Tony Khan comments on Shane Taylor‘s arrival in the new ROH and says it was Keith Lee’s idea.
Taylor made his AEW debut on the December 2 episode of AEW Rampage by confronting his former tag team partner Keith Lee. “The Baddest Champion” challenged Lee to a tag team match at ROH Final Battle, where they will respectively team up with JD Griffey and Swerve Strickland.
For Taylor, a former ROH World Television Champion and a former ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion, this bout will be a homecoming of sorts. He was featured in the previous era of ROH, but the promotion didn’t renew the talent’s contracts after it went on hiatus at the end of 2021. Khan then acquired the company in March 2022, and Final Battle will be the third show in the Khan era.
During the ROH Final Battle media conference, WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard asked Khan about Taylor’s contract status following his appearance on AEW Rampage. In response, Khan didn’t get into the specifics, but he made it clear that he’s excited to have Taylor in the mix. He described how bringing Taylor in is an example of the way he has been trying to utilize former ROH stars in the new era of the company.
“I don’t want to get into contractual status specifically, but I was excited to have him here,” Khan said. “Obviously, he’s been a great champion in Ring of Honor, and there’s a lot of great wrestlers in Ring of Honor, and we have a great roster here in AEW. Now as we’re doing more Ring of Honor events, I’ve looked to bring in people that have had success in Ring of Honor and also people that have had success all over the world and try to build a new, exciting version as we’re going into Final Battle.
“I think that’s something that I’m looking forward to seeing at Final Battle is seeing former partners colliding, and then how does that play into Keith Lee’s current partner drama. He’s got drama with his current partner in Swerve Strickland, and he’s for a former partner in Shane Taylor, who wants some payback and some resolution. Shane Taylor’s got another former partner there in JD Griffey. So it’s a family affair.”
Khan also noted that Taylor is someone who the company would consider, dating back to the beginning of the new ROH, and Lee himself suggested bringing his partner in for the ROH Final Battle match. The AEW President stated that he liked the idea.
“It should be very exciting at Final Battle to see Shane Taylor now in this new Ring of Honor,” Khan said. “To be fair, it hasn’t been that long that we’ve been doing these Ring of Honor shows. It’s only my third pay-per-view and third full Ring of Honor event, but Shane Taylor is somebody from the beginning, it’s been a good name we’d consider, and I think when the situation with Keith Lee came up, it was actually Keith Lee, when we were talking about ideas, Keith Lee brought it up to me. I thought it was a great idea, and when I think when people have good ideas like that, I wanna support them. So I thought Keith had something there.”
Khan previously commented on Taylor’s AEW debut. Check out his comments here.
