During a recent appearance on the “Gabby AF” podcast, Maria Kanellis commented on ROH finding its footing again after AEW All In 2024 and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On her hopes that ROH finds its footing again: “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.”
On if ROH should use veterans to help its talents: “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.”
On the challenge while creating so much television: “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.”
TNA Wrestling sent out a press release today to announce the details of a media tour that will be taking place in San Antonio, Texas later this month.
You can check out the official announcement below:
TNA Wrestling Returns To San Antonio For Two LIVE Pro Wrestling Shows, September 13-14
Wrestling Stars NIC NEMETH, MOOSE & LAREDO KID Will Be In San Antonio on September 10-11 To Preview The TNA Shows
TNA Wrestling makes its long-awaited return to San Antonio, Texas, for back-to-back nights of high-energy pro wrestling on Friday & Saturday, September 13-14, at Boeing Center at Tech Port.
The TNA action in San Antonio kicks off September 13 with Victory Road, airing live worldwide on the TNA+ app. TNA World Champion NIC NEMETH puts the title on the line at Victory Road in San Antonio against former World Champion MOOSE.
All of the in-ring action on September 14 will be taped for TNA’s flagship weekly TV show, iMPACT!, which airs every Thursday night at 8 p.m. EST on AXS TV in the U.S. and Fight Network in Canada.
NIC NEMETH, MOOSE and LAREDO KID will be in San Antonio on Tuesday & Wednesday, September 10-11, to talk with the media about the San Antonio shows and make appearances around the Alamo City.
TNA Wrestling was last in San Antonio in 2020 – and all the TNA stars will be San Antonio this September, including Nic Nemeth, Jordynne Grace, Joe Hendry, Matt & Jeff Hardy, Eric Young, Ash By Elegance and Moose. Also scheduled to appear at the San Antonio shows: Mike Santana, AJ Francis, Josh Alexander, Brian Myers, Eddie Edwards, Frankie Kazarian, ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey), Jake Something, “Speedball” Mike Bailey, PCO, Xia Brookside and many more.
NIC NEMETH
Formerly known as Dolph Ziggler in WWE, Nic Nemeth made his TNA debut in January and he won the TNA World Championship in July.
A Cleveland native who graduated from Kent State University after setting several school records as a wrestler, Nemeth made his pro wrestling debut in 2004. He was a champion in singles and tag team action during his near-20-year career in WWE, including a 2-time World Heavyweight Champion and 6-time Intercontinental Champion.
Nemeth is a diehard fan of his hometown Cleveland Browns.
MOOSE
Moose is a two-time former TNA World Champion, having held the championship for a combined 371 days, the fourth-most in company history.
Quinn Ojinnaka, the real-life Moose, played for four teams over seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL), including the New England Patriots, before transitioning to pro wrestling, making his wrestling debut in 2012. His NFL career included time as teammates with legendary quarterback Tom Brady while playing for one of the best NFL head coaches in history, Bill Belichick.
An offensive lineman, Ojinnaka played 62 NFL games after playing at Syracuse University and was selected in the fifth-round of the 2006 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons. Moose and Bill Goldberg are the only former NFL players from the modern era to have gone from the NFL to become the World Champion of a pro wrestling company.
In fact, there are only four others in addition to Moose & Goldberg to have ever gone from the NFL to World Championship glory in pro wrestling, including Bronko Nagurski, who is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The others are Ernie Ladd, Dick the Bruiser and Gus Sonnenberg. Sports Illustrated spotlighted Moose and his record-setting journey from the NFL to IMPACT World Champion: https://tinyurl.com/r8hdutuy.
LAREDO KID
Laredo Kid has been wrestling professionally for more than 20 years and earlier this year was the TNA Digital Media Champion. The masked luchador, Laredo Kid hails from Laredo, Texas.
He also has wrestled for years for Mexico City-based Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, where he has been a champion on multiple occasions, including:
AAA World Cruiserweight Championship
AAA World Trios Championship (with El Hijo del Vikingo and Myzteziz Jr.)
Lucha Libre World Cup: 2023 Men’s division (with Pentagón Jr. and Taurus)
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