AEW Acquires Ring of Honor
March 3, 2022 8:29 AM Subscribe
Last night on AEW Dynamite, All Elite Wrestling CEO Tony Khan announced that he has acquired the indy promotion "Ring of Honor" from former owners Sinclair Broadcasting.
Although many members of AEW's roster have had stints with RoH, including CM Punk and Cody Rhodes, who recently parted ways with AEW, the acquisition doesn't actually get AEW any more talent...all of RoH's performers were released from their contracts when the promotion went on hiatus last year. However, it does get Khan an extensive tape library, which may be a key part of his plans for bringing AEW to a streaming platform.
Although many members of AEW's roster have had stints with RoH, including CM Punk and Cody Rhodes, who recently parted ways with AEW, the acquisition doesn't actually get AEW any more talent...all of RoH's performers were released from their contracts when the promotion went on hiatus last year. However, it does get Khan an extensive tape library, which may be a key part of his plans for bringing AEW to a streaming platform.
I am very glad Sinclair is out of the wrestling business.
posted by Tesseractive at 9:26 AM on March 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Tesseractive at 9:26 AM on March 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
Agreed, I've had to avoid ROH every time they came to my city because of the Sinclair connection.
Worth noting that the original "All In" pay-per-view which can generally be called the origin of AEW was part of Ring of Honor's tape library, so it's now been restored to AEW's possession and opens the path for them to create another multiple promotion event in 2022 if they want.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:31 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Worth noting that the original "All In" pay-per-view which can generally be called the origin of AEW was part of Ring of Honor's tape library, so it's now been restored to AEW's possession and opens the path for them to create another multiple promotion event in 2022 if they want.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:31 AM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
I would love it if the rumored HBO Max deal happens so I can stop paying the ridiculous rate for Hulu’s cable package that I only ever use to watch AEW.
Since I already pay for a proxy, I just pretend I'm in Panama a couple of times per week and watch through fite.tv. This isn't a money-saving thing strictly; the feed stays full screen during commercials instead of PiP, and I get to keep the commentary as well.
posted by parliboy at 9:37 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
Since I already pay for a proxy, I just pretend I'm in Panama a couple of times per week and watch through fite.tv. This isn't a money-saving thing strictly; the feed stays full screen during commercials instead of PiP, and I get to keep the commentary as well.
posted by parliboy at 9:37 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
I would love it if the rumored HBO Max deal happens so I can stop paying the ridiculous rate for Hulu’s cable package that I only ever use to watch AEW.
Me too, so I can watch AEW at all, since I'm not paying $60/mo just for that, plus an extra $50 or so for each PPV. Their backwards late-90s WCW business model actively prevents me from watching.
I would also accept making the AEW Plus streaming service available to US customers. I had Peacock solely for NXT until they ruined it with 2.0.
posted by frogstar42 at 10:00 AM on March 3, 2022
Me too, so I can watch AEW at all, since I'm not paying $60/mo just for that, plus an extra $50 or so for each PPV. Their backwards late-90s WCW business model actively prevents me from watching.
I would also accept making the AEW Plus streaming service available to US customers. I had Peacock solely for NXT until they ruined it with 2.0.
posted by frogstar42 at 10:00 AM on March 3, 2022
It seems pretty clear this is mostly about the tape library, but with AEW having signed so, so many people (and likely to sign more), I wouldn’t mind seeing them bring back RoH as an NXT-like minor league/training program. Get it out there, touring, have some of the names they’ve signed but not found space for, build it into a space for highlighting up and coming wrestlers.
Basically I want NXT back, and that’s never going to happen because it’s been murdered out of callousness. So, uh, maybe remake it with RoH?
posted by Ghidorah at 2:26 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Basically I want NXT back, and that’s never going to happen because it’s been murdered out of callousness. So, uh, maybe remake it with RoH?
posted by Ghidorah at 2:26 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Get it out there, touring, have some of the names they’ve signed but not found space for
The hitch in that theory is that AEW already has Dark and Dark Elevation. Putting on house shows without any online/TV audience is a money losing proposition, and RoH could never consistently draw more than 1000 people (for non-PPV shows) even at peak. Dave Meltzer talked about that earlier today.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 3:43 PM on March 3, 2022
The hitch in that theory is that AEW already has Dark and Dark Elevation. Putting on house shows without any online/TV audience is a money losing proposition, and RoH could never consistently draw more than 1000 people (for non-PPV shows) even at peak. Dave Meltzer talked about that earlier today.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 3:43 PM on March 3, 2022
Basically I want NXT back, and that’s never going to happen because it’s been murdered out of callousness. So, uh, maybe remake it with RoH?
Yup dot gif
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:55 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yup dot gif
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:55 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
RoH could never consistently draw more than 1000 people (for non-PPV shows) even at peak.
Damn. Looking at the outsized effect RoH had on wrestling overall, and the careers that came out of it, that’s honestly shocking.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:08 PM on March 3, 2022
Damn. Looking at the outsized effect RoH had on wrestling overall, and the careers that came out of it, that’s honestly shocking.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:08 PM on March 3, 2022
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Billionaires should not exist but I have to admit watching Tony Khan play out his “what if a smart mark had limitless resources?“ experiment has been fun for me the same way watching Dave Filoni play with Star Wars has been fun for me.
It feels good when you know the person at the helm is an enthusiastic fan of the product.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:23 AM on March 3, 2022 [8 favorites]