Cary Silkin On WWE Raiding ROH Stars: "WWE Was Watching Us And Cherry Picking Along The Way"

Gary Silkin was recently a guest on Talk is Jericho, where he spoke about the great matches that have happened in Ring of Honor.

“What I learned and what I saw happen right before my eyes, and you’ve seen it 1,000 times. It elevated other guys.” “It opened up space for other guys so this way the Jamie Noble’s, the Austin Aries, the Seth Rollins and the Kevin Steens/Owens and the El Generico/Sami Zayns and the Eddie Edwards, and we can go on and on. It opened up spots.”

Silkin recalled when Jim Cornette and Homicide came into the promotion.

“Both Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness were leaving. I’m like, ‘what the hell are we going to do?’ I called Cornette, who just got fired from Impact or quit, one of the two.” “I had Jim come to New York as a surprise, I also had Homicide, I had him come back to that show as a surprise. It was sort of like a magic trick. As bad it was to lose Bryan and Nigel, when they saw Cornette and the way that he was presented, when they saw Homicide and the way that he was presented, it put a band-aid on it.”

Silkin talked about providing insurance for the wrestlers.

“I think we were the only company, I think it might have been a 12 or 16, or 18 month period of time that provided insurance. It wasn’t all of them but the big names.” “We had an insurance policy in the office.”

Silkin spoke about WWE, as well.

“WWE, even more than TNA, was watching us and watching these guys and cherry-picking along the way. There’s Tyler Black, Seth Rollins really kicking ass, well, they’re calling him. It went on, and on, and on.” “Then here comes Adam Cole and here comes Kyle O’Reilly, and this one and that one.”

“The top name guys, the Seth Rollins’ were under contracts. And the rules of the contracts were you could do anything you want except go to WWE, go to TNA, and you can’t do any of the few independent PPVs that exist at the time. But, along the way a guy like, let’s just say Nigel in 2006. ‘Hey man, I got an offer to go to a tryout, WWE, they want to look at me.’ I was like, ‘go, go ahead.’” “If these guys got an opportunity, it’s not like they’d just jump and run. But if they got an opportunity, I would allow them to explore it.”

Silkin also spoke about his favorite match in ROH.

“I’ll tell you the greatest match and if you’ve never seen it, watch it. Samoa Joe against Kobashi in New York City. It was our first New York City show.” “Samoa Joe was sitting behind the curtain, not in the locker room, for like two hours. Kobashi didn’t even show up to the building. If the match started at 10:30, he showed up at like 9:45 and they just went out and they did it. It’s an absolute classic, that would be my all-time favorite match.”

Silkin departs with his final thoughts.

“Nigel McGuinness, it’s just a shame he didn’t have a longer career. Him and Bryan Danielson used to have these wars.” “There’s a classic match from Liverpool where these guys are headbutting each other like billy goats. These are two guys that can wrestle, but they’re going to do anything for the sport, and that comes to mind.”