Tony Khan Says Nick Wayne’s Injury Caused Changes at ROH Final Battle 2025

As previously reported, reigning ROH World TV Champion Nick Wayne was sidelined with a foot injury earlier this year, and he’s still not cleared for an in-ring return. During today’s ROH Final Battle 2025 media call, ROH boss Tony Khan revealed that he originally expected Wayne to be cleared to return at this point, and his injury caused some changes to tomorrow’s event. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Tony Khan on How He Expected Nick Wayne To Be Back in Time for Final Battle

“Well, I’ll be honest, the timeline on this particular injury changed, which is the nature of injuries. You can expect when somebody recovers, but when it’s a bad injury, it can take longer. We’ve had some of those happening in AEW… Nick Wayne got hurt in the ring. It’s not his fault, and we thought he would 100 percent be back for Final Battle. I would have bet money, and I’m not allowed to bet money, but if I was allowed to bet money, I would have bet money that Nick Wayne would be back for Final Battle, and he’s not but I would have to be honest, at Death Before Dishonor, I did not know that Nick Wayne would not be back by now.”

On How He Probably Would’ve Crowned an Interim TV Champion

“I didn’t know that a few months ago that was gonna be the case, or we probably would have crowned an Interim TV Champion for when he is back. We’re at the point now where I think Nick is getting close, hopefully to coming back, and he’s a great, young wrestler. This is one of the top young wrestlers in the world. Somebody I really like working with and I’m very, very fond of and somebody that has had the mentorship of one of the all-time greats in Christian Cage, and that’s my opinion…”

On Nick Wayne Being the Future of Wrestling

“Nick Wayne, to me, has such a bright future, and everybody who’s been around him sees — and these are people I really respect a lot, whether it’s Christian Cage, Adam Copeland, Darby Allin. People that I think the world of, they’ve all praised Nick Wayne to me. Again, Adam Copeland, who’s one of the most accomplished wrestlers ever and is somebody who came into AEW with a fresh pair of eyeballs and immediately took to Nick Wayne and said, ‘This is a brilliant kid, and some of the instincts he has at his age are remarkable,’ and I’ve heard that from these great minds… All of them have said to me that Nick is the future, and I see it. I see it in Nick. He is a prodigy. He is legitimately the prodigy, and I would have, at this point, put an interim champion in position to have the title being defended if I had known that Nick would not be medically cleared by now, but there was no way to predict that. Again, that’s not Nick’s fault.”

ROH Final Battle 2025 takes place tomorrow at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. It will be broadcast live on pay-per-view.