To help promote Ring of Honor’s upcoming Women of Honor Championship tournament, multi Knockouts Champion Madison Rayne recently spoke with Channel Guide to discuss her return to ROH, thoughts on being a “free agent” and attending a recent WWE tryout. Highlights of the interview below.
On her return to Ring of Honor: “The company gave me the chance to test myself against the best women’s wrestlers at the time. Daizee Haize, Sara Del Rey, Serena Deeb. Here I was this 21-year-old terrified girl, who probably had no business being in a match with those caliber athletes at the time. I have always been grateful to Ring of Honor. To have it come full circle really is exciting. There is no other place in my career at the moment I would rather be.”
On the Women’s Revolution: “The Knockouts division was a launching point for women’s wrestling all those years ago. I know right now there is a lot of contention of, ‘Well, the Knockouts started the Women’s Revolution.’ At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. The Knockouts in 2007 did their thing and probably inspired many who are doing it now in WWE and Ring of Honor and Impact. I hate getting caught up into who did it and who did it better. I think for many years it has been growing and getting bigger and better. It makes me feel good that I was part of this first generation and did it at such a young age. I think I was 21 when I had my first tryout match at TNA. I’ve done it for so long. I’m in that really good spot involved heavily back then and involved into it now. It’s fun.”
On the pro and cons of being a “free agent”: “I think in 2018 it’s fun and exciting to be able to control your own narrative and go where you want and do what you want. It’s also very gratifying to have a company who wants to invest in you and wants to put their branding on you and bring you on board. I don’t really know what I would prefer at this point. I want to have a contract and have that be home. Then I start doing all these things that make it exciting for me to be a ‘free agent.’ I don’t know what the right thing is. I’m just going to do what works best for me and my family and for my life. Right now, getting to go everywhere and do everything and wrestle so many different women. I was with Impact for so long and have this group of women who are now lifelong friends and I’ve traveled the world with, but now I’m getting to branch out more and wrestle different people and different crowds.”
On her WWE tryout: “I’ve been doing this for a really long time. If nothing else, it was so gratifying for me to be there. It’s so rewarding for me because I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my career. I was signed with TNA three years after I started. So, I have never been an extra for WWE or had a tryout. I’ve never done anything with them prior to last October. To finally be there and see it all and see how professionally it’s run and what a well-oiled machine it is, and wrestle in a WWE ring. It was amazing. The burning question since then has been, ‘Well, what now? ‘I don’t know. Will I go back? I don’t know. Right now, I’m humbled to have had the opportunity. I’m equally as humbled to be asked and received back to Ring of Honor last November when I re-debuted there.”
Rayne also discusses being a part of Impact Wrestling’s creative team, her marriage to Josh Matthews and the current WOH division.
You can read the full interview here
What did you think of the interview? Are you excited to see Madison Rayne return to Ring of Honor? Who else would you like to see compete in the Women of Honor division? Let us know in the comments below!
