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PWTorch has learned that Ring of Honor has signed former ROH World Champion Jay Lethal to a new two year exclusive contract.
Radican’s Analysis: This is a big signing for ROH, as Lethal is an integral part of the company. Lethal has been pushed strongly as a babyface during the second half of 2016 and it is expected he will feud with Cody Rhodes during the early part of 2017. He picked up a big win over Tetsuya Naito at ROH’s All Star Extravaganza VIII PPV in September. NJPW is very careful with how they book Naito, so that was a huge win for Lethal. WWE was said to have some level of interest in Lethal, but the money WWE has been offering ROH free agents has said to have been low. It remains to be seen what Adam Cole will do, as he is expected to finish up his ROH commitments in April. Sources have given me an indication that it is likely Cole will head to WWE at that point, but nothing is set in stone as of yet.
Shame to read this. There’s nothing left in ROH for Lethal to do, and really no one he hasn’t faced. He needs to jump to a new territory for a while, because what’s he going to do in ROH for 2 more years?
exactly. what… win ANOTHER ROH title. for what? of course WWE is going to try and low-ball ROH talent because it is the responsibility for the talent to get themselves over, thus, raising their profile and earning more money the higher up the chain they go. WWE isn’t going to hand out unbelievable contracts to these guys. they’re basically going to have to earn the big money. and never mind the merch money is tons better than ROH. a guy like lethal would do fine in WWE, even w/ an initial low-ball WWE deal.