Cary Silkin recaps a conversation he had with Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens.
WWE is one week out from the first night of their two-day WrestleMania 38 event. The match card is rounding out and on night one, Kevin Owens is scheduled to host the K.O Show and Stone Cold Steve Austin is appearing to confront Owens.
For multiple weeks, Seth Rollins has been attempting to find his way onto the WrestleMania card by trying to beat the likes of Owens and AJ Styles for their spots. Rollins has not been confirmed for either night, but former Ring of Honor owner Cary Silkin recapped a conversation he had with both Rollins and Kevin Owens during an interview with Ringsiders Wrestling. Their in-person conversation took place on March 6th in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Silkin shared that Rollins told him who he’s wrestling at WrestleMania.
That was the exact question I asked Kevin [Owens]. It wasn’t official yet [Owens and Steve Austin’s WrestleMania segment] and I said, ‘Would that excite you to wrestle him? Or you know, that’d be like wow?’ He’s like, ‘Of course’. So, that was cool and I’m not gonna tell you who Tyler, Colby, Seth Rollins told me he’s gonna wrestle. It’s sort of a surprise so I’m not going to give it away here.
Silkin did ask Rollins and Owens about All Elite Wrestling. Owens opted to re-sign with WWE in December 2021 as his contract was set to expire the following January. Cary said they are well taken care of where they are and do not expect to see either in AEW anytime soon.
I also asked them — I can talk about this. I also asked them [Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens] about going to AEW and they’re — let’s leave it at this: They’re well taken care of and that’s not even a thought. Now Kevin was saying, you know, Bryan [Danielson], who’s — you can’t count other people’s money as my father used to say. But, he most likely is pretty set and his attitude was just, you know, he loves the wrestling. Not that those guys don’t, but for him it was like, you know, and he’s getting paid good. Tyler and Kevin are completely happy where they are. So that’s that. We’re not gonna be seeing them in AEW anytime soon, put it that way.
As a part of the 2022 ROH Hall of Fame, Silkin was honored with the inaugural Legacy Award. He spoke about his induction and detailed how he was informed about it. Silkin said he had a hunch when he received a call to come to Baltimore, Maryland but he was still surprised by the revelation.
He added that he would not have been against the first class being wrestlers only and shared his thoughts about his fellow inductees.
Well, I had a hunch something was happening because Delirious called me and asked me if I could come down to Baltimore, that they were doing the final episode of the Hall of Fame thing, so they’re going to do, you know, the final one and you know, Briscoes, [Samoa] Joe, [CM] Punk, Bryan [Danielson] and, ‘Oh Cary, we’d like to have you there because you can throw in some insight on — this was all your era.’ So I’m not known as the greatest promo man. I might be able to tell a good story, but I’m not known for my promo work. So I’m thinking they’re probably gonna do this but it’s nice, fine. So I went down to Baltimore the night before and I went to the Dojo where they film this and Ian [Riccaboni] was there, Delirious was there and this really good production guy who did a lot the last year or two with Ring of Honor. You’d see these things, it was this guy, really good guy, Zane Decker. Anyway, so, they kept it a surprise and it was in the back of my mind but it sort of fell out of the back. A lot of stuff falls out of the back of my mind. So I just sort of forgot about it and we were doing it and it was only like five wrap-arounds, so when we got to the last one with Ian and he had the extra box which I didn’t even really notice, it was very nice, it was very cool. So yeah, I made believe I didn’t know about it at all which I didn’t so, it was cool so, to be in that class, I would have been completely happy — I’m being very sincere — it [would] have been fine, just have the wrestlers, you know? And if I would have been voting, I would have picked The Briscoes first no matter what and then as far as the other three, it’s very difficult but I would have to pick Bryan due to his longevity in my era. I mean I saw him literally from day one, from when he left in ‘09 and this is not to take anything away from Joe or Punk because those two guys in late ‘04 into ‘05 when we were having those troubles, they were a huge part of getting some major attention on Ring of Honor and I was talking about this the other day with somebody, at that same time, we’re trying to get this stench away from us, right? So, after about six, eight months, the Joe-Punk thing, that sort of started quick but we also had Mick Foley for like seven or eight shows and simultaneously, we had Ricky Steamboat. I don’t know if you saw the whole thing. They were doing this angle, it was great and there’s Steam — there we are in Dayton, Ohio, a dingy building. You know, we’re behind the curtain, that’s the dressing room, right? A f*cking curtain, you’ve seen it, and there’s Foley and Steamboat in chairs talking to each other and Gabe Sapolsky — they’re like behind us. Gabe Sapolsky comes and taps [me], he goes, ‘Cary, look. Look over there.’ So, between the Punk and Joe — so my point is that Punk and Joe are integral, integral. That feud and having Foley and Steamboat at that time really helped us propel us to whatever the hell else we did, because we lost Punk and Joe quickly.
Ring of Honor is now owned by AEW’s Tony Khan and the first event under Khan’s ownership is Supercard of Honor on April 1st. Here is the current lineup for that show:
- Undisputed ROH World Championship — Winner Takes All: Jonathan Gresham (c) vs. Bandido (c)
- ROH World Tag Team Championships: The Briscoes (Mark & Jay Briscoe) (c) vs. FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler)
- Swerve Strickland vs. Alex Zayne
- Jay Lethal vs. Lee Moriarty (w/ Matt Sydal)
- ROH Pure Championship: Josh Woods (c) vs. Wheeler YUTA
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Ringsiders Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
