During an appearance on David Penzer’s podcast, Jay Lethal commented on his loyalty to Ring of Honor if he’s still interested in a run with WWE:
“I was Ring of Honor all the way and here’s why; maybe a little hard for some people to believe. Everyone at AEW, everyone that I heard at the time so we’re talking before it was formed. At the time, everyone I heard was going, they’re all my friends and I just wanna be with my friends, but I do have some friends who weren’t going so it wasn’t that everyone was going and here’s the big kicker for me, I can’t tell you how much loyalty means to me. It’s something that I pride myself on, my dad prides himself on it as well and a lot of my wrestling decisions I run past him and we talk about it and you can’t — loyalty shouldn’t be something that can be purchased and the reason Ring of Honor has my loyalty is because from a very young age, when I got into Ring of Honor and only about a year-and-a-half to two years, they were putting me in the ring with guys like CM Punk, guys like Samoa Joe, teaming with Samoa Joe. From a very early age, they really rolled out the red carpet for me and then when I left, [Ring of Honor] came back with their arms wide open to me. I’ve never really had to want for anything. Everything that has ever been offered to me storyline-wise, I’ve never even wanted to shake a stick at because it seems that everything the company has done for me has propelled me even higher and higher to be the face of the company, they gave me the World Title and the Television Title at the same time and they didn’t make me take one off. Now, the crazy part about that is, think about… I’d have to defend both belts in two separate matches [at] the same time was unprecedented. In fact, after I did it, the WWE did a very similar thing with one of the best wrestlers I’ve ever seen, Seth Rollins. So… they’ve always, always gone above and beyond for me so I love that place. They’ve made me the face of the company and there’s something to be said to that, and I’m just extremely loyal to them and that was an extremely big decision on why I did not leave. I love Ring of Honor. If I had my way, I’d stay there forever, put a big Ring of Honor tattoo on my back because I love the company, I love the people there, pretty much everybody in the locker room and here’s the thing that weighs heavy on me and my dad as well, as far as the wrestling business goes… it’s hard to get into that top spot as an African-American wrestler. It’s hard to be portrayed as just a good wrestler. You don’t need this weird or funky gimmick just to appeal to a certain group of people in order to get your character over. In Ring of Honor, I’ve always been able to portray — and IMPACT didn’t do that to me either but I’m just saying where I am now and the spot that they’ve given me, that top spot, it’s not a spot that’s awarded to many African-Americans so that also weighs heavily on me too. So I’ve developed a strong love and loyalty to a company that has gone above and beyond for me so I can’t see myself leaving anytime soon.”
“Now I will say this: It would be cool, while I’m still wrestling, it would be cool at some point to say that I have gotten to work with or for in some capacity the company that helped shape my love for professional wrestling and that company just happens to be the WWF or WWE. So if it happens, sure it’d be cool but yeah, I would not feel slighted or sad or mad or upset or I wouldn’t feel like I missed something or didn’t get to accomplish something if it did not happen.” (quotes courtesy of PostWrestling.com)
