Joe Hendry Describes How His ROH Signing Came About, Wanting To Work With NJPW

After a couple of brief stints with Ring of Honor, Joe Hendry is finally a fully-fledged member as he signed a contract with the promotion. ROH announced his arrival with a vignette that aired during the Summer Supercard and Hendry talked about that when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.

"Well, a genius must have edited that. I don't know who that was, but he must have been a genius," Hendry said while referencing himself. "Basically, The Prestigious One has come to ROH with a goal in mind. You've seen me before with the entrances and having a lot of fun, and we're still doing that, but things are a little more serious now. I'm looking to really fuse the two sides of my personality which is the fun entrances and the intensity of an amateur wrestler."

Hendry called that vignette a statement of intent. He also talked about his musical abilities as he played a piano in the video.

"I'm more of guitar guy but I did actually play the piano in that but it was actually just one key that I hit repeatedly," admitted Hendry. "So I'm not touting my piano abilities too much."

Hendry wrestled two matches for ROH in 2016 and then another in 2018 before finally joining the promotion. He talked a bit more about how his signing came about.

"In 2016 I flew myself over to Baltimore and attended ROH tryout camp. I worked as hard as I possibly could and got myself an opportunity on the UK Tour that year. On that tour I saw the TV Title won twice by British wrestlers ? Marty Scurll and Will Ospreay. Now on the tour, I have the exact same opportunity to do that because I'm facing Shane Taylor in London for the TV Title and I have every intention of making history repeat itself," Hendry said before adding that his tryout was just the first step and he's been working and grinding ever since."

"The fact is, I've had multiple organizations made offers to me but I chose to go to ROH. I wanted to go to ROH and it's something I've had my sights on since 2016. I've done two tours for them since then and it's finally happened. ROH is somewhere that is not only going to push me athletically, but it's gonna allow me to be who I need to be. When it comes to creative stuff with the entrances, they are letting me be me. All I have to do is show up for the video file. They trust me to do that and that is a very valuable thing to have in wrestling today. So I knew ROH was going to be the perfect home for me."

He then talked about how the locker room has changed since his earlier runs with ROH.

"It's a blast. Whenever I've been on the road with ROH, I know this sounds cheesy but I've been saying it to friends and family, it's what I imagined the dream to be. I get to travel the world and see places I would otherwise never get to see. I've got visas for America so I can wrestle all over America and am discovering new states," revealed Hendry.

"But also you've got a roster that is competitive in the right way. If you look at the landscape of pro wrestling ? all of a sudden you have Wednesday Night Wars ? but people are gonna be surprised by the quality of ROH. The momentum is there and the level of athlete we've got is absolutely there."

Hendry added that getting to see matches like Alex Shelley vs Jonathan Gresham is totally different and that he knew he'd go to ROH when he made his way down the ramp for the first time and felt the history.

"This roster is hungry and competitive and you better bring your A game every single time you show up to the building or you're not gonna survive. If you wanna thrive, you've got to constantly pushing yourself against the best wrestlers in the world. If you look at ROH's roster and if you watch our program, everyone matters on that show," stated Hendry.

ROH and New Japan have a partnership and Hendry was asked if he would like to venture over to Japan and compete there.

"I've been fortunate that I've been able to wrestle all over the UK, Germany, Romania, Canada, Australia, South Africa, The States. But the one that has alluded me is Japan," said Hendry. "I'm watching a lot of the old-school Japanese wrestling so I would love to get over to Japan. That would be a real dream for me."

Joe's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. Featuring Joe discussing how his ROH signing came about, why he feels ROH is his home, struggling to translate his British sense of humor to the United States, Matt Taven's haters, why Marty Scurll is the smartest man in pro wrestling and more. You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.