Tony Khan ROH media call notes: William Regal, family health, FTR, TV deal
Ring of Honor head Tony Khan spoke to the media for an hour Wednesday, going into full details into the situation with William Regal and how his own family issues helped him come to the conclusion to not pick up an option on Regal’s AEW contract.
Khan opened the call with an 18-minute story about his mother suffering two strokes in the fall (one that happened between All Out and Grand Slam and the other happening around the time of his 40th birthday and their Homecoming event).
He said the situation helped give him better perspective on the importance of family as Regal requested the company not pick up his option so he could return to WWE to coach his son and spend time alongside longtime friends in the golden years of his career.
The request initially came to Khan’s VP Megha Parekh prior to their Toronto debut in October. He and Regal spoke in depth several times and agreed following a 90-minute they had after the live Rampage in Jacksonville in late-October. He believed the terms were that Regal cannot appear on WWE TV next year and can only coach.
He also said he was surprised to see Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s Regal montage during WWE Survivor Series given how accommodating AEW was to Regal’s request.
For more details on what Khan said, here’s the full story.
Here are some other notes from the call with full audio found below:
- He said the future of ROH would be addressed Saturday and alluded to something being revealed about a weekly TV product after Final Battle.
- He did say he would be having less ROH TV on AEW TV following this week.
- Asked about last Friday’s all-time low numbers for Rampage, Khan said to expect a “big card” for Friday and that it was an all hands on deck situation for strong matches in the future.
- He also hinted at the AEW/NJPW/ROH relationship as something to ask about Saturday.
- He couldn’t get into Shane Taylor’s contractual status with ROH but said his involvement and this Final Battle angle was brought up by Keith Lee.
- As far as FTR’s non-involvement with Final Battle, he said tonight is a big night for AEW with the Tag Team title match and that he wanted to wait until tonight’s show to see what happens next with FTR.