March 29, 2023 • 16 mins
After taking a break, Battle & Eli are back with a BIG time guest! Tony Khan is BACK on the show to talk about the upcoming Ring of Honor PPV Supercard of Honor. Tony talks about bringing back Honor Club and the historic numbers they're doing for the subscription as well as the numbers for the ROH events & PPVs. Khan also tells us about new titles debuting at Supercard of Honor, the Reach For The Sky Ladder Match, would he work with other companies in the future, and much more!
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
- Battleground!
(00:01):
- Live from the parts unknown studios.
- You've entered the Battleground.
- Yeah.
- Battleground!
- The Battleground!
- Battleground!
- The Battleground!
- Welcome to the Battleground podcast.
- Your place for all things for wrestling.
- Battleground!
- The Battleground!
(00:22):
- Battleground!
- The Battleground!
- Now making their way to the microphones.
- Let's get 'em for your host.
- Welcome to the Battleground!
- What's up you guys?
Welcome back into I Heart Radio's official wrestling podcast,
The Battleground podcast.
It is a big week here on the show.
We have a guest that we like to call.
(00:44):
I guess we can say best friends now,
'cause I mean, he's been on the show many times.
He set the records of most appearances on the show.
I'm gonna bring him a tag team partner, Eli,
and without further ado, let's just go ahead and bring him.
And it's the first time we've seen each other on camera.
There he is, the man and the myth, the legend Tony Khan.
How are you doing, sir?
- I'm doing very well, Tim.
Thanks for having me on today.
(01:06):
- Thanks for not saying I'm being biased or anything Tony,
but there's my shirt.
(laughing)
- Wow, oh the king.
- I mean, just thrown it out there.
- I'm just honoured out there,
but let's talk about this honor club, man.
I wanna before we talk about ring of honor for this Friday night.
I wanna talk about honor club.
I mean, had a very successful relaunch,
(01:27):
both you get my money and Eli's money every month,
because we joined it.
Do you have any numbers to report on that side of things
of like the numbers of how many subscribers
of them? - Yeah.
- Well, we have more subscribers than ever before
for ring of honor for dreaming, which is amazing,
because we just relaunched the service from scratch.
And already, it's set a record
with about 15,000 subscribers to ring of honor right now,
(01:50):
just for the TV, which is amazing.
And also, we're doing great numbers for pay preview.
So it's really amazing how well ring of honor is done
since we've re-launched.
In addition to all the exciting things happening in AEW right now,
we have a huge show tonight in St. Louis AEW Dynamite,
and then we're heading to LA for a huge super card of honor.
So very excited, last in wrestling.
(02:13):
- Pretending to the Thursday night show
which has been blowing up last few weeks.
- It's casting.
- Critical claim.
Was there any pressure to present the new ring of honor
kind of in the old way, or did you have any,
was there any pressure to kind of make it similar to AEW?
Or like, what was your thought process
between the presentation of the Thursday night show?
(02:36):
- I feel like it's been very beneficial to AEW
and to me to go do ring of honor,
because there's no pressure at all.
I like going there.
There was no pressure on me to do anything.
I can do whatever I want.
There's no network, there's no breaks.
There's no timing, really.
I can just put on shows of any length,
(02:57):
and any duration and content I would like.
So it's a lot of fun, and I also think it gave me
a fresh perspective, and I think it's been beneficial
to AEW as well.
For ring of honor, there is such a loyal fan base,
and I wanted to present a ring of honor
that would really resonate with ring of honor fans
(03:18):
in the past, but I also realized that we're trying to grow
the ring of honor fan base, which we successfully done.
Now, where we have record numbers for subscribers
and had a record number on paper view also.
So now we're looking at also the best attendance we've done
since I took over coming in for super card of honor,
and we've done most of the best gates
in ring of honor history have just been hit in shows.
(03:40):
We've done since I took over,
this is only my fourth ring of honor paper view event,
and so far it's been a great relaunch.
