Ex-Talent Says ROH Has Turned ‘Corporate’ + Prince Devitt Speaks

— BJ Whitmer recently spoke with the Do Your Job Wrestling Hour about his time in Ring of Honor and more. Check out the highlights:

On breaking into Ring Of Honor: “They had been maybe 2 shows in and I was working in Cincinnati for Les Thatcher and his Heartland Wrestling Association which at that time was a WWE developmental territory and Spanky (Brian Kendrick) happened to come in and he wasn’t under contract But he came in to work some HWA shows and I had some matches with Spanky, and I had heard of Ring Of Honor being started and he was like look I’m gonna send a match that we had to Gabe and recommend you to him. It took a few months before I actually got booked…Came in in January of 2003 and had one of the best 4 corner survival matches they had had up to that point with me, Paul London, Homicide, and Colt Cabana and was pretty much offered a job backstage after the match was over”

On the main difference between ROH in the mid 2000s and ROH now: “It has a little bit more of a corporate feel to it because they are corporate owned now where before it was just owned by Cary Silkin and it was a small shop kind of thing you know 4 or 5 people In the office where now you go and there are people from each station in each market which also helps out because people in those individual markets are not just in the office that Ring Of Honor has they are also are out selling sponsorships…”

On not making the jump to TNA or WWE: “This is probably my own fault or maybe my own stupidity but I never went out of my way to send stuff to them, I figured if they want me they will come find me which is probably the wrong approach to take instead of sending them a packet with a DVD of some matches and some 8x10s to kind of put me in front of their face instead of them coming to find me”

— Prince Devitt recently spoke with Sports Vibe about a potential jump to WWE, working with US stars in New Japan Pro Wrestling and more. CHeck out the highlights:

On being happy in NJPW instead of WWE: “You can never say never, but at the moment I am very happy where I am in NJPW. Obviously someday in the future I will want a new challenge, but for the time being I’m with NJPW and that’s where I’m going to be for a while.”

On who he loved watching growing up: “I was a massive fan of a number of British wrestlers including Rollerball Rocco and Johnny Saint. When I first saw the WWE compared to World of Sport it was a totally new thing and I was a big fan of guys like Shawn Michaels, Rick Rude, Koko B Ware and all of these over the top characters. At such a young age you can’t help but be drawn in by these colourful characters.”

On making his wrestling debut in 2000: “It was a very surreal experience, when i first started going to Hammerlock it was really just a hobby as all I wanted to do was some pro wrestling training. I never thought I would have a match but when I did it was like a dream come true, I still remember it clearly. It was in an eight-man tag match with guys who I had been training with and it was just a very odd experience.”

On the differences between British and Japanese wrestling: “People always say they are two completely different styles, with the Japanese style being more hard hitting whilst the British style is more technical. To me they appear to be quite similar. Since coming across to NJPW I haven’t really done anything different to when I was wrestling back over in the UK. I’m sure to fans watching there are lots of differences but to me wrestling is wrestling and it is all the same.”

On NJPW compared to WWE and TNA: “As an overall company NJPW blows TNA out of the water, obviously as an international market at the moment they can’t compete with the WWE, but I think that the in ring product blows any other promotion in the world away.”

On working with MVP and Giant Bernard/Tensai: “Both MVP and Giant Bernard have come into NJPW from a different neck of the woods from me. They are able to give lots of advice on different aspects of pro wrestling than the Japanese wrestlers can. You have to look at it from the point that they are now out of their depth and they are in a different country and have to adapt to the the different situations that they find themselves in. Giant Bernard did that incredibly well and has now returned to the WWE. Shelton Benjamin is making the move over to NJPW and Low Ki is over here as well and you can learn something from everyone so I just keep my ears open and listen to everyone’s advice.”

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