ROH GM Greg Gilleland on the possibility of partnering with AEW, whether 2019 is a rebuilding year, attempts to re-sign Cody and The Young Bucks, whether Jeff Cobb can become the face of the company

By Jason Powell, Prowrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

CBS Sports Local interview with ROH GM Greg Gilleland
Host: Chuck Carroll
Full interview available at CBSlocal.com

On whether 2019 is a rebuilding year for ROH: I don’t think I would classify it as a rebuilding year. I think, if you look at the past five years, each year has been a growth year. I don’t think 2019 is any different. All those guys leaving had been something that was rumored about and talked about, either behind the scenes or even by some media outlets, for a significant amount of time. So, I wouldn’t say that it caught us by surprise. If you look at some of our new signings, you can see that we had been planning in case of such a thing.

On attempts to re-sign Cody, The Young Bucks and others who left for AEW: We definitely made aggressive attempts, more aggressive than we’ve had with anybody in the past. Sometimes people have a dream, and you really can’t negotiate against dreams. That’s what these guys are doing. … I know Tony Kahn is involved. That probably brings significant dollars to those, and I heard some figures. That’s probably part of the dream.

On whether ROH would be open to partnering with AEW: Everything definitely ended amicably. We’ve talked to [The Young Bucks] since. Right now, there’s nothing to explore. There are three events, potentially, and there’s the rumored potential of the TV deal. We would have to know what we’re exploring, to answer that.

On whether Jeff Cobb can become the face of ROH: He’s a World Television Champion right now for a reason… He definitely has that opportunity to grow into the face of the company. I think everybody does. I think the sky’s the limit. That’s why, if you look over the years and you talk about all these former Ring of Honor stars that have moved on and how the brand keeps continuing to grow, and how we get new stars or we create new stars, or we bring in great performers and they become stars, I don’t think that chain stops. Right now, Jeff Cobb is definitely poised to be at the top of that pile.

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