It’s been a rather explosive past 24 hours if you’ve been following the Twitter feed of former Ring of Honor producer Joey Mercury. During the recent UK tour, Mercury departed ROH – while some reports state Mercury was fired for being under the influence (he is an admitted recovering addict and alcoholic), Mercury disputes those claims and insists he quit due to the conditions of the company. He then went on a scathing tirade that began on Friday and that continued well into Saturday. In his claims, he puts ROH General Manager Greg Gilleland on the hot seat, calling in to question a series of serious allegations in regard to ROH’s lack of policy over safety and security issues, inadequate medical personnel, and the pay scale of their women’s wrestlers.
Calls Out ROH Over Security Issues
One of the things Mercury lambasted ROH over was the lack of in-house security at events, stating that Bully Ray was put on the spot at the June event where he had to police an incident involving a fan with Velvet Sky and Angelina Love.
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190720621925281794
Calls Out ROH Over Lack of Head Injury Protocol, That Kelly Klein was Forced to Work With Concussion
Perhaps one of the most damning things that Joey Mercury revealed was that ROH’s Women of Honor Champion Kelly Klein was sent to work in South Africa on October 30 following the recent ROH tour of the UK after suffering a concussion. Mercury allegedly tried to get her help but she was still sent to South Africa for a match in Cape Town for Africa Wrestling Alliance (AWA). Following Mercury’s tirade of ROH, including statements that ROH has no head injury protocol, Klein’s husband, former ROH star and producer and current AEW producer BJ Whitmer confirmed Mercury’s info.
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190223240125399040
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190223781916225538
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190223927752216578
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190224627433426944
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190224888704974848
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190225132884824065
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190225436363636736
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190226319642103809
https://twitter.com/BJ_Whitmer/status/1190262171789340672
Calls Out ROH Over Lack of Adequate Medical Staffing
Mercury also called into question the medical staffing with ROH. One of the first stories he recounts is that it was himself and Brody King who had to reset Flip Gordon’s dislocated elbow this past June at ROH Best in the World. He also states that Jay Lethal was left poorly unattended to following his arm break while in the UK last week, while the GM ignored calls, and that Marty Scurll had to hail an uber to get Lethal attention.
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190228492748775424
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190222593216991232
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190222664910168064
Women of Honor Champion Kelly Klein’s Makes Less Than $24,000US Annually
In another of his damning expositions, Mercury revealed a personal email between Kelly Klein – with Klein’s permission – between herself and GM Greg Gilleland over Klein’s salary. In the email, Klein is asking for a raise to $24,000 annually ($2000 a month), and she is denied because according to Klein’s email conversation, they would have to pay all the women the same. It shows a glaring disparity of pay for the women in Ring of Honor.
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190695634350858240
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190696727713603594
https://twitter.com/JOEYnRetrograde/status/1190701955259215872
Other Woes
It’s no secret that Ring of Honor has had a sub-par 2019. Following their debacle at the G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden in New York over WrestleMania weekend, their IWGP Conception partner New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) since this past spring – they last worked together on the War of the Worlds tour that was previously booked prior to the G1 event in New York. NJPW has increasingly worked with other partners like Mexico’s CMLL and England’s RevPro, but ROH seems to have become an afterthought in the alliance – something that was only strengthened by NJPW’s announcement of New Japan Pro Wrestling of America (NJOA), a new US subsidiary of New Japan. With a rapid decline in live attendance in 2019, Ring of Honor is finding themselves scrambling to keep up in the new wars in the US between WWE/NXT, AEW, IMPACT Wrestling, NWA and Major League Wrestling (MLW).
WE ARE RING OF HONOR, WE ARE FAMILY. #HonorIsReal 🤝#ROHStrong pic.twitter.com/UuD742QBjk
— ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor) November 3, 2019
In a seeming response to Mercury’s accusations over the weekend, ROH posted a group shot of staff and crew on Sunday night after their weekend events declaring the were “family”, although WOH Champion Kelly Klein was absent from the photo, most likely still en route home to the US from her stint in South Africa.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.
