Tony Khan Was Hoping Eddie Kingston Could Fly Back From G1 To Participate At ROH Death Before Dishonor

Tony Khan had to make a lot of changes to ROH Death Before Dishonor. 

On the July 6 episode of ROH TV, Mark Biscoe vs. Claudio Castagnoli for the ROH World Title was announced for ROH Death Before Dishonor. On July 13, Tony Khan announced that Mark Briscoe was unable to compete due to a knee injury. 

On a media call ahead of AEW Blood & Guts and ROH Death Before Dishonor, Tony explained how the main event had to change. He said the issues when putting together the main event for ROH Death Before Dishonor started when Eddie Kingston was announced for the NJPW G1 Climax, which Tony agreed to do. 

“I was hoping maybe even some possibility that Eddie could fly back to participate in Death Before Dishonor and then go back to Japan, and I certainly would have accommodated the travel if that was possible. It wasn’t possible. Mark Briscoe, I had slotted for something different on the card. It turned out that also was not viable for another reason. There have been so many things that came up and it can be like a domino effect. It’s very challenging. With Mark Briscoe’s injury, it was very challenging because Mark had been dealing with injuries for a while and I think some of us almost took it for granted because Mark is such a fighter and amazing person with an amazing spirit. People sympathize with Mark for many reasons, and he’s such a compelling wrestling character and always has been. I felt Mark could be an emotional hook for this pay-per-view in a lot of ways and it was a pivot. With Eddie going to Japan, I thought it would be cool with Eddie having a big moment winning the STRONG Championship and he passed on some wisdom to Mark Briscoe. I knew he was dealing with some injuries, but honestly, he had been dealing with them for a long time, and I think the pain had become too much to manage and it had become very challenging for him. To be honest, he hadn’t told many people about that, including our doctors. The people who knew really well knew he was hurting. I think Mark was no selling it. I know he was no selling the doctors on how much pain he was in. That’s why they were surprised that this had become a lifestyle challenge for him. When he came to me and said, ‘It’s worse than I was letting on. I’m not sure I can do this.’ That meant changing everything,” he said.

Tony noted that they shot weeks of promos for Mark Briscoe vs. Claudio Castagnoli and that Claudio has been on a training sabbatical. 

“If Mark comes to me and says he needs something, I’m going to do it, no matter what it is. If he needs time to heal up and needs me to pivot the pay-per-view, I’m going to do that for him, without questions. I’ll do it for pretty much anybody, but I’ll do it with a smile for Mark Briscoe. It meant changing pretty much everything again,” he said.

Tony said they had to push back some announcements, including Willow Nightingale vs. Athena for the ROH Women’s Title because they pushed back the original match due to Willow not being cleared originally for their bout on July 8.  

Khan compared the challenges of putting together ROH Death Before Dishonor to the challenges of putting together AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2022. 

Fans can check out the lineup for ROH Death Before Dishonor by clicking here. 

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