Tony Khan told Kaun and Toa Liona about them being a tandem in February 2022.
It has now been four months since AEW President Tony Khan made the announcement that he acquired Ring of Honor. The first ROH show under the Tony Khan regime was Supercard of Honor and it featured the arrival of Tully Blanchard Enterprises (Brian Cage, Kaun & Toa Liona).
As of several weeks ago, ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham is a part of Tully Blanchard Enterprises.
Kaun discussed the pairing of himself and Toa during his interview with the ‘JOFO in the RING’. Tony Khan pulled both Kaun and Liona aside in February 2022 and told them about the plans he had in store for them and at Supercard of Honor, they were able to meet Tully in person.
It all came about, we met Tony Khan back in February. He pulled me and Toa [Liona] into this room, kind of laid down the plan and then [ROH] Supercard of Honor a few months later and we met Tully Blanchard, kind of talked about his plan, what he wanted for T.B.E. [Tully Blanchard Enterprises]. We were going to be his first two clients, saw a ton of potential in us because clearly, look at us and then from there, just kind of off to the races. It’s been a long time coming. Finally I debut on [AEW] Rampage and you know, just kind of put the world on notice.
Prior to that, Kaun had been working matches on AEW’s Dark and Dark: Elevation shows. He stated that after his match with Adam Cole at the Universal Studios taping in January 2022, he was flown out to Washington D.C. where AEW held Dynamite and Rampage and it was there that he “put some pen to paper”.
The mentality of I’m here to f*cking bust my ass, I’m here to prove myself. I know I look like a Goddamn star and I don’t care who I’m wrestling on these shows [AEW Dark tapings], I’m not gonna pull myself back and get in this pecking order. No, I’m f*cking here to take your Goddamn job, or at least get signed. I’m not here to do these damn tapings and just lose six times. That’s not happening to me so, I definitely went out there and proved myself to the point of Tony Khan talked to me right after the Adam Cole match like, ‘Holy sh*t.’ I don’t think he was expecting me to swing for the fences and hit Adam as hard as I did so, definitely proved a point.
I actually talked to Tony twice. I talked to him after that Dark match with Adam and then they brought me out to D.C. to kind of put some pen to paper.
T.B.E.’s Jonathan Gresham successfully defeated Lee Moriarty to retain the ROH World Title on the 7/15 episode of Rampage. Gresham’s next challenger comes in the form of Claudio Castagnoli at Death Before Dishonor.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the JOFO in the RING WRESTLING Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
