Ring of Honor play-by-play commentator Ian Riccaboni was a recent guest on the Wrestling Inc. Daily to talk all things pro-wrestling. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
The ROH/NJPW relationship:
The relationship is stronger than I think most people realize. If you’re not involved in the day-to-day, I don’t think you would realize – based on some of the pervasive thought online – that the relationships are strong with ROH and New Japan,” stated Riccaboni. “Everyone’s friends and rooting for each other. Whether it’s Omega and Ibushi – AEW and New Japan – obviously great friends there. I’m great friends with BJ Whitmer, Adam Page, Colt Cabana – guys in AEW. There’s this prevailing hope that everybody succeeds and I think we’re all rooting for each other.
On the company making the right decision to go dark during the pandemic:
It was going to get interesting. The great thing is with what ROH did, a lot of us are chomping at the bit and salivating to get back. But we know the right thing to do is social distance and stay at home. We know that all we did was pause and when things get going again, we’re not shooting our best shot in front of an empty crowd necessarily. We’re gonna be firing away when the time is right.
When he thinks they can have crowds again:
That’s really tough to say. What was communicated to us in Vegas on the day we were supposed to have the 18th Anniversary was the hope was that we’d come back for The Best in the World in June,” said Riccaboni. “We haven’t heard anything one way or the other. I don’t know if the restrictions will be lifted to have a live crowd in time. I do know there’s been some creative thoughts about how we might be able to present wrestling in different ways.
Commends the governor of Maryland for doing a great job:
The Briscoes have a chicken farm and Vincent has a compound. I’ll just say those things. I know ROH is very in tune and in touch with the governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, who’s been doing a great job. He’s been on the front lines saying we’re not open for business until we get the testing and the curve is flattened. I know that is guiding a lot of the decisions because The Best in the World would be in Baltimore on those dates. But I don’t think there’s any expectation or any decisions yet. I personally don’t think right this second is a good time for anybody to be doing much of anything. That’s a personal opinion and thankfully ROH has shared that.
Check out the full interview below. (H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)