PCO Discusses His Negotiations With ROH, Describes Why Talks With WWE Broke Down
After dominating the indie scene for over two years, 51-year-old PCO made his return to a major promotion by inking a contract with Ring of Honor in December.
It was a long process for the two sides agreeing to a deal and PCO says ROH first contacted him 4-5 months ago. Nothing came out of that initial conversation and he was then contacted again, and again nothing happened. Finally, before he made a trip to Germany they contacted him again and the conversations were much more serious.
"They contacted me and were real serious," PCO said on our WINCLY podcast. "The phone [conversations] back-and-forth continued through my trip in Germany. As soon as I got back from Germany, I could tell it was serious business.
"We sat down together and looked at different possibilities?I could have made other decisions, but thought me and ROH was a perfect fit."
PCO is no rookie to the world of pro wrestling so contract discussions with him were likely much different than the ones ROH has with other newcomers. PCO discussed the conditions he wanted in his Ring of Honor contract.
"Being able to be part of the creative side of the business ? not just being told what to do?," PCO stated. "They are really open about the creative sides of the guys? It's not like they are going to throw something at you that you don't feel comfortable doing."
PCO then talked about since he's done his character so long on the indie scene, he said that ROH knew what they were getting when he signed with them.
There were other suitors for PCO's services including WWE. PCO says he met with WWE in Los Angeles but the conversation never went anywhere.
"My take's been if you're really interested in me, then you will ask me for something," PCO said of WWE's passive interest. "Like, 'PCO, would did you think of this?' But the conversations stayed on the surface and did not go deeper. I didn't press any buttons to make it go deeper and if I had to stay another year on the indie scene, then I would have stayed another year.
"I wanted to keep on working my character and getting over and waiting to see who would show the most interest. I had talks with all of the companies?but at the end of the day I decided I wanted to be with ROH."
PCO was working for Major League Wrestling up until making his ROH debut. He discussed how MLW took his decision to leave for ROH.
"I think they understood that and took it alright," said PCO. "It was a hard blow for them but they know the name of the game of being offered a contract vs. being paid on a per-night deal.
"They would have liked me to do the Thursday show, but without having my visa, there was no way I could take that chance."
PCO said he would have liked to make it to that MLW show and he's always been someone who tries to be as professional as possible. But he couldn't take the risk without his visa which resulted in a money dispute over a plane ticket he didn't use.
"I don't know if they felt that they lost a plane ticket, which I doubt, because when you're a big company like that you've gotta have insurance," PCO said of MLW. "But if they can prove it to me and there's a few dollars involved, I'll make sure [to reimburse]. For the rest, there was nothing I could do."
To hear PCO's full interview, including his thoughts on returning to MSG, please listen via the embedded audio player below. You can also subscribe to Wrestling Inc Audio on iTunes to get our latest podcasts as soon as they are released. Starting this week, we will have new episodes of the WINCLY on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.