About two weeks ago, Ring of Honor owner Cary Silkin was a guest on my radio show, Wrestleradio (which can be heard weekly on Fridays from 6pm-7pm eastern time in the Binghamton, NY area at 90.5 FM or live on the Web at www.whrwfm.org).
Without further ado here are the highlights of the interview:
The Wrestleradio panel is made up of Mr. Jack Walker, El Tribe Loco and of course your host Big Andy Mac.
BAM welcomes guest Cary Silkin for the interview which took place on March 24, the day before Ring of Honor’s show in New York City.
Cary started by talking about his initial love of the wrestling business and growing up a fan of the old WWWF and their shows in New York City with Bruno Sammartino. He recalls one of his first shows which featured then champion Pedro Morales facing Freddie Blassie in one of his last runs as an active in-ring competitor.
The interview fastforwards to the present and focuses on hype for the amazing show that was March 25th at Basketball City. Cary talked about the good relationship that Ring of Honor has with many of the Japanese wrestling companies which has allowed RoH the ability to bring in stars like KENTA, Naomichi Marufugi, and the stars of Dragon Gate.
Cary said that the show was going to provide an opportunity to negotiate more dates in Ring of Honor for KENTA and Marufugi as well as a possible return of Kenta Kobashi. Future dates with KENTA are of course going to happen as he will do three shows towards the end of June. Cary talked about really wanting to see another Samoa Joe/Kenta Kobashi match, something with which the panel was very much in agreement.
Cary then put over the fact that as great as the singles matches KENTA and Marufugi put on at Final Battle ’05, on March 25 we would be able to see the two Japanese grapplers in their “best environment” which is of course the tag team match against American Dragon and Samoa Joe.
Cary said that Jushin Liger was the favorite of all of the Japanese stars that he has brought in. He was the most familiar with his work and that weekend was really special. He compared Kenta Kobashi to a modern day Bruno Sammartino, which is truly a high compliment from Cary as Bruno was the wrestler that he was first a fan of in his younger days.
The interview proceeds to hype some of the undercard matches including Alex Shelley vs. Christopher Daniels and the Briscoes vs. Jack Evans and Roderick strong. Both matches did not fail to disappoint, and the Briscoes vs. Generation Next may have even stolen the show from the main event, a prediction that Cary said should not surprise anyone.
Cary segued into the most controversial storyline in Ring of Honor at the moment, that of course being the feud with Combat Zone Wrestling. He likened the atmosphere of the ECW Arena show, dubbed Arena Warfare, as being similar to a high school football game with the fans truly being split and half of the bleachers being Ring of Honor fans and half being CZW fans.
Cary then hyped the Wrestlemania Triple Shot which was absolutely amazing by all reports and was attended by over 3500 fans: a three-show record. He put over Gabe Sapolsky’s ability as a booker matching up the Dragon Gate wrestlers in quality matches with the best of RoH.
The Wrestle Radio panel talked about the fact that most of 2004 was highlighted by bringing in wrestling legends like Mick Foley, Bobby Heenan, Jim Cornette, and Ricky Steamboat, while 2005 seemed to see more Japanese stars being brought in. Cary explained that it was not planned that way so much as just trying something new to bring in fans of all types of wrestling.
Cary talked about the influence that Ricky Steamboat and Jim Cornette had on the boys helping them with their careers. He told us that the Briscoes said that they learned more in a 20 minute conversation with Jim Cornette after their tag title win than they had learned in the previous year working indies. Ricky Steamboat, Cary said, was known to have “clinics” before a lot of the shows and helped out the boys, truly going above and beyond the call of duty. Cary also said that RoH is “low on the legend market” for the time being.
The interview changed gears and talked about Matt Hardy’s involvement in Ring of Honor. Cary put over Matt Hardy’s involvement as being good for business as he was “red hot” at the time and sold lots of tickets and merchandise. Cary talked about how Hardy was willing to try and go 20 plus minutes with wrestlers like Chris Daniels, Homicide, and Roderick Strong. He said Matt was nothing but professional and a pleasure to have.
The interview progressed to talk about other Ring of Honor wrestlers that have moved on to WWE or wrestlers that have gained exposure in TNA. He said that it does nothing but good for Ring of Honor as big fans of these wrestlers will track down the matches that their favorite wrestlers have had in the past.
The logical progression from here was to the dreaded possibility that the wrestlers that RoH shares with TNA may be removed from Ring of Honor shows. Cary puts over Gabe Sapolsky’s ability as a booker and that there are contingency plans should the worst happen. He said that losing a wrestler to other bookings is a necessary evil of the independent wrestling business, but you just have to move on.
Next Cary mentioned that Ring of Honor had plans to head to England and were still finalizing details. That deal of course has been sealed, and RoH will make its UK debut this summer. He put over wrestlers like Colt Cabana and Bryan Danielson working camp shows in England to improve the wrestling skills and broaden their wrestling horizons.
That brought the end of the interview and one final bit of hype for the amazing Best in the World show.
The interview, in my opinion was very insightful. It showed how much love Cary has for the business, and how dedicated he is to Ring of Honor. It was a real pleasure to be able to have Cary Silkin on my show, and we hope to have more guests in the future.
As always if you have any questions, comments or concerns, you can always e-mail me at bigandymac@yahoo.com.
