Tony Khan On FTR Not Yet Being Booked For ROH Final Battle, Why They Haven’t Been Used More

Tony Khan says he’s wanted to use FTR a lot more in 2022, and explained why they haven’t been used as much as fans want on TV over the past year. During today’s media scrum promoting ROH Final Battle, Khan was asked about why the team does not yet have a match set for the PPV despite being ROH World Tag Team Champions. You can check out the highlights below:

On FTR not yet having a match announced for Final Battle: “It’s a great question, thank you. I should have led off or talked more about that sooner. So I have a great great appreciation for FTR. A lot of the card shuffling that has happened this year — through zero fault of their own, they have been involved in a number of matches and stories that got thrown off because of the various times where there have been people not around. And in particular you know there’s been even injuries that have stopped that. And I think there was no secret, I talked at length about at the Forum when CM Punk broke his foot. It really affected months of story for FTR. And things we changed, but they weren’t the same as what they were going to be. And it’s hard to replace that part of it when you have a big name like [Punk], and especially the connection that we had with CM Punk and FTR. So I think a lot of things, more than one time this year, have changed for them. But they’ve rolled with the punches and been great.”

On his relationship with the team: “This whole thing that I talked about earlier, in particular stuff with my mom, it’s been a really hard year. And those guys have been really supportive, and they’ve also had challenges in their own personal lives, but also they wrestle so hard. And they want to be on TV, and they want to wrestle every week. And I think I want to use them, and the fans want to see them. And you know, with them being all over the world, there’s been times where I’ve had stuff for them that’s had to change because of either a commitment to another organization.”

On the team’s success in and out of AEW: “I have to say with FTR, what they’ve done this year is pretty remarkable. They have been world champions already in three different companies: Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and AAA. They’ve defended those belts all over the world while also competing at a high level in AEW, and Dax has also been moonlighting as a great singles wrestler for us. And they want to do more, they want to do much more. And people want to see them do more. I think it’s great.”

On their match for the PPV: “So you asked me about Final Battle. Well, I would say that FTR is, fair to say they were the MVPs of these first two Ring of Honor PPVs. Where are they, where is their match? Well, I think it’s very fair to let them get through this match tonight [against the Acclaimed on Dynamite]. Let’s see where they end up coming out of this match, and let’s see uh where we end up with the best possible match we can put on Final Battle, given the circumstances.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit AEW with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.