Tony Khan defends two baffling booking decisions in Ring of Honor, a move that will likely have some ROH fans scratching their heads. Khan, who serves as AEW President and owns ROH recently spoke about several topics during his media call for the upcoming ROH Final Battle pay-per-view (PPV).

The baffling booking decisions are Samoa Joe's decision to relinquish the ROH Television Title to focus on chasing MJF's AEW World Heavyweight Championship and Tony Khan allowing MJF and Adam Cole to retain the ROH World Tag Team Championship despite Cole being unable to defend it due to his ankle injury.

Samoa Joe Relinquishes One Title to Chase Another

Joe's decision to abandon the ROH TV Title to pursue AEW's World Title led to complaints that Joe's decision devalued the ROH title. This is a serious problem as many fans see ROH as nothing more than a combination developmental territory and a place for AEW cast-offs. Khan defended the decision:

“The World TV Title has been such a consistent focus on the TV show and Samoa Joe has defended it many times. Given the nature of a TV Title, I think it will be good to have a champion who can participate consistently on ROH TV and be a fighting champion. Samoa Joe has been an incredible champion. He was the longest-reigning champion of all time and made an incredible list of defences. When you look back at all the great wrestlers Samoa Joe fought for the ROH TV Title in the over one-year reign, I think it was incredible."

H/T Inside the Ropes

According to Khan:

“To him personally, it made sense because he had accomplished everything he had ever set out to. He became the longest-reigning, most dominant champion. [He] set his sights on a new goal, which is for AEW Worlds End, which is coming up soon. We know it will be MJF versus Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship. They had an awesome match earlier this year at in New York at AEW Grand Slam, and I’m excited for the rematch at Worlds End.”

Khan's position is clear. Joe did all he could with the ROH TV Championship and wants something more. If so, why did he bother pursuing it in the first place when he could have spent that time building himself up for an AEW World Championship match. Joe was also AEW's TNT Champion at one point so why didn't he try to regain that belt? 

While Joe's motivation makes sense on a certain level, it makes ROH look like a second-rate promotion. For many fans, ROH is a second-rate promotion but what business wants to present itself that way? 

ROH's Other Baffling Booking Decision; Its Tag Team Titles

That's just one of ROH's bone-headed decisions. The second is the way it's handled the ROH World Tag Team Championship ever since Adam Cole hurt his ankle and was unable to defend it. MJF and Adam Cole won the tag titles at 27 August's All In PPV only for Cole to suffer an ankle injury that required surgery.

Rather than stripping MJF and Cole of the belts or naming interim champions, ROH decided to let MJF choose a fill-in partner. However, MJF's fill-in partner hasn't been permanent (the storyline reason being that nobody but Adam Cole can stand him). Instead, MJF has defended the title by himself () or found a substitute (as he did when he brought Samoa Joe in for Full Gear).

The move is baffling because it ignores past precedent that titles have to be defended within 30 days or vacated. In some cases, AEW (and presumably ROH) will select an interim champion. Why are MJF and Adam Cole getting special treatment? This destroys storytelling logic and also deprives fans of the chance to see the titles defended. Nonetheless, Tony Khan seems to stand by his decision:

“That’s definitely something to look at at some point. It’s something MJF said was important to him and Cole, was to try and maintain the belts to when Cole gets back. Obviously, it’s been a long road to recovery from a bad injury, but we’re all excited about having Adam Cole back in AEW as soon as he can come back. They are a great tag team for any company and certainly have been a huge part of AEW this year and a big success for us. With Adam Cole and MJF being champions, I think certainly that is something to consider,”

H/T Inside the Ropes

Adam Cole's history of injuries makes it even more important to strip him and MJF of the titles or determine an interim champion. However, WrestleLamia believes Khan feels MJF and Cole bring name recognition to the tag titles, which could increase fan interest in ROH. Whether or not this is true is unknown.

Both ROH booking decisions and Tony Khan's responses to criticism of them make no sense. What do you think? Are you satisfied with Khan's explanations?

Photo Credit: AEW