It’s not an exaggeration to say that Ring of Honor hasn’t been having the best season. This fall has been rough on them publicity-wise. After former WWE Tag Team champion and producer Joey Mercury dropped a dime on the company’s backstage practices following his October release, a reigning champion in ROH would chime in with support on social media.
The Lack of Medical Treatment for Kelly Klein
The tipping point for Mercury’s departure was a head injury suffered by ROH Women of Honor champion Kelly Klein in late October and the lack of medical treatment she received. On that same UK tour, Ring of Honor star Jay Lethal broke his arm which piled onto Mercury’s frustrations.
As we know, head injuries of any kind and any degree is a serious thing in wrestling. A career or a life can be ended off one head injury or they pile up over the years. It’s gotten to the point where fans have become uncomfortable seeing unprotected chair shots and head bumps.
With Kelly Klein’s situation, it wasn’t the first time she suffered another one back in April 2018. In both cases, there was no medical treatment. She recently spoke to Newsweek about this and said that there was no doctor or medical personnel on hand after the incident.
It was at that moment that she became aware that the company didn’t really have as Mercury calls it, “a standards and practices protocol.” Basically, what should be done given a particular situation. She was told by COO Joe Koff that they had procedures in place for these situations. Klein said that the wrestlers weren’t made aware of them, they weren’t implemented—so they might as well not exist.
Currently, Klein is dealing with trauma from that October injury and was released by the company this month. Prior to her release, she asked for a raise which would’ve been a minor one of $4,000 from the $20,000 she was earning.
Joey Mercury and Ring of Honor’s Practices
Starting from Plum Mariko’s head trauma-related death in August 1997 to the Benoit tragedy in June 2007, there’s been enough incidents where it companies should just have medical professionals on-site. When the biggest, most financially successful wrestling company in the world makes changes to try and protect its wrestlers, everyone who isn’t already doing it should follow suit.
This looks even worse given that Ring of Honor is backed by a $3 billion-plus company. Having medical personnel at arenas should come at the cost of front pocket money for them.
Joey Mercury pushed for treatment for Klein as well as safety in ROH and it has been an issue for some time. He first made his appearance with the company in 2002 as a wrestler and would return in early 2008 following a strong tag team run in WWE.
After another stint in WWE as a producer and in-ring semi-activity, he joined Ring of Honor in 2008 as a trainer and producer.
He’s been through it all and seen it all when it comes to injury, addiction, highs, and lows in wrestling. When safety issues arose in the company, he put General Manager Greg Gillelland to task. This is roughly a year’s worth of issues we’re talking and it has resulted in Mercury posting personal correspondence and issues with Gillelland and ROH.
Mercury also dropped information about booking decisions. A burner account retaliated on behalf of Sinclair and ROH by dropping texts and emails meant to paint Mercury unfavorably.
This Isn’t New For The Company
However, this isn’t the first time Gillelland was mentioned in wrestling for issues. Jim Cornette had issues with him—yes, “Greg the Office Boy”—during his stint backstage with the company. Now, Cornette has issues with many people and there’s a view that he’s just uncooperative. As the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
With Cornette and Greg, the root of things was running the company financially. Greg was cutting costs for Sinclair while Cornette was basically establishing deals for Ring of Honor’s expansion. He also had plans for ROH to have its own arena to run out of and house its offices.
This was basically what worked for Ohio Valley Wrestling. Cornette’s approach included pricing tickets appropriately for areas, local sponsorship, and protecting towns. Things promoters are expected to do unhindered. In defense of Gillelland, he did what you’re expected to do if you’re put in by a parent company: cut costs to save money.
As a result, ROH had more money during this period but the backstage and infrastructure were compromised. Wrestlers were overworked by some back-to-back shows on the same day, a few markets didn’t pull the numbers they should’ve, DVD prices went up but the quality was decent at best, and there were issues with iPPV early on.
A Chance For Ring of Honor to Learn From It
To bring this back to Lethal and Klein, Steve Corino was injured in November 2012 during a compromised show. It was held in an ice rink and drew 300 fans—less than ROH should’ve been drawing by this point. Cornette had to cover the costs for the production crew and Corino’s medical treatment. Why? Well, Sinclair’s offices had closed for the day and no one could be contacted.
That was seven years ago. It should’ve been a learning experience for the company.
ROH says that Klein’s $20,000 non-exclusive deal is a big deal for the women’s division. As a matter of fact, it was noted that it was more than most men in the company are offered if they aren’t exclusive.
Mercury and Klein got a lot of support for coming out but there’s been support for the company such as former two-time ROH TV Champion, Silas Young speaking in defense of the company. He was even specific about the nature of the contracts with his being exclusive to the company.
Kelly Klein was released via email, according to her husband, former ROH Tag champion and current AEW producer, BJ Whitmer. She will be taking the rest of 2019 out to recoup. A major reason is that she shared information about her interactions with execs with Joey Mercury. ROH said that they wouldn’t renew her contract in December and there’s a six-month no-compete clause on it as well.
