Dalton Castle Contemplated Leaving ROH

Dalton Castle made a name for himself during his time in Ring Of Honor, where he even won the ROH World Championship. Needless to say, he remained one of the mainstays of the company in the last ten years. That said, it appears Castle considered leaving ROH a couple of years ago.

Dalton Castle quickly established himself as a dependable star in ROH before the pandemic began. However, things changed when ROH announced they would go on a hiatus back in 2021.

While speaking on AEW Unrestricted, Dalton Castle revealed that before ROH was scooped up by Tony Khan, it was on hiatus for three months. This left him and other wrestlers uncertain about their future. Castle added that he considered leaving ROH back in January 2021.

Dalton Castle eventually had a moment of clarity during that time, realizing how lucky he was to be a part of ROH and how much he managed to accomplish there.

“It was a wild night, emotionally. Right before that, I don’t know how many people know the real story of Ring of Honor, we closed the doors like three months before Tony bought it. Nine to ten months before that, I had gone through this weird crossroads where I was going to leave Ring of Honor. A last second decision, I just realized just how incredibly lucky I was to be part of ROH and how happy I was there and how I figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I decided, ‘No, I’m not leaving. I’m going to stay right here.’ That was January 2021 when I made that realization.

It was the best eight months of my life. There was this weird clarity, I was the happiest I’ve ever been, I feel like my work improved because I finally figured out what to focus on. I feel like I had some of the best eight months of wrestling in my life. I was weird because there wasn’t an audience, we were still doing closed arena shows. Come October, we had this meeting, ‘All that happiness you found. It’s over. We’re closing the doors. Everyone is fired. Get out!’ I was still in a good mood because I had that moment of clarity and I knew what I loved and what was important, but I didn’t have a job anymore, so it was this weird balance between emotions.

March, Tony bought Ring of Honor, and instead of this shock and confusion, it was optimism. I realized, ‘Finally, someone who loves pro wrestling is in charge of this. I think we’re going to be okay.’ I kept thinking positively about it and then I got invited to be part of the first show. It was amazing. I have so much gratitude towards Tony and everyone who has helped out to revive and keep Ring of Honor alive. It’s a wild time and I’m happy about it.”

Dalton Castle and The Boys won the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Titles at ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022. They also wrestled The Blackpool Combat Club on the March 29 episode of AEW Dynamite. It is certain that Castle is glad he decided to stick around in ROH and that’s all that matters now.