wrestling / News

Kenny King Says Ring of Honor Welcomed Him Back With Open Arms, Discusses Turning Down Offer to Go to NXT in 2016

January 6, 2018 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris

Solo Wrestling recently interviewed Kenny King last month. Below are some highlights.

Kenny King on if he’s heard from WWE about a possible return to the company after Tough Enough: “I had a tryout in 2007, but I’ve been under contract for a major wrestling company since 2008. We’ve been in contact. I was talking with the WWE office about going to NXT [in December of 2016]. My whole situation is based around I have joint custody of my daughter. So moving to Florida to NXT was a problem. That’s why I decided to sign with ROH last year. WWE is everybody’s goal when they start, but I think the goal of every professional wrestler is to be able to pay your own bills and work as a wrestler no matter what company you work with”.

Kenny King on how he felt about the Beat Down Clan getting dissolved after the problems with Hernandez and Lucha Underground: “It was very hard breaking for me because I loved the idea and I thought we were on the way to do our very best work. For the way it happened, over nothing, over poor business. One night we film like six episodes where we were the focal point and then we just disappeared. There was a lot of that that sucked. After it was gone, I just didn’t think the direction they have for me and the direction I wanted to go didn’t seem to go in the same direction. Credit to John Gaburick and Dixie [Carter], we had a very amicable split. We are still friends. It was just business.”

Kenny King on if it was hard to return to Ring of Honor after all the problems in 2012: “There was never any heat. There was never any heat with someone that matters inside the company. There was heat with one guy that isn’t even allowed to enter the locker room. I didn’t leave the company in an unprofessional way, If I did, Joe Koff wouldn’t welcome me back with open arms. He’s always welcomed me back. There was never any heat or lack of respect, the issue was because of the heat with [Jim] Cornette and a lot of people believed whatever BS that he was saying. Other than that I’ve never had a bad relationship with the ROH office.”