Multiple ROH Talent Contracts Expiring After December's 'Final Battle'

[It's Damn Real!]

Ring of Honor’s roster will be very interesting after the “Final Battle” PPV in December.

PWTorch has learned that several ROH contracts are due at the end of December, making them free agents in January.

It will be interesting to see which wrestlers re-sign with the company. The list of wrestlers whose contracts expire at the end of December include:

• ROH World champion Jay Lethal
• Adam Cole
• Matt Jackson (Young Bucks)
• Nick Jackson (Young Bucks)
• Kyle O’Reilly (ReDragon)
• Bobby Fish (ReDragon)

Wrestlers who left ROH in recent weeks include Moose, Roderick Strong, and Cedric Alexander to TNA, WWNLive, and WWE’s Cruiserweight tournament, respectively.

Generally-speaking, the ROH locker room has become frustrated with the booking approach spearheaded by Delirious in recent months.

http://www.pwtorch.com/site/2016/07...ster-look-like-final-battle-contracts-expire/

—

TNA will no doubt have an interest in all of them, but most especially reDRagon, who they've tried to sign in the past, and tried to sign before they re-signed with ROH on their current contracts.

While I'm certainly not a fan (at all) of the Bucks, they'll surely have an interest in bringing them in again, too. The tag division could effectively be made over overnight in the event both teams were signed, and TNA could use some help there at the moment. There are currently exactly four tag teams in the company — The Wolves (who've been on singles runs of late due to DR's injury), The Decay, The Tribunal (who haven't been given a real shot of doing damage yet), and the reunited BroMans. I suppose you could also count whatever silly singles guys thrown together combinations like Grado and Shera here, too, but if we're capping this at viable championship teams, let's not bother with the cast-off Odd Couples.

reDRagon should be top of mind and the first talents they go hard after IMO, but I wouldn't be surprised if they try to bring as many of them in as they can.

 

[Rayne]

Jay Lethal: This is a move that would surprise me the most, because ROH has gone ALL IN on Lethal. He's been a champion for over two years and counting and is right now the face of that company, whereas in TNA he hit a pretty undeniable glass ceiling. It's obviously different times in TNA now then it was then, but I think ROH is too much into Lethal to let him go to anyone without WWE-money to throw around. And the WWE doesn't seem interested in him.

Adam Cole (baybay): For a while I thought Cole was on a short list of people who were signing elsewhere, then he kicked Jay Lethal in the face about forty or so times and became the US face of the Bullet Club. Which has done about nothing since then but put out a few of their lesser known members for 8-man tags, so I wouldn't call Cole a mortal lock to stay. The key thing here is that Adam Cole (baybay) isn't going to become a bigger professional wrestler inside ROH, unless ROH grows, and ROH doesn't need him in the same way that they've committed to Lethal. I also don't see the WWE offering him the Samoa Joe/Kevin Steen tour of NXT, so if Adam Cole (baybay) wants to be on television before 11 o'clock pm next year, TNA's got the chance for a real pickup.

The Young Bucks- Generation Me left a sour taste in everyone's mouth. They've been doing extremely well for themselves in NJPW/ROH, so I can't see them changing things up without an extremely lucrative offer- one that I don't see either TNA or the WWE making. Expect them to stay where they are.

Bobby Fish- He's a good professional wrestler who just happens to be at that age where your athletic skills start to deteriorate, without the credibility of a very long career at the top that allows you to lower your pace while keeping the crowd involved. I'm not knocking Bobby Fish or even professional wrestlers in their late 30's, but he's not the kind of guy you lock down with a big contract or get into a bidding war over. He'll sign a one or two year deal with ROH.

Kyle O'Reilly- This could be TNA's big pickup here. The WWE won't be interested in O'Reilly; they've got a couple of dozen performers with his exact body type and his particular style wouldn't play nearly as well for the WWE audience as it does the ROH audience. However, he still has that indie credibility and fanbase where he'll be able to show up in another company and people will know his name and moveset. If ROH wants to keep him they're probably going to have to promise him a bunch of money and a run with the big title.

 

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

The only one that I see signing with TNA is O'Reilly. The lesser half of reDRagon hasn't had very much singles success at all outside of one big win against Cole
The rest are too involved in ROH or have potential futures in NXT to be signed in TNA.

 

[stingray11214]

Remember that a lot of that list is also signed to New Japan. Unless TNA can come up with the big bucks in order to get anyone on that list, none of those guys are moving.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

O'Reilly makes a ton of sense to pick up even if they can't get reDRagon as a team. He strikes me as the kind of guy they could capitalize big on, similar to what they probably wish they could have done with Ospreay before he signed with WWNLive. He could effectively take the same path Samoa Joe and AJ Styles did — come in, dominate the X Division and quickly climb the ranks into the World Heavyweight Championship picture. Especially via whatever variation of Option C they go for next year.

If you get a chance, check out O'Reilly's match against Kushida in NJPW if you haven't seen it yet. It's fantastic and really shows what kind of effort he can put in as a major singles star.

 

[Starkist]

These guys would be a huge signing for TNA. It would definitely make them look like a major league promotion once again. They just signed Moose who is already over just from his debut alone which is also great for TNA.

I am not to big on the Bucks but TNA needs tag teams and they could help the division for sure. Same goes with ReDragon as both guys can be huge as single stars. Jay Lethal is awesome and have always been a fan of his so seeing him a TNA ring again would be fun to see. Adam Cole, I do not know too much about him but he seems to be established with a good size fan base. So hey, he can come too. Hopefully if TNA sells their shares to whomever is interested in buying them will help them gain newer stars to help their product. Let's see what happens as my hopes are they all come to TNA.

