How The Butcher Was Nearly A Champion In Ring Of Honor

For all but a few months of AEW's existence, The Butcher and the Blade have been mainstays within the promotion, serving as the brutes of the tag team division and often working as hired guns for the likes of MJF, Eddie Kingston, the Andrade Family Office, and most recently Kip Sabian. Yet, for a moment, the duo was very close to never showing up in AEW.

In an appearance on "Josh Nason's Punch-Out," The Butcher revealed that he and The Blade were very close to signing a deal with Ring of Honor in 2019. Not only were they offered deals, but they were set to debut in the promotion in a big way before circumstances led to them ultimately reconsidering the move.

"We had gotten offers from ROH to come in and win the trios belts with Tyler Bateman," Butcher said. "And that was two weeks before we got the AEW offer. It was supposed to be us three vs. Brody King, Marty Scurll, and the Frankenstein guy, PCO. We were supposed to come in, beat those guys, win the 6-Man titles. ROH had sent us contract offers. 

"But then the shows that they had offered us had gotten canceled. And I was like, 'This is bad, man.' I remember telling Jess, 'This is an omen, man. We've got to run from this. This is a bad sign.' And we did, we stuck to our guns, didn't sign anything. And I remember being at the gym ... and getting a call from Cody, asking if we wanted to come in and do AEW. It blew my mind."

The duo eventually joined AEW and debuted on "AEW Dynamite" in November 2019.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Josh Nason's Punch-Out" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription