [Scurll], or whoever is in management, I have the ability to do that. There’s nothing in between that. I can go straight to that person," Hendry said.
Beyond just the meeting that took place, a special channel was created where ROH stars could give their feedback on the direction of the company, the way things are operating, among other things. In the past, several stars had mentioned their pitches had fallen on deaf ears.
"I think that Ring of Honor have gone above and beyond any expectations anyone would have ever had about how a company might conduct themselves in this situation. They’ve so, not only been so supportive, but the communication’s been great as well. At no point were we going, “What’s going to happen?” We were told very clearly that safety was the priority. The thing I love about Ring of Honor as well is we have an opportunity to anonymously give feedback. So, you know, there’s not a pressure for us to go, “Oh, we’re ready to go back to work.” We’re not in a situation where we feel we have to say that. We have an anonymous channel that we can give feedback through there as well. So, not only have we been taken care of, but talent can actually give honest feedback without any kind of fear of repercussion or anything like that. So, I think it’s pretty awesome that they want to know what the talent really feel," he closed.
You can see our full interview with Joe Hendry at the top of the page. When wrestling gets started up again, you'll be able to catch him on ROH HonorClub, but for now you can see him on Youtube, as well as social media.