And we have a big paper view coming up this Friday night,
and for hardcore wrestling fans,
I think it's really one of the major talking points
in sport right now is what's coming up this Friday
on Ring of Honor, normally I'm coming in with you
(04:01):
to talk about what's happening on AEW Dynamite.
We have a huge show on TV S tonight,
but also a lot of interest in what's happening
and ring of honor this week.
- Yeah, and it's been insane just watching everything
and kind of go back to it.
You also don't have to worry about finding people,
if they say dirty words on Ring of Honor,
I'm 30 nights, if they want to slip something up,
no, you don't have to find them there.
(04:22):
But of course talking about super card of honor,
which is gonna be available to watch on paper view this week,
and also on Bleach Report,
which you announced earlier this week.
This year's super card of honor is upon us,
and it's gonna be a little bit of sweet
after the untimely passing of Jay Brisco,
this past January.
So let's talk about what we are sure will be a highlight
(04:44):
and I'd reach for the Sky ladder match
to determine the new ROH World Tag Team Champions.
I mean, how did this tribute come about
and what can we expect out of this match?
- We were talking about ideas to pay tribute
to the late great, Jayman Pue, Jay Brisco,
and so many of us love Jay Brisco.
He was beloved in the locker room,
and there's wrestling fans all over for the world
(05:06):
that loved him, and we wanted to pay tribute to him
in Ring of Honor with something special.
And of all the ideas I heard, this was by far,
the best idea came from somebody who liked him a lot,
and wanted to contribute a good idea,
and it's really something that Mark Brisco
really thought it was a great idea,
and that was important to me too.
(05:27):
Of course, Mark Brisco's wrestling on this paper view
for the Ring of Honor World TV title,
but Mark Brisco also co-holder of the World Tag Team Championship,
and having his opinion, having his buy-in to this plan,
made all the difference in the world,
and so we're gonna have the Jay Brisco
reach for the Sky Tag Team Ladder Match
(05:49):
to determine new champions.
It will be new belts, we retire the old design,
but we'll always pay tribute to the Brisco brothers,
and I'm very, very excited for this paper view on Friday,
and one of the major reasons is the reach
for the Sky Tag Team Ladder Match,
paying tribute to the late great Jay Brisco.
- Right, where huge bell guys in case you can't see
(06:10):
behind Tim, so we're excited to see the new belts.
- Yep, incredible.
Another title match that's got a lot of people buzzing
would be the pure championship,
Willer Universe's Japanese legend Katso Yuri Shibada.
That's all right, it was that close.
The Blackpool Combat Club,
they've shown a lot of aggression as of late,
kind of uncharacteristic, I'd say.
(06:32):
How do you think that helps the champ
in a title match of this magnitude?
- Oh, I think the Blackpool Combat Club
and their recent success really bowed well
for the champ in this match, and I think
we've seen the Blackpool Combat Club come in
and more intense and more determined than ever,
certainly a darker side of the Blackpool Combat Club
(06:53):
than what we're used to.
But for Willer Uta, in particular,
seeing that new edge that aggressiveness to him,
it's something he showed on the independent scene,
I think, and you know, he had this in him,
and now in AEW we're seeing that darker side
of Willer Uta too.
Shibada is one of the greatest wrestlers of our generation.
It's also one of the most inspiring stories
(07:15):
in pro wrestling in many years,
but those you don't know, I think a lot of people saw Shibada
came into AEW, and that's how a lot of fans
here learned this story, and then there's a lot of hardcore fans
that know the story very well.
Also, that Shibada was retired from wrestling
and he had life threatening injuries
to say they were career threatening
would be an understatement.
Nobody ever thought Shibada could
(07:37):
or should ever wrestle again,
but he worked so hard to get cleared and get to the point
where he was absolutely by every doctor.
We spoken to him, he is allowed, he's cleared, he's good to do this,
and he had his big return bout against Orange Cassidy in AEW,
and the appetite, the interest around it, it.
