PCO Gives His Thoughts On Joey Mercury Speaking Out Against ROH

It was previously reported that Joey Mercury left ROH and afterwards began to take shots at the company in an attempt to expose its business practices. Mercury claimed there was no concussion protocol in ROH and no medical personnel backstage. In an interview with CBS Sports, PCO spoke about Mercury speaking out against the company and his thoughts on it. Here are highlights:

On what it means to reinvent oneself as a talent: “For me, it’s not trying to get booked or trying to live off the past, so that’s what it means. It’s creating something new, something unique, and something that’s going to appeal to the wrestling fans. … It’s like you’re not running on your glory days or your fast days. You are actually fresh and new on the market. Then you’re acting as a rookie, and you’re not acting as someone who was there to sell everybody. No, that’s not the way to do it, you shouldn’t do it like this. …You should be the one trying to learn from that new generation, because the business has evolved, and you have to be able to adapt with changes, which is the main thing.”

On getting called by ROH: “Marty [Scurll] was the one who was getting in touch during the year where I was the poster boy for indy wrestling and was on the middle of the poster for every promotion in the United States and Germany and England and Canada… He reached out a few times to me, and every other promotion had reached out too. And then from Marty, it was the executives at ROH who reached out. … Ring Of Honor was the most professional company, where they said, “We’ll fly you in, and we want to talk to you.” It wasn’t just a text or over the phone. It was really serious. They flew me in to Baltimore, and they had me visit their headquarters… and showed me the dojo where they have up-and-coming superstars working there. They have a bunch of rings and a room for the interviews.

And being able to talk about creative, what was coming up for PCO in that next year, if I was going to sign there. And when they said Villain Enterprises, I said, “I know Marty. I met him in 2007. I knew he was a good guy and he was talented. Brody King had worked against him many times during the year. I knew he was super talented. I knew the chemistry between the three of us would be good.” So that’s all I needed to know… I went home for a couple of days, and after that we called each other and we made the deal. And then the rest is history.

I’ve never been treated by a company the way that Ring of Honor is treating me as far as top airlines, best hotels, and they pay for the rental cars. In the WWE I had to pay for my room and pay for my rental car and things like that. And they’ve been super professional. So that’s why I just decided I was going to give it a go, and I never regretted it.”

On Joey Mercury’s claims against ROH: “I just think it is a sad story. I thought that person had so much to give to the business. So valuable, great mind. But I think it was a tough time of his life or something. Most, I would say, if not the whole company was kind of shocked. We were shocked to hear things like that. I don’t want any beef with anybody. I can only talk for myself.

I did a dive one night where usually we have two rows of mat on the outside of the ring. Instead of diving on the guy, I dive on this space and I hit the cement floor and I hit my head hard and get 17 stitches in my eye. The ref wants me to stop the match. I said, “No, I’m finishing the match. I’m not getting out of there.” But everybody was pulling on me to get out of there. But being PCO, there was no way. I never got out of the match. And so I was going to finish that match no matter what. And it’s part of my life, and it’s part of my character, as it’s part of who I am.

So I finished the match, and as soon as I got on the other side (there were EMTs)… There is always two, three guys that they have a minimum of knowledge about health and care and things like that. They called me to the hospital right away and put stuff on my eyes to stop the bleeding. Everything was so professional. Then I had two people from the dojo that brought me to the hospital and stayed with me the whole time. I was totally conscious. They did the stitches, they always wanted to make sure I was all fine. They put me through a CAT scan, which costs tons of money.

They never charged me for one thing. They sent an agent after the show was done. They took care of everything, signed the papers, brought me back to the hotel, made sure I was okay. [Whenever I get] a little banged up or something, I always get a phone call. “Are you good? Are you okay?” And the next day, “Thanks for what you’ve done.” They are nothing but a first-class organization.

So I don’t know why he said those things. I don’t know if it might’ve been some frustration because things weren’t going the way that that person was hoping. Was it a personal vendetta? I don’t know what it was. I can’t talk for that guy. And I love him to death, but from my side, it has been nothing but first-class from Ring of Honor. From my signing to every event and to everything that they do.”