ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe spoke with Fightful on a number of topics, including being in the company in 2002 during its early days.
Briscoe said, “At the time, there was really one horse in the race, it was WWE. Everything else was the indies. Ring of Honor felt special when it started because it was just an indie show, but it ended up being the All Star Game of the indies. They are flying in people from across the country like Mike Modest, Chris Daniels is coming in from California for an indie show in Philly. Ring of Honor is one of the first things that felt special in that time period. CZW, my mindset was, when ECW was absorbed by WWE, the spirit of ECW in the northeast there was Ring of Honor, the work rate like (ECW having) Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero and those guys, all the way up to RVD, Jerry Lynn, Tajiri, and Super Crazy. That branch of the (ECW) spirit went to Ring of Honor. The hardcore extreme branch went to CZW. That’s how I viewed that transition in wrestling history.”
You can check out Briscoe’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)