Tony Deppen is at the forefront of this week’s special “Violence vs. Pure” edition of ROH Wrestling.
As a representative of Violence Unlimited, he’ll face Rhett Titus of The Foundation. Ironically, before Deppen joined forces with his allies in Violence Unlimited, he was more associated with the “pure” side of wrestling in ROH. In fact, he competed in the Pure Tournament in 2020, but somewhere along the way, he changed his philosophy about wrestling.
In a recent interview with WrestleZone, Deppen explained how pure wrestling has become “boring” to him, so he found value in exciting “car crash” wrestling instead.
“I’ll be honest, at first, when the Pure Tournament got announced almost two years ago, when it was supposed to be in Columbus and Pittsburgh, I was supposed to be part of it, and at the time, nobody was really doing that type of style,” said Deppen. “Like you had Jon [Gresham], Tracy [Williams], I was actually into it a lot, like on the indies, I would do that a lot. But after they announced the tournament, and they actually did the whole tournament, we had such an influx of people just like, ‘I wanna be a pure wrestler, I wanna be a pure wrestler.’ And it got to the point where it was boring. And that’s what it comes down to.”
Deppen went on to explain that, in his heart, The Foundation’s “pure” brand of wrestling isn’t his style; instead, he wants to see exciting bouts. He also shared his opinion that the endgame of Gresham’s mission to “purify” everything in ROH would produce a program that isn’t entertaining.
“I don’t want to sit there and watch somebody grapple for 20 minutes and barely do anything,” said Deppen. “There’s no excitement in that for me. Like I’m over that. That’s why I jumped with Violence Unlimited. I like fast-paced wrestling, I like car-crash wrestling. It’s fun, it’s exciting, especially when nobody else is really doing it on a show. Like you have a show, like Jon wants to make every single thing in Ring of Honor pure? Sorry, but I don’t want to watch a Ring of Honor show full of pure wrestling, that’s for sure, because I’ll instantly change the channel. I wanna see people get dropped on their heads, I wanna see people throw things at each other, put each other through tables, or something. I want some excitement in my wrestling, and that’s what Violence Unlimited brings, like we want excitement.”
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To clarify, Deppen emphasized that he, like his stablemates in Violence Unlimited, are skilled in-ring competitors, but they simply prefer a different style than the one The Foundation is dedicated to showcasing.
“Like can we wrestle? Yeah,” said Deppen. “Chris is is very well experienced in [taekwondo], and then I’ve wrestled some of the best pure wrestlers in the world, [so] I can hang with them. It’s just, at the end of the day, we want to be different and we want to make a point.”
As for his match with Titus, Deppen previewed the bout by noting that he’s previously shared the ring with “The Professional.” He then pointed to his impressive accomplishments during his brief career in ROH, whereas Titus, who has been in the company for many years now, has taken a longer time to accumulate his respective accolades. Deppen promised that he’s just getting started, and when it’s all said and done, he’ll have a much more remarkable career in the company compared to Titus.
“I wrestled Rhett for the first time a couple years ago, so I already knew what I was getting into with him,” said Deppen. “But like you said, he’s been there for so long, and you know he’s done a lot, but I’ve been there for a year and a half, and I’ve already done a lot to begin with.
“And it’s just the beginning for me. Like he’s been there for so long and he had to do all that stuff, like I have a lot more time in Ring of Honor left, and I’ve already done a lot. So I’m gonna do way more than he’s ever done.”
Want more Ring Of Honor features? Check out our recent interview with Jay Lethal, who said he’d have no regrets if he retired tomorrow, at this link. You can also watch our interview with Shane Taylor, who talks about his world title aspirations, at this link.