Left people wanting so much more,
(07:59):
and he's continued to work hard in this comeback,
and now for Shibada, somebody who is such a great star
in this sport to have him wrestling wheeler-yuda
for the Ring of Honor Pure Championship at Supercarb this Friday,
it's a huge, huge deal, and we're really excited
about the paperview.
- Sure, and the one thing I'm excited about is
(08:20):
because when you see these paperviews,
you're usually a late night show,
but the fact that in Nashville time,
it starts at six o'clock this Friday night live on paperview.
Is it good for you to have these early night paperview shows
start earlier than waiting to eight or nine o'clock Eastern time?
So seven o'clock hard time.
- Well, I think the zero hour starts then at six o'clock,
(08:45):
but to be fair, I think it's gonna start
in a pretty usual start time that you get for a paperview,
because I think it'll be 5 PM Eastern for,
so I do think to your point, sorry, 5 PM Pacific,
so to your point, now we're just using people to.
- What's that on that, all you should do?
- We just need our one specific time.
(09:06):
- It's the normal start time.
- Okay, it's not a name or we start.
- Yeah, well, when I was looking at it earlier,
I saw that it said it starts at seven PM Eastern,
so I was like, okay, cool, it's gonna be an early night
for me, the zero hour.
- Yeah, okay, and we've had the conversation,
we get so excited about all these wrestling shows,
and now that he can watch that and still be able
(09:28):
to get into bad at a decent hour,
you know, it's a Friday night.
- Well, if they end a little earlier,
'cause the Honor Paperviews, we typically do
three hour paperviews, whereas for AEW,
there are three hours and 55 minutes, typically.
So, right, it's somewhere in that range.
This is gonna be a great fail.
It's gonna be a really good value for your money.
It's gonna be one of the best wrestling shows in the year.
(09:49):
- Super excited, and of course now let's talk
about the big main event, which could not have been
scripted better.
I mean, you could tell who Eli's cheering for in this match.
- I mean, it sees people on the ring.
- It's a bad day, Matt.
I almost thought this was more productive,
so we didn't have them because this is a radio interview,
and you guys can go and be stuff on video
that nobody can see.
- Well, we also put the video up on the radio station's pages,
(10:10):
so they can watch it as well.
So it's all over the place.
We give it to everybody.
But I mean, we see longtime rivals Eddie Kingston
taking on one of the greatest adversaries.
The current ROH champ, Claudio.
I mean, this match has instant classic written all over it.
What would it mean for ROH for Eddie, for ROH,
for Eddie Kingston to do the unthinkable defeat
(10:32):
Claudio for the world title,
and essentially becoming the face of ring of honor?
- It would be incredible.
And that's one of the reasons people are so excited
about this paper review.
Eddie Kingston is one of the most popular wrestlers
in the world.
You don't have to look any further than that shirt to see.
There's fans all over that love Eddie.
(10:53):
And if you can't see, if you're not watching the video
version, that's a great looking Eddie Kingston shirt.
And Eddie Kingston is one of the most popular wrestlers.
We've had an AEW.
He also had wrestled in Ring of Honor,
but his history with Claudio goes back even further.
They've wrestled each other in Chikara,
an independent promotions, and they genuinely hate each other.
(11:15):
It is exciting to get one of these big matches
where the guys absolutely despise each other,
but they want to get in the ring
and prove who the better wrestler is.
And that's what we're going to get it.
The ring of honor is super card of honor this weekend.
And like I said, it's a little bit different doing it
on a Friday, but it's kind of the standard start time
(11:35):
for one of our shows.
But I think you're going to see the amount of action you get
in this three-hour paper view plus zero hour.
It's going to be about as great a night of wrestling
as we've had in a long time.
I got it say though, AEW and Ring of Honor,
it's very competitive because I think we've got a great card
for Ring of Honor.
We also were probably coming off one of the best AEW shows
(11:56):
we've ever done.
AEW Revolution might be our best paper view there.
So it's really awesome what's happening.
AEW and Ring of Honor both putting on great shows.
