PCO Wants To Do 80,000 Person ROH Show In 2022 Or 2023

In just three years with Ring of Honor, wrestling veteran PCO has quickly established himself as a modern-day cornerstone of the promotion. Since joining the ROH roster in 2018, PCO has put himself in rare company as a triple crown champion.

Speaking with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman on the Wrestling Inc. Daily, the 53-year-old emphasized he has a couple goals left before he hangs it up for good.

"I don't have issues with bumping, I don't have any issues with my knees, or my back or my spine," PCO said. "It's not that I want to stretch my time, but I need to accomplish those things that I always wanted to accomplish. And I did accomplish a lot the last two or three years. I'm maybe one or two goals away before retiring. I was hoping to leave the business on a great run, on packed houses. A little bit like Steve Austin or Hogan, or something similar but not the same because that's been done. I want to do it my way, maybe in the last three months, four months, six months, a year."

Expanding on that "packed houses" concept, PCO detailed his massive goal to produce an event that rivals WrestleMania in attendance.

"I know I want to sell out the Olympic Stadium," PCO said. "It's about 80,000 people in Montreal. Those things are pretty big, and that's what I wanted to do before I really retired. We'll see. I got my ideas on how to accomplish that. We sold out with New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor, the Madison Square Garden, in about 20 minutes. All the fanbase there, you can send them first. My thinking is that if we can sell those 20,000 or 25,000 seats around the ring. Let's say in a couple of days or a couple of hours, people coming from Boston, New York, Vermont, just the northeast, plus Quebec is big too. Six, seven hours away that they can come with their car. The rest of the tickets, 20 dollars apiece, or 25 dollars, big tailgate party.

"Get a partnership with the city, a partnership with the mayor, a partnership with the Olympic Stadium because it's always empty. I think there's a lot of opportunities there, and I think the people are ready for a big show. I'm hoping to put that together in 2022 or 2023. We'll see how everything evolves. I think a good two, three solid months, you let the ticket go, people would get pretty fired up about it."

While this concept is birthed from PCO's mind, he notes that he would love to see his current promotion support his endeavor the same way they backed 2018's All In.

"Something like [All In]," PCO said. "I'd like to put a lot of people together, a lot of connections. Let's say the mayor, people that are interested. I remember WWE was doing 35,000 or 40,000 even. I was part of a show at SkyDome with like 45,000 people. SkyDome is amazing. SkyDome is like 80,000 seats, and it wasn't even full. I was fighting Edge for his debut in Toronto, and I remember it was amazing. I'm known there because during my run as World Champion, I had been on every show in Canada, major shows like two million people watching. All those people, they said, 'If you come to this arena for a title match or title defense, Olympic Stadium,' all the top journalists and people in charge of websites, they were all in. They all want to be a part of it. So, it would be so crazy. And that show could lead to a pretty cool run over the states, and would close the chapter for me."

Before the former ROH World Champion's stadium dream can flirt with the possibility of coming true, things around the world have to normalize. Only a handful of promotions have seen minimal live crowds return to shows, while companies like Impact Wrestling and ROH have elected to go the empty arena route.

Despite Ring of Honor being without fans for over a year, PCO says he is optimistic about the ROH faithful returning by the year's end.

"That's what we hope man, that's what we all hope," PCO said. "That's what the company wants. That's what the wrestlers want and need. We want to feel the crowd, and feed off the crowd. It's cool when you give all your body and all of yourself and you want to serve the public as best as you can but you don't have that instant reaction feedback. To be able to have that feeling right away, it's missing. It's very different, and that's for any sport. Hockey, baseball, it's just a different game."

Once that day comes, PCO says ROH has big live TV plans that go beyond touring.

"I think we already acquired all the TV stations needed to launch that type of show," PCO said. "And with Honor Club, you know, we've been producing live events all the time. So it's not going to be a huge step for our production crew to produce a live show every week. I just think that the company wants the right timing to launch that, and I don't think that during the pandemic is a good time. The way I see everyone buying stuff, like I'm talking about here in Canada. The houses are double the prices. A piece of plywood was like 20 dollars, now it's 90 dollars. 400, 500 percent augmentation on so many things. Everybody's buying stuff. Government injects free money into everyone, they print money, I don't know why. I'm not an economist or whatever. I just know people are spending like crazy, and I think once this is over since the fans have been watching stuff with no crowds, I think it's going to be crazy. My anticipation is almost like a full house everywhere."

You can follow PCO on Twitter @PCOisNotHuman. You can find the full audio and video from PCO's interview below: