As noted in last night’s ROH 16th Anniversary PPV recap, Austin Aries made a surprise appearance during the live PPV from Las Vegas confronting ROH TV Champion Kenny King.
Aries, who currently holds the Impact World Championship, surprised many by showing up at the event given that Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling currently don’t have a working relationship between the two companies at this time.
PWInsider.com reports that while Aries doesn’t actual remain under an exclusive contract with Anthem and Impact, Aries reportedly notified Impact officials about the appearance in advance and that Impact was fully supportive of him appearing on the PPV.
This is clearly a call by the new Anthem/Impact regime consisting of Ed Nordhold, Scott D’Amore and Don Callis in what was described as an “open door policy” to work with any wrestling company they can according to a new report by Mike Johnson.
ROH did not specifically mention the Impact World Championship during Aries’ appearance, with commentators Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana playing up that they weren’t even sure Aries was allowed to appear on the show and his intentions on wanting to “collect” more championships by challenging Kenny King for the ROH Television Championship.