I'm excited for AEW Wednesday night night night night night
tonight live on CBS and very excited about Ring of Honor
super card of honor coming up on Friday.
And hopefully we'll get you guys out to one of the live shows.
(12:19):
I like seeing you on here now.
Yeah, but maybe even a person.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I wouldn't mind taking a trip to Florida now.
I mean, Tennessee weather's kind of awful at the moment.
I was debating trying to get out to double or nothing
because I went a few years back and I just
can't make it happen.
But yeah, I got to get back to a paper view.
(12:40):
Definitely got to get back to.
And I know we put up a thing the other day.
The gift that goes around on Twitter of you
and you're like, look at it.
And we put that as a teaser for you being on the show today.
And so we asked some listeners if they had any questions.
And I know Eli grabbed one of the listeners questions.
It's a really good one.
Yeah, it's actually from another podcast that we're friends with.
(13:02):
They wanted to know if there's-- and this was for AEW and Ring of Honor.
If there is any interest in working with Start-Up and if so,
are there any wrestlers from Start-Up that are maybe on your radar at the moment?
I am interested in working with Start-Up.
It's something that I've talked to New Japan about.
And obviously, they have that business relationship there.
(13:25):
And it's definitely something I'd be open to.
So we'll have to keep an eye on that.
But definitely interesting things happening in the world of Josie.
And we've brought some great Josie wrestlers over the--
Right.
--and some great women's division and exciting things happening there.
So I would be interested to work with Start-Up in the future.
(13:46):
Killer.
Sweet.
Well, we don't want to take up too much your time.
I know you're a busy man.
I was--
God, this week's got to be insane for me.
I was just about in early.
I was like, when does Tony ever sleep?
Does he have like a caught-it-girl position where he's just like--
Yeah.
Lean back if he could try to tell you.
He was like, John just follow you around with coffee and just here.
Here, here, here, here.
Like--
I drink a lot of coffee.
I think this video evidence of that.
(14:08):
Yeah.
I'm going to drink a lot.
I'm heading from this NFL owners meeting to St. Louis for what is going to be a great show.
Wednesday and I die in my TBS and then have some meetings before I go to LA.
So I've actually got another stop after St. Louis before I head to LA.
Oh, I love the grind.
And I haven't taken a Wednesday off since 2019, guys.
(14:28):
Yeah.
And the new show debuts tonight as well, right?
All access.
Is that tonight?
Absolutely.
A-w-all access from you tonight following the--
I've been at nine of my--
So it's such a exciting week for us with Wednesday and I--
Oh, I know I know I know I know access.
Ring of honor, TV, tomorrow and then of course, that's the go home for the big super
card of honor, paper view.
(14:48):
We're going to have a great time.
And now I'm getting used to this, doing the video interviews.
So now I'm sorry we're ending because I feel like we're just getting this good group.
Normally we're just talking on the phone.
But this is a different vibe doing the video.
Yeah.
We'll set up another time when there's not crazy busyness for you.
And you can have a free moment.
We can do a little bit of a long, form interview.
(15:10):
And again, we don't want to take it about your time.
But it's always an honor and a pleasure to have you on the show any time we can get you on.
I'd great to see you, Tim, and my pleasure to see you, Eli.
And hopefully we'll get you guys to a show.
Sometimes soon, and Eli, that is a great Eddie Kingston shirt.
If you're listening on the radio, Eddie Kingston versus Claudio Friday on paper view,
it's going to be a big one plus done on the show.
I was wrestling tonight.
(15:30):
Tonight on TVS, Claudio 2 and a big one, the BCC versus Dalton Castle and the boys.
That would be fun.
Damn.
It'll bad for the boys on that one.
I don't know.
Tony, be appreciate you coming on this show today.
And we look forward to talking to you soon and looking forward to all the fun stuff that
AW and Ring of Honor have in store for us this week.
(15:53):
Thank you so much for having me on Tim.
It was really nice to see you.
Nice to see you too.
