Yesterday it came out that current Ring of Honor Women’s Champion Kelly Klein wouldn’t be getting re-signed by the promotion despite being injured with a concussion and only making $20,000 per year with the company. Now, Newsweek has a great article talking to Klein and five other current and former ROH contractors about the organization.
One constant complaint is that the organization doesn’t take the health of their talent seriously. “At live events people could get hurt at any time. There have been instances where talent would get hurt but there’s no medical protocol, there’s no concussion protocol,” said one anonymous source. Despite this, both ROH COO Joe Koff and general manager Greg Gilleland “often leave shows before the end.”
The company’s lack of concussion protocol was also brought up. Klein said “nothing happened” when she got her first concussion in April 2018, and another current performer said that they were only “asked if I was OK and that’s about it” after hitting their head during a match. They also mentioned that Ring of Honor allowed one wrestler to continue to compete after suffering from obvious post-concussion symptoms. “It was very clear he had changed,” says Klein. “He was like a different person … he wasn’t taking as good care of himself, he made comments about being unhappy.” Ring Of Honor eventually took the wrestler off the road after Joey Mercury became concerned about the wrestler’s well-being.
For their part, Ring of Honor is denying their talent’s complaints. “Our concussion policy has been in place since 2016 and we have medical staff at all events,” the organization told Newsweek. “Further, many state athletic commissions have various medical requirements in place, policies to which we adhere at all times. For states where this requirement does not exist, we always have medical personnel on-site, whether it be an EMT or other medical professional. Any performer who suffers an injury is attended to immediately. Suggestions that we do not adhere to these standards are completely, and provably, false.”
As noted last night, an ROH official issued the following statement to Wrestlezone about Klein being fired:
We normally don’t discuss these matters but since it seems to have been made public – We did not fire Kelly but we did notify her that we would not be re-signing her when her current agreement expires. She is still under contract through the end of the year.
There’s a ton more at the article, so make sure to check it out.
RELATED: Kelly Klein Reportedly Fired By Ring Of Honor (Updated With ROH Response)