 

[TDFG]

ROH will probably offer Jay Lethal as big a contract as what they can, the guy is arguably the face of the company and losing him would be like when TNA lost Styles. If I was TNA management I would try to pick him up again as Jay Lethal is main-event material and a great acquisition.

Young Bucks & Adam Cole will go to NJPW if they don't renew with ROH, I don't see any interest in TNA or Young Bucks working together again & Adam Cole has Bullet Club/Mount Rushmore 2.0 stuff going on which he can continue in NJPW/PWG.

reDRagon. Out of the two I think O'Reilly would be the better addition, I just think Bobby Fish is at that veteran stage now that TNA doesn't need. That being said, as a tag-team then they would add some glamour to the division.

 

[jakecole2012]

WWE has alot of interest in Jay Lethal, so I can definitely see them (Triple H especially) making a very aggressive push pretty much like they did with Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, and Austin Aries,so there's a good chance he's gone and on his way to NXT by 2017.Plus,I can't see him ever going back to TNA after the way they got rid of him and use him while he was there.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...lethal-reportedly-receiving-interest-from-wwe

Adam Cole is another guy who WWE has ALOT of interest in as the chairman himself aka Vince Mcmahon LOVES the guy,so I also see Triple H going aggressively after Cole with a solid deal
http://www.inquisitr.com/3145139/wwe-news-vince-mcmahon-reportedly-impressed-by-roh-star-adam-cole/

The Young Bucks are maybes IMO since I think there's still some bad blood between them and WWE from the handshake incident with Booker.T a few years back,so I say their more likely to stay,as well as ReDragon

 

[jakecole2012]

Remember that a lot of that list is also signed to New Japan. Unless TNA can come up with the big bucks in order to get anyone on that list, none of those guys are moving.

Same thing was said about AJ Styles and look what happen after?

 

[stingray11214]

Same thing was said about AJ Styles and look what happen after?

What happened was that Bill Behrens pulled out his inner Scott Boras and got Styles, Gallows and Anderson a massive deal with WWE. Dixie is paying Moose $180K over 2 years. AJ Styles makes that in about 14 weeks! And, he was pushed to the moon. When was the last time VKM pushed ANYONE that was never anything in WWE that came from another company right of the bat?

 

[Trill Co$by]

ReDragon and Jay Lethal are the only three TNA needs. I love Adam Cole, and honestly wouldn't mind seeing him on Impact but he would get lost in the shuffle. ReDragons are a credible tag team with history against the Wolves while Lethal is a former multiple time X-Division champion and Tag team champion. He would have no problem coming back to TNA and being put into the KotM and World title scenarios.

As for the Young Bucks, they could literally stop wrestling tomorrow and the wrestling world would sigh of relief.

 

[jakecole2012]

What happened was that Bill Behrens pulled out his inner Scott Boras and got Styles, Gallows and Anderson a massive deal with WWE. Dixie is paying Moose $180K over 2 years. AJ Styles makes that in about 14 weeks! And, he was pushed to the moon. When was the last time VKM pushed ANYONE that was never anything in WWE that came from another company right of the bat?

AJ wasnt intended to get a big push once he signed on.He was intended to put guys over and once they saw his merch sales,thats when he got a big push.Plus,hes a Triple H signing,not Vince's

 

[Bischoff's Knob Slobberer]

What happened was that Bill Behrens pulled out his inner Scott Boras and got Styles, Gallows and Anderson a massive deal with WWE. Dixie is paying Moose $180K over 2 years. AJ Styles makes that in about 14 weeks! And, he was pushed to the moon. When was the last time VKM pushed ANYONE that was never anything in WWE that came from another company right of the bat?

Whatever! Gallows, Anderson and Styles are nothing but glorified jobbers! "The Club" (lame ripoff of New Japan's Bullet Club) loses every feud that are a part of. Their only purpose is to "push" the garbage that comes from NXT. Styles will NEVER hold a title or win a feud, so he may as well make all the money he can. Lol!!

When the Bullet Club were in New Japan, they kicked arse! They never lost feuds or basically every match they are a part of. Leave it to WWE booking and it's cluelessness to ruin a good team. smh.

 

[Lowdown]

What up fellas. Looking at that short list of talent, it looks like the main two guys TNA should really look into is O'Reilly and Cole. Both are young and have put on good matches in ROH and NJPW, particularly against each other. It would be interesting to see how big an impact both of them would make in TNA. Hell they could be teamed up again and reform Future Shock, provided if Bobby Fish doesn't come over. Jay Lethal looks to be the tip of the spear right now for ROH, so it's hard to see him coming back to TNA. As for the Bucks, they do bring in an indie following. I can see them back in TNA so long as they don't become Generation Me again.

 

[ShinChan]

I don't think that RoH are going to lose Jay Lethal any soon. They have put a lot of effort in making him their flagship bearer. And Lethal has been pretty good in his role out there so I don't think that TNA would be able to get him.

Addition of reDragon to TNA could be a major boost to their tag team division. Both Fish and Reily are great talents. While Reily is a young one,Fish is a veteran talent. Getting them both and Taven also could bring a major exposure to TNA.

I am all okay with Young Bucks joining TNA but I don't think that it could happen.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

don't forget that WWE will be interested in signing those guys also and i could see most of them go to wwe/nxt after they're contract are done especially the young bucks and lethal who have been in TNA in the past and really didn'T have that great of an experience during that time.