Eli, hopefully see you guys soon.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode of the Battleground Podcast.
Make sure you give it five stars then a nice review to stay up to date with the show.
Follow them at Battleground Podcast on Instagram.
[MUSIC]
(16:20):
(upbeat music)
- Battleground!
(00:01):
- Live from the parts unknown studios.
- You've entered the Battleground.
- Yeah.
- Battleground!
- The Battleground!
- Battleground!
- The Battleground!
- Welcome to the Battleground podcast.
- Your place for all things for wrestling.
- Battleground!
- The Battleground!
(00:22):
- Battleground!
- The Battleground!
- Now making their way to the microphones.
- Let's get 'em for your host.
- Welcome to the Battleground!
- What's up you guys?
Welcome back into I Heart Radio's official wrestling podcast,
The Battleground podcast.
It is a big week here on the show.
We have a guest that we like to call.
(00:44):
I guess we can say best friends now,
'cause I mean, he's been on the show many times.
He set the records of most appearances on the show.
I'm gonna bring him a tag team partner, Eli,
and without further ado, let's just go ahead and bring him.
And it's the first time we've seen each other on camera.
There he is, the man and the myth, the legend Tony Khan.
How are you doing, sir?
- I'm doing very well, Tim.
Thanks for having me on today.
(01:06):
- Thanks for not saying I'm being biased or anything Tony,
but there's my shirt.
(laughing)
- Wow, oh the king.
- I mean, just thrown it out there.
- I'm just honoured out there,
but let's talk about this honor club, man.
I wanna before we talk about ring of honor for this Friday night.
I wanna talk about honor club.
I mean, had a very successful relaunch,
(01:27):
both you get my money and Eli's money every month,
because we joined it.
Do you have any numbers to report on that side of things
of like the numbers of how many subscribers
of them? - Yeah.
- Well, we have more subscribers than ever before
for ring of honor for dreaming, which is amazing,
because we just relaunched the service from scratch.
And already, it's set a record
with about 15,000 subscribers to ring of honor right now,
(01:50):
just for the TV, which is amazing.
And also, we're doing great numbers for pay preview.
So it's really amazing how well ring of honor is done
since we've re-launched.
In addition to all the exciting things happening in AEW right now,
we have a huge show tonight in St. Louis AEW Dynamite,
and then we're heading to LA for a huge super card of honor.
So very excited, last in wrestling.
(02:13):
- Pretending to the Thursday night show
which has been blowing up last few weeks.
- It's casting.
- Critical claim.
Was there any pressure to present the new ring of honor
kind of in the old way, or did you have any,
was there any pressure to kind of make it similar to AEW?
Or like, what was your thought process
between the presentation of the Thursday night show?
(02:36):
- I feel like it's been very beneficial to AEW
and to me to go do ring of honor,
because there's no pressure at all.
I like going there.
There was no pressure on me to do anything.
I can do whatever I want.
There's no network, there's no breaks.
There's no timing, really.
I can just put on shows of any length,
(02:57):
and any duration and content I would like.
So it's a lot of fun, and I also think it gave me
a fresh perspective, and I think it's been beneficial
to AEW as well.
For ring of honor, there is such a loyal fan base,
and I wanted to present a ring of honor
that would really resonate with ring of honor fans
(03:18):
in the past, but I also realized that we're trying to grow
the ring of honor fan base, which we successfully done.
Now, where we have record numbers for subscribers
and had a record number on paper view also.
So now we're looking at also the best attendance we've done
since I took over coming in for super card of honor,
and we've done most of the best gates
in ring of honor history have just been hit in shows.
(03:40):
We've done since I took over,
this is only my fourth ring of honor paper view event,
and so far it's been a great relaunch.
And we have a big paper view coming up this Friday night,
and for hardcore wrestling fans,
I think it's really one of the major talking points
in sport right now is what's coming up this Friday
on Ring of Honor, normally I'm coming in with you
(04:01):
to talk about what's happening on AEW Dynamite.
