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TK O’Ryan Defends ROH, Says Company Helped Him Through a Recent Concussion Injury

November 23, 2019 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris

– Ring of Honor Wrestling (ROH) is currently under fire due to allegations against the company, General Manager Greg Gilleland and CEO Joe Koff over the company’s handling of Kelly Klein after she suffered a concussion injury and also fired her from the company saying she breached her contract by allowing Joey Mercury to release e-mails and messages detailing some of her recent issues. A recent article by Newseek details more of the allegations against ROH and the company’s executive management, along with Klein asking for a $4,000 annual raise, which ROH rejected. There are also allegations that ROH does not have a formal concussion policy in place when talents are injured or formal medical personnel on hand at every event. ROH does have one defender who has publicly come forward in wrestler TK O’Ryan. He spoke to Fightful and shared his thoughts on the situation and defended ROH.

Initially, TK O’Ryan posted a series of tweets this week in support of ROH. He also claimed he was not one of the anonymous sources in the Newsweek article, calling it a “hatchet piece against my beloved company.” He also said the story was a “BS article.”

When a fan suggested O’Ryan posted his tweets to kiss up to ROH parent company Sinclair Broadcasting, O’Ryan responded, “No one asked me to do this. I’m sorry that believing in my company and not following the hive mind makes me a bad person in your narrow eyes.”

After an initial disagreement with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp over Twitter, Sapp and Fightful reached out to O’Ryan to speak more at length on his his remarks.

O’Ryan told Fightful, “You just have to understand the frustration. I mean ROH was around before The Elite, before AJ, before anybody. People now want to act like nearly 20 years of progressing wrestling to the point it is at now suddenly means nothing?”

O’Ryan noted that he suffered a concussion injury himself several months ago, and he has not wrestled since he sustained the injury. Additionally, O’Ryan revealed that he brought forth the concussion to management who then informed him he would not return to in-ring action until he received formal medical clearance. O’Ryan stated the following:

“I was concussed a few months ago in a match. When I woke up on Monday morning I felt really in rough shape. I made one phone call and then was sidelined as per my request because I knew I needed some time. I knew I was concussed as soon as the match was over. Nothing egregious happened it was just an accident. When I brought it up that I was hurt I got an immediate response. Ring of Honor has been wonderful in checking in on me and making sure that I was ok. I’m not anti-Kelly or anti-Joey (Mercury). I am pro-RoH. Thats an important distinction. No one really needs to go after her. A person can stand by what they believe in without condemning someone else. I feel like any adult can understand that. Experiences may vary. I will leave it at that.”

TK O’Ryan also addressed a Facebook post he recently shared reinforcing his loyalty to ROH a few weeks back when Joey Mercury started voicing his public criticisms of the company. At that time, Mercury accused ROH of having an unsafe working environment. You can read more on that HERE. O’Ryan continued on his Facebook post from some weeks back:

“That was not directed at anyone in particular and I put that out before the real nasty twitter stuff started happening. That picture and my comment was 100% directed at Ring of Honor fans that were jumping ship because of perceived negativity. To me, the strength of RoH is the insane fan base that we have. And to see people suddenly turn on the company over a few PRIVATE texts and emails that were leaked? Unacceptable to me. The truth is that wrestlers make an actual living through that company these days. No person or company is perfect, but that doesn’t mean that the place needs to be torn down with pitchforks by people that have no idea how many lives are being hurt by the mob mentality.”

TK O’Ryan went on to say that he considers ROH one big family and that it hurts the company “as a family” when a wrestler gets hurt or moves on for other career opportunities. You can also see O’Ryan’s initial tweets he shared on Twitter yesterday before reaching out to Fightful below.

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Kelly Klein, ROH, TK O'Ryan, Jeffrey Harris

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