At last night’s ROH 16th Anniversary Show, former ROH World Champion Austin Aries came out to the stage with all of his current titles, including the Impact World Championship. Aries was not advertised for the show, but challenged Kenny King for his ROH World TV Championship, a title Aries has yet to win.
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According to PWInsider, Impact and ROH are not currently working together in any capacity. Aries is not signed under a contract with Impact, so he would be able to appear anywhere under his own discretion.
The two companies have a bit of a rough past from when ROH had a PPV cancelled from DirectTV, thanks to a cease and desist from Impact. This was due to ROH booking The Hardys when Impact still claimed ownership over their trademarks and not wanting their characters on ROH’s PPV.
PWInsider also reported that Aries did make Impact aware of last night’s appearance and the company was said to be supportive of the decision. Impact’s new management is looking at more of an open door policy to work with any promotions they can and saw it as a positive appearance. Impact also gave Aries the go ahead to show the title on ROH’s PPV.
Aries retained the Impact World Championship against Johnny Impact on this week’s episode of Impact: Crossroads.