We have a huge show on TV S tonight,
but also a lot of interest in what's happening
and ring of honor this week.
- Yeah, and it's been insane just watching everything
and kind of go back to it.
You also don't have to worry about finding people,
if they say dirty words on Ring of Honor,
I'm 30 nights, if they want to slip something up,
no, you don't have to find them there.
(04:22):
But of course talking about super card of honor,
which is gonna be available to watch on paper view this week,
and also on Bleach Report,
which you announced earlier this week.
This year's super card of honor is upon us,
and it's gonna be a little bit of sweet
after the untimely passing of Jay Brisco,
this past January.
So let's talk about what we are sure will be a highlight
(04:44):
and I'd reach for the Sky ladder match
to determine the new ROH World Tag Team Champions.
I mean, how did this tribute come about
and what can we expect out of this match?
- We were talking about ideas to pay tribute
to the late great, Jayman Pue, Jay Brisco,
and so many of us love Jay Brisco.
He was beloved in the locker room,
and there's wrestling fans all over for the world
(05:06):
that loved him, and we wanted to pay tribute to him
in Ring of Honor with something special.
And of all the ideas I heard, this was by far,
the best idea came from somebody who liked him a lot,
and wanted to contribute a good idea,
and it's really something that Mark Brisco
really thought it was a great idea,
and that was important to me too.
(05:27):
Of course, Mark Brisco's wrestling on this paper view
for the Ring of Honor World TV title,
but Mark Brisco also co-holder of the World Tag Team Championship,
and having his opinion, having his buy-in to this plan,
made all the difference in the world,
and so we're gonna have the Jay Brisco
reach for the Sky Tag Team Ladder Match
(05:49):
to determine new champions.
It will be new belts, we retire the old design,
but we'll always pay tribute to the Brisco brothers,
and I'm very, very excited for this paper view on Friday,
and one of the major reasons is the reach
for the Sky Tag Team Ladder Match,
paying tribute to the late great Jay Brisco.
- Right, where huge bell guys in case you can't see
(06:10):
behind Tim, so we're excited to see the new belts.
- Yep, incredible.
Another title match that's got a lot of people buzzing
would be the pure championship,
Willer Universe's Japanese legend Katso Yuri Shibada.
That's all right, it was that close.
The Blackpool Combat Club,
they've shown a lot of aggression as of late,
kind of uncharacteristic, I'd say.
(06:32):
How do you think that helps the champ
in a title match of this magnitude?
- Oh, I think the Blackpool Combat Club
and their recent success really bowed well
for the champ in this match, and I think
we've seen the Blackpool Combat Club come in
and more intense and more determined than ever,
certainly a darker side of the Blackpool Combat Club
(06:53):
than what we're used to.
But for Willer Uta, in particular,
seeing that new edge that aggressiveness to him,
it's something he showed on the independent scene,
I think, and you know, he had this in him,
and now in AEW we're seeing that darker side
of Willer Uta too.
Shibada is one of the greatest wrestlers of our generation.
It's also one of the most inspiring stories
(07:15):
in pro wrestling in many years,
but those you don't know, I think a lot of people saw Shibada
came into AEW, and that's how a lot of fans
here learned this story, and then there's a lot of hardcore fans
that know the story very well.
Also, that Shibada was retired from wrestling
and he had life threatening injuries
to say they were career threatening
would be an understatement.
Nobody ever thought Shibada could
(07:37):
or should ever wrestle again,
but he worked so hard to get cleared and get to the point
where he was absolutely by every doctor.
We spoken to him, he is allowed, he's cleared, he's good to do this,
and he had his big return bout against Orange Cassidy in AEW,
and the appetite, the interest around it, it.
Left people wanting so much more,
(07:59):
and he's continued to work hard in this comeback,
and now for Shibada, somebody who is such a great star
in this sport to have him wrestling wheeler-yuda
for the Ring of Honor Pure Championship at Supercarb this Friday,
it's a huge, huge deal, and we're really excited
about the paperview.
