Marty Scurll: If Me Being ROH Champion Is Best For The Company, We’ll Do It

With Marty Scurll being the lead booker in Ring of Honor and still active as a pro wrestler, the internal struggle arises. Will Scurll book himself to win the World Title?

Many thought Scurll should have had his moment at ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard in April 2019 at Madison Square Garden, but Matt Taven walked out of the Garden with the title instead. Now, Scurll can book himself as the top guy if he so chooses. And he might, but only if it’s best for business.

“What I’ve achieved in ROH speaks for itself. I was booked as a top guy beforehand; there’s no reason for that to stop. It’s not like I was an undercard guy, then I became booker, and now I’m World Champion. I’m always going to make the best decisions, not for myself, but for the company,” Scurll said on ROHStrong. “If me being World Champion is best for the company, then we’ll do that, despite my other roles. At the end of the day, the fans are going to tell you if they believe in something or not. If I’m booked on top, right now, I don’t think any of the fans are going to say, ‘Why he’s on top?’ I understand there’s somewhat of a conflict of interest. At the same time, where do you get these bookers from? It’s not like there’s a University to train to be a booker. The only way to prepare for this job is to have years of experience in the business, that’s something I have. I’ve been studying this business my whole life. I have Ring of Honor’s best interest at heart, I want everyone to succeed. And I have to now because my name is on the line. I don’t have any ulterior motives. I was taken aback, at first, with how much work there is to do. It’s 24 hours, but that’s my choice. It doesn’t feel like work because I love doing it. It’s really a dream job.”

When asked about not winning the title at Madison Square Garden, Scurll said, “Good things come to those who wait. Would it have been nice to be World Champion by now? Absolutely. At the same time, I don’t have any ego when it comes to those things. I want what is best for the business. In terms of [G1 Supercard], I think a lot of fans wanted to see me win and wanted that moment. Maybe it would have been an idea to give them it. But it wasn’t my day. Doesn’t mean I won’t get it later. I wouldn’t say it was dropping the ball, at the same time, I think as many fans as there were who wanted me to win the title, Matt Taven has such a huge following so there was a lot of people excited. His time in ROH, he more than deserved his title run and he did a really good job with it. There’s still untapped potential with Matt Taven. It was a hard spot for the company. They knew my contract was expiring, so how do you put the title on a guy you don’t necessarily know you’re going to have? [A title run] might come eventually.”

When it was brought up that ROH business was down last year with Taven on top, Scurll chalked it up to wrestling being cyclical, but praised Taven for the job he did.

Scurll’s failure at winning world titles was brought up in storyline during his feud with Nick Aldis over the NWA World Heavyweight Title. Scurll was set to challenge Aldis for the title at NWA Crockett Cup, but the event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Elsewhere on the podcast, Scurll discussed his decision to re-sign with ROH. You can find his full comments by clicking here.

If you use any of the quotes above, please give a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.