Tony Khan has given some insight into an angle which left many fans baffled.
As seen on the November 8th edition of AEW Dynamite, ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe successfully defended the title against Keith Lee. Following the victory, many fans were left baffled as Joe made the announcement that he would be vacating the championship to focus his efforts on the AEW World Championship. The shock announcement ended Samoa Joe’s record-breaking reign with the title at 574 days.
Considering that MJF holds the AEW World and ROH Tag Team Championships simultaneously, many questioned why Joe couldn’t keep hold of the TV Title while challenging MJF or simply lose the championship in the near future.
Khan was asked about the questionable decision on the ROH media call to promote Final Battle. Khan praised Joe for being a fighting champion but stated that it would be a challenge to continue to feud with MJF while consistently defending the TV Championship:
“The World TV Title has been such a consistent focus on the TV show and Samoa Joe has defended it many times. Given the nature of a TV Title, I think it will be good to have a champion who can participate consistently on ROH TV and be a fighting champion. Samoa Joe has been an incredible champion. He was the longest-reigning champion of all time and made an incredible list of defences. When you look back at all the great wrestlers Samoa Joe fought for the ROH TV Title in the over one-year reign, I think it was incredible.
“I also think now with AEW, Samoa Joe’s become a huge focus of the AEW promotional considerations. Definitely for Samoa Joe, I do think it made a lot of sense for him to be a focus because he’s such a huge star for AEW. There are a lot of commercial benefits to having a huge star of Samoa Joe’s stature on AEW television every week. I felt like as big as Samoa Joe’s presence on AEW has become, it’d become challenging for him to defend the championship. So relinquishing it at that point I think did make some sense.”
Khan continued, stating that Joe achieved all he could with the ROH TV Title and is looking forward to the rematch with MJF at Grand Slam.
“To him personally, it made sense because he had accomplished everything he had ever set out to. He became the longest-reigning, most dominant champion. [He] set his sights on a new goal, which is for AEW Worlds End, which is coming up soon. We know it will be MJF versus Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship. They had an awesome match earlier this year at in New York at AEW Grand Slam, and I’m excited for the rematch at Worlds End.”
A new TV Champion will be crowned at Final Battle as the tournament to crown the next champion will conclude at the pay-per-view.
Tony Khan Addresses ROH Tag Team Championship Issues
Another Ring of Honor Championship facing an uncertain future is the Tag Team Championships. With Adam Cole out with injury until further notice, MJF has done all he can to keep both titles in his possession. During the same media call, Tony Khan was asked if he has considered vacating the ROH Tag Team Championships.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit ROH’s media call and leave a h/t to Inside The Ropes.