Marty Scurll had the chance to jump to AEW when the company was still getting off the ground, but he ultimately decided to stay put with Ring of Honor. Years later, Scurll says the decision came down to an opportunity he simply didn’t think wrestlers his age normally get.
Speaking with Pro Wrestling Culture, Scurll confirmed that both AEW and Ring of Honor made him offers in 2019. Money mattered, but ROH had another card to play — the chance for Scurll to essentially become the company’s head booker.
“Yeah, there was a lot in it because I had offers from both, from both Ring of Honor and AEW, and, you know, obviously a big decision to which way to go. Ultimately, for me, I chose Ring of Honor, and that was, well, I mean, there was a lot of parts to it.
“Obviously, money was a big part of it, but the biggest part for me was Ring of Honor offered me essentially the head booker position for Ring of Honor. And that to me was a really big deal because, as much as I love wrestling, it had always been one of my dreams to work in creative in wrestling.”
Scurll knew even then that plenty of people would probably question turning down AEW. For him, though, becoming a booker for a major wrestling promotion at roughly 30 years old was the kind of opportunity that might never come around again.
“I love, like I said, I love being creative. I love storytelling, and to me, I mean, some people might look back on that and think, ‘Oh, that’s crazy. Like, why would you choose Ring of Honor over AEW?’
“And I would say this, like, how many wrestlers ever around the age of 30 or so, however old I was at the time, are offered the position of a booker for a major, major wrestling organization, right? Like, how many wrestlers have signed with AEW? There’s probably been four or five hundred, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, right?”
It also gave Scurll an opportunity to start thinking about life beyond simply being the guy inside the ring. He had already spent years wrestling and saw ROH as his chance to learn what happened on the other side of the camera.
“And it’s, you know, at the time Ring of Honor was arguably in the top two or three, or I guess when AEW came along, at the very least top five, top four companies in the world. And then to get the chance to be able to book there and branch into something else, I’d already been wrestling for a long time, and getting the opportunity to work on the other side, behind the camera, in creative, in the office, that was just a really, really big deal to me.
“So, yeah, that’s why I ended up staying with Ring of Honor.”
Looking back, Scurll knows choosing ROH over AEW might seem wild considering how differently the two companies developed afterwards. But his reasoning at the time was pretty simple — AEW could offer him another place to wrestle, while ROH was offering him the chance to help run the show.
Would you have made the same decision if you were in Marty Scurll’s position in 2019? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
