Maria Kanellis says ROH's positioning makes it tough.
Tony Khan acquired ROH in March 2022, and the company has been running ROH on HonorClub since March 2023. Still, ROH's current positioning has been the source of criticism under Khan's ownership. Maria Kanellis has plenty of history with ROH, dating back to the Sinclair era. She returned to the company following her AEW debut in October 2022.
Speaking with Gabby LaSpisa on Gabby AF, Maria Kanellis responded to LaSpisa saying that she wasn't sure whether people were sleeping on ROH or not watching it.
“There’s a lot of wrestling out there right now, and I think with where it’s positioned and how it’s positioned, it makes it really tough. I’m hopeful that, after Wembley, Ring of Honor is able to get a bit of a footing again. Maybe we can continue working on how to market it and how to reconnect with our audience, and where does Ring of Honor fit in this world of wrestling right now? I think that’s the biggest thing. Where is its niche? Ideally, for me, throw this in the atmosphere, it really doesn’t matter, but for me, I feel like Ring of Honor should be the place where young talent comes, and they grow. I think it should be its own thing, it should be a place where it’s almost a camp of, ‘What do you got?’ There’s those combines, kind of in that same vein, of make it that, to where you’re gonna challenge them the whole weekend. Are you good enough? Then spend some time there, and if you’re good enough, you get to go to AEW. But I don’t write the checks, I don’t make the rules," Kanellis said.
Later in the interview, Kanellis was asked whether she thought that ROH should use veteran talent more to help younger wrestlers, and NXT was brought up as a comparison. She explained how she would want it to be more organized, and she detailed her vision. Kanellis also said that excellent minds were working on guiding the company forward, but it wasn't "there" yet.
“I think I’d like it to be a little bit more organized in that sense, if that’s what it’s going to be, and have your group of talent that is coming in for this specific purpose and knows that that’s what the purpose is, and build off that that, and build truly fantastic stories of underdogs. Focus on that and keep people on TV long enough so we can get to know them so that when they do make it to the big stage, we’re super passionate about what they’re doing, and we know where they came from, we know what they’re about, and now we want to fight for them on TV. I think it’s really, really difficult to do that when you have so much television that you’re producing, but there are excellent minds behind the scene, and there are excellent people that are trying to continue to organize and guide this very, very young company. Tony [Khan] has a fantastic heart. I just think it’s not there yet. It’ll get there, I just don’t think it’s there yet," Kanellis said.
In the interview, Kanellis also explained that she was feeling unfulfilled with her career. Check out her comments here.
Kanellis recently provided an update on her health. More information is available here.
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