Tony Khan wanted Bandido from the start.
Bandido signed with AEW in November 2022, and he was featured on AEW programming until he injured his wrist at the AEW Rampage taping on June 14, 2023. He was then sidelined until he made his return at ROH Final Battle on December 20.
At the ROH Final Battle post-show media scrum, Tony Khan commented on Bandido's return and noted that he wanted to sign him when AEW first launched.
"It was really great to see him back. When I first acquired ROH, Bandido had been the reigning champion and we had the match to crown the undisputed ROH Champion, he was the lineal champion at the time. It was great to get Bandido, who actually missed Final Battle 2021 due to COVID and we crowned an interim champion and then the undisputed champion at my first ever event, Supercard. That was my first time working with Bandido. I really wanted to sign Bandido when we first launched AEW. He made a choice and signed with ROH. He became a great World Champion for them and when things changed and I acquired the company, Bandido became a great asset to AEW and ROH. It was exciting to have him return tonight in New York," Khan said.
In December 2018, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that Bandido turned down offers from WWE and AEW before signing with ROH. At the time, AEW had not launched yet, so they could not offer Bandido an official contract. Bandido was then with ROH until the company went on hiatus at the end of 2021. He wrestled at ROH Supercard of Honor XV in 2022, which was the first ROH pay-per-view after Tony Khan acquired the company.
Click here to catch up on our coverage of ROH Final Battle. For a full review, check out the post-show podcast on our YouTube channel.
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