Roderick Strong Planned On Quitting Wrestling In 2003 Had He Not Been Picked Up By Ring Of Honor

Roderick Strong was going to step away from wrestling but he received a call twenty minutes after that decision.

“The Messiah Of The Backbreaker” Roderick Strong has been in the wrestling business for nearly twenty years and throughout his time as a wrestler he has held world titles in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Ring Of Honor and has had highly regarded matches with the likes of Adam Cole, Drew McIntyre and Sami Zayn. Strong is currently a part of the former two-time NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed ERA but all of his accomplishments may have been non-existent had he stepped away from wrestling in 2003 like he initially planned.

Roderick Strong joined E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness and shared that he decided in 2003 that he was going to step away from wrestling had he not been picked up by Ring Of Honor and it was twenty minutes later that Strong got a call from current EVOLVE booker Gabe Sapolsky to come and work dates for ROH. Strong went on to hold the ROH World, ROH World Tag Team and ROH World TV Title during his thirteen years in the company.

“Yeah, almost 13 [years Roderick Strong was with Ring Of Honor]. For me, the craziest part of that is, there’s a buddy of mine that I was helping teach wrestling to and I told him, ‘Ah man, I just don’t really know. I think by the end of 2003, if I don’t make it to Ring Of Honor, I think I’m gonna quit’ and legit, twenty minutes later, I got a message from Gabe [Sapolsky] being like, ‘Hey, can you make this date?’ I was like yep, and it was my tryout and I was like sure, yeah. Lets go. Little did I know, thirteen years later I’d [still] be working there. It’s crazy.”

During this very interview, Roderick Strong talked about making the decision to sign with WWE because he felt that he was no longer learning on the independent scene. WWE has welcomed in a plethora of new stars from the independent scene and from various promotions and companies and to check out some of recent Performance Center recruits that have made their NXT in-ring debuts, click here.

If the quote in this article is used, please credit E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.