ROH COO Joe Koff On WWE Relationship, Hardyz Working For Them, NJPW Touring In The U.S., Cody Rhodes
Raj Prashad of FanBuzz recently interviewed Ring of Honor COO Joe Koff. You can read the full interview here, they sent us these highlights:
The Hardyz – Young Bucks feud and how it came together:
"The Young Bucks came to me and they said we have this idea. And they told me that whole idea with the Hardyz. At the time, the Bucks are contracted to me, the Hardyz were contracted to TNA Impact at the time. I said this is a good idea. I think the Hardyz-Bucks match could have a lot of cache.
"My goal was only to do (the Bucks-Hardyz match) at WrestleMania weekend. We wanted to build the story, and it (started) at Final Battle. It was the most amazing, dynamic, organic moment. When they were no longer able to work out a deal with Impact, we immediately said come wrestle with us. We never had any term on it. We wanted to finish the angle, finish the story.
"The story really ended in Lakeland. It could have continued, we could have built that angle further. But it didn't end in Lakeland because they were going to WWE. It ended in Lakeland because that's where it ended. It happened because of them, because they wanted to do it. What it said to me was talent respects the creative freedoms that exist here and the ability to bring an idea to management and as long as everybody was satisfied from a legal and contractual standpoint, that's how that happened. I will give the Young Bucks and the Hardyz full credit for that."
Cody not signing an exclusive deal with ROH:
"Cody has been great. He's been a great champion. There's some side issues there. He's still working independent companies, which we're not thrilled about. We knew it, we accepted that as part of it. I said to my organization to challenge him to show him that he doesn't need to be in those other places. This is where he should be. If we do that correctly, then he'll make that right choice. If he doesn't make that choice, then we'll have to deal with that at that time."
Expectations of NJPW returning to the U.S.:
"I expect they'll be back in the U.S. sometime in 2018. I'm not sure that I feel that they're ready to tour. I think they have presence here. They have presence with us. We'll see how that develops. They're strong over there. They know Japan and that market very well. They own that market. Coming to America is a little bit of a different business. They'll learn it and if it makes sense for them to be here and touring and competing on that level then welcome to the U.S."
A possible relationship with WWE down the road:
"You could say in a way (laughs), I say this really lovingly ? we have a relationship with WWE. They seem to like what we do here... Anything is possible. I have a very open mind and I would never close my mind to anything."