Tony Khan says Samoa Joe relinquishing the ROH World Television Championship made sense, for a number of reasons.
Samoa Joe won the ROH World Television Championship on the April 13, 2022, episode of AEW Dynamite. He held the title for 574 days before he relinquished the gold on the November 8, 2023, episode of AEW Dynamite. Joe stated that he was shifting his focus to the AEW World Championship.
On the ROH Final Battle media call, WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard asked Tony Khan about the decision to vacate the championship and whether there was a discussion to have Samoa Joe keep the title or lose it in a match.
“Yeah, I do think that’s something to consider,” Tony Khan said. “The World TV Title has been such a consistent focus on the TV show, and Samoa Joe has defended it many times. Given the nature of a TV Title, I think it will be good to have a champion that can participate consistently on ROH TV and be a fighting champion. Samoa Joe has been such an incredible champion. He was the longest-reigning champion of all time and made an incredible list of defenses. When you look back at all the great wrestlers Samoa Joe fought for the ROH TV Title in the over one-year reign, I think it was incredible.
“I also think now, with AEW, Samoa Joe’s become a huge focus of the AEW promotional considerations. Definitely for Samoa Joe, I do think it made a lot of sense for him to be a focus because he’s such a huge star for AEW. There’s a lot of commercial benefits to having a huge star of Samoa Joe’s stature on AEW television every week. I felt like as big as Samoa Joe’s presence on AEW has become, it’d become challenging for him to defend the championship. So relinquishing it at that point I think did make some sense.”
Tony Khan: Samoa Joe Did What He Set Out To Do As ROH TV Champion
Tony Khan then stated that it made sense for Joe personally to relinquish the title. He noted that Joe did everything he set out to do, as he became the longest-reigning champion.
“To him personally, it made sense because he had accomplished everything he had ever set out to,” Tony Khan said. “He became the longest-reigning, most dominant champion. [He] set his sights on a new goal, which is for AEW Worlds End. We know it will be MJF versus Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship. They had an awesome match earlier this year at AEW Grand Slam, and I’m excited for the rematch.”
ROH will crown a new ROH World Television Champion at Final Battle on December 15. WrestleZone will have coverage of the show as it airs.
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