In 2019, Session Moth Martina had a big choice to make.
After a successful WWE tryout for NXT UK, Martina had a WWE contract offer waiting for her to the point where it was reported that she was expected to sign with the company. That was not the case as Martina ended up signing a full-time contract with Ring of Honor in September 2019.
Appearing on ROH Strong, Martina discussed her decision and why she chose ROH.
"I met someone doing New Japan tours and the person had seen me and was like, 'You're interesting and we might put you in contact with Ring of Honor.' I didn't think it would actually happen," she recalled. "As I was leaving Australia, I got an email to do a WWE tryout. It was cool to have that in the books. I did the tryout and it was like, 'Okay, this is it.' Then word from Ring of Honor came in and I had this decision and had the two in my hand. I thought long and hard about it and in my gut, I felt Ring of Honor was where I was going to go. How many Irish people can say they did Ring of Honor?"
Elaborating on her decision, Martina said that ROH would allow her to stay true to her character more than WWE.
"It was so surreal, the way it panned out. I had done the tryout and I knew I was set. I had my own reservations. I spent the last five years wrestling as Martina and it's important to me. I've managed to take a character of myself and build it to a point -- I remember when Martina got really popular in Ireland and everyone was like, 'It's a great gimmick, it's really funny, but it has a shelflife and will probably get old after two or three shows.' That just never happened. I worked hard to keep things fresh. I built it up to where I had broken out in England, then America, and Japan, and Australia. I hit so many places with this character that I never thought I would. A lot of it was about me wanting to keep true to Martina. I had also fallen in love with what I was doing; the shows, the freedom of being Martina and drinking and being flirty and grinding on people. I really wanted to consider that when [weighing WWE and ROH offers]," she said.
Martina set up phone meetings with WWE and ROH on the same day as she weighed both offers. In the end, she wanted to go with the company that would best honor the character she had created.
There was a delay in Martina's visa as she was booked for a tour with Stardom after signing with ROH. She made her ROH debut in February 2020, but has only wrestled three matches for the company due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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