- Sure, and the one thing I'm excited about is
(08:20):
because when you see these paperviews,
you're usually a late night show,
but the fact that in Nashville time,
it starts at six o'clock this Friday night live on paperview.
Is it good for you to have these early night paperview shows
start earlier than waiting to eight or nine o'clock Eastern time?
So seven o'clock hard time.
- Well, I think the zero hour starts then at six o'clock,
(08:45):
but to be fair, I think it's gonna start
in a pretty usual start time that you get for a paperview,
because I think it'll be 5 PM Eastern for,
so I do think to your point, sorry, 5 PM Pacific,
so to your point, now we're just using people to.
- What's that on that, all you should do?
- We just need our one specific time.
(09:06):
- It's the normal start time.
- Okay, it's not a name or we start.
- Yeah, well, when I was looking at it earlier,
I saw that it said it starts at seven PM Eastern,
so I was like, okay, cool, it's gonna be an early night
for me, the zero hour.
- Yeah, okay, and we've had the conversation,
we get so excited about all these wrestling shows,
and now that he can watch that and still be able
(09:28):
to get into bad at a decent hour,
you know, it's a Friday night.
- Well, if they end a little earlier,
'cause the Honor Paperviews, we typically do
three hour paperviews, whereas for AEW,
there are three hours and 55 minutes, typically.
So, right, it's somewhere in that range.
This is gonna be a great fail.
It's gonna be a really good value for your money.
It's gonna be one of the best wrestling shows in the year.
(09:49):
- Super excited, and of course now let's talk
about the big main event, which could not have been
scripted better.
I mean, you could tell who Eli's cheering for in this match.
- I mean, it sees people on the ring.
- It's a bad day, Matt.
I almost thought this was more productive,
so we didn't have them because this is a radio interview,
and you guys can go and be stuff on video
that nobody can see.
- Well, we also put the video up on the radio station's pages,
(10:10):
so they can watch it as well.
So it's all over the place.
We give it to everybody.
But I mean, we see longtime rivals Eddie Kingston
taking on one of the greatest adversaries.
The current ROH champ, Claudio.
I mean, this match has instant classic written all over it.
What would it mean for ROH for Eddie, for ROH,
for Eddie Kingston to do the unthinkable defeat
(10:32):
Claudio for the world title,
and essentially becoming the face of ring of honor?
- It would be incredible.
And that's one of the reasons people are so excited
about this paper review.
Eddie Kingston is one of the most popular wrestlers
in the world.
You don't have to look any further than that shirt to see.
There's fans all over that love Eddie.
(10:53):
And if you can't see, if you're not watching the video
version, that's a great looking Eddie Kingston shirt.
And Eddie Kingston is one of the most popular wrestlers.
We've had an AEW.
He also had wrestled in Ring of Honor,
but his history with Claudio goes back even further.
They've wrestled each other in Chikara,
an independent promotions, and they genuinely hate each other.
(11:15):
It is exciting to get one of these big matches
where the guys absolutely despise each other,
but they want to get in the ring
and prove who the better wrestler is.
And that's what we're going to get it.
The ring of honor is super card of honor this weekend.
And like I said, it's a little bit different doing it
on a Friday, but it's kind of the standard start time
(11:35):
for one of our shows.
But I think you're going to see the amount of action you get
in this three-hour paper view plus zero hour.
It's going to be about as great a night of wrestling
as we've had in a long time.
I got it say though, AEW and Ring of Honor,
it's very competitive because I think we've got a great card
for Ring of Honor.
We also were probably coming off one of the best AEW shows
(11:56):
we've ever done.
AEW Revolution might be our best paper view there.
So it's really awesome what's happening.
AEW and Ring of Honor both putting on great shows.
I'm excited for AEW Wednesday night night night night night
tonight live on CBS and very excited about Ring of Honor
super card of honor coming up on Friday.
And hopefully we'll get you guys out to one of the live shows.
(12:19):
I like seeing you on here now.
