Tony Khan Buys Ring of Honour: What it Could Mean

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March 2nd 2022 the wrestling world show another seismic shift. Tony Khan the founder, co-owner, president, and CEO of the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced on AEW's weekly flagship show Dynamite that he bought the rights to Ring of Honour after the issues with the company for the past while. With Tony Khan now operating both AEW & ROH I wanted to take a moment to have a look at what this can mean for the future of the ROH brand. 

Above all else and I imagine the key interest was that of the tape library. 20 years worth of content which not only contains some of the best matches ever seen in professional wrestling but a lot of key moments for in the careers of many AEW roster members. From the original Summer of Punk to the evolution of the Young Bucks so many talents from AEW have passed through ROH so not only does this tape library make sense to hold for the content but the history for the roster they have. Even with ROH as a whole one of the key events as far as AEW is they now have All In for their tape library. Many rightfully see this event as the main precursor to AEW as a whole it makes prefect sense to acquire this tape library. Not just for content but it makes AEW more valuable to streaming service offers. They now have 20+ years of content to offer service which is a big help for getting AEW a big payday when it comes to moving their product to streaming service. 

But past streaming we also get to the show itself. I think here is the best chance of a real developmental. I have said privately that if we take Daniel Garcia for example