Yeah, but maybe even a person.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I wouldn't mind taking a trip to Florida now.
I mean, Tennessee weather's kind of awful at the moment.
I was debating trying to get out to double or nothing
because I went a few years back and I just
can't make it happen.
But yeah, I got to get back to a paper view.
(12:40):
Definitely got to get back to.
And I know we put up a thing the other day.
The gift that goes around on Twitter of you
and you're like, look at it.
And we put that as a teaser for you being on the show today.
And so we asked some listeners if they had any questions.
And I know Eli grabbed one of the listeners questions.
It's a really good one.
Yeah, it's actually from another podcast that we're friends with.
(13:02):
They wanted to know if there's-- and this was for AEW and Ring of Honor.
If there is any interest in working with Start-Up and if so,
are there any wrestlers from Start-Up that are maybe on your radar at the moment?
I am interested in working with Start-Up.
It's something that I've talked to New Japan about.
And obviously, they have that business relationship there.
(13:25):
And it's definitely something I'd be open to.
So we'll have to keep an eye on that.
But definitely interesting things happening in the world of Josie.
And we've brought some great Josie wrestlers over the--
Right.
--and some great women's division and exciting things happening there.
So I would be interested to work with Start-Up in the future.
(13:46):
Killer.
Sweet.
Well, we don't want to take up too much your time.
I know you're a busy man.
I was--
God, this week's got to be insane for me.
I was just about in early.
I was like, when does Tony ever sleep?
Does he have like a caught-it-girl position where he's just like--
Yeah.
Lean back if he could try to tell you.
He was like, John just follow you around with coffee and just here.
Here, here, here, here.
Like--
I drink a lot of coffee.
I think this video evidence of that.
(14:08):
Yeah.
I'm going to drink a lot.
I'm heading from this NFL owners meeting to St. Louis for what is going to be a great show.
Wednesday and I die in my TBS and then have some meetings before I go to LA.
So I've actually got another stop after St. Louis before I head to LA.
Oh, I love the grind.
And I haven't taken a Wednesday off since 2019, guys.
(14:28):
Yeah.
And the new show debuts tonight as well, right?
All access.
Is that tonight?
Absolutely.
A-w-all access from you tonight following the--
I've been at nine of my--
So it's such a exciting week for us with Wednesday and I--
Oh, I know I know I know I know access.
Ring of honor, TV, tomorrow and then of course, that's the go home for the big super
card of honor, paper view.
(14:48):
We're going to have a great time.
And now I'm getting used to this, doing the video interviews.
So now I'm sorry we're ending because I feel like we're just getting this good group.
Normally we're just talking on the phone.
But this is a different vibe doing the video.
Yeah.
We'll set up another time when there's not crazy busyness for you.
And you can have a free moment.
We can do a little bit of a long, form interview.
(15:10):
And again, we don't want to take it about your time.
But it's always an honor and a pleasure to have you on the show any time we can get you on.
I'd great to see you, Tim, and my pleasure to see you, Eli.
And hopefully we'll get you guys to a show.
Sometimes soon, and Eli, that is a great Eddie Kingston shirt.
If you're listening on the radio, Eddie Kingston versus Claudio Friday on paper view,
it's going to be a big one plus done on the show.
I was wrestling tonight.
(15:30):
Tonight on TVS, Claudio 2 and a big one, the BCC versus Dalton Castle and the boys.
That would be fun.
Damn.
It'll bad for the boys on that one.
I don't know.
Tony, be appreciate you coming on this show today.
And we look forward to talking to you soon and looking forward to all the fun stuff that
AW and Ring of Honor have in store for us this week.
(15:53):
Thank you so much for having me on Tim.
It was really nice to see you.
Nice to see you too.
Eli, hopefully see you guys soon.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode of the Battleground Podcast.
Make sure you give it five stars then a nice review to stay up to date with the show.
Follow them at Battleground Podcast on Instagram.
[MUSIC]
(16:20):
(upbeat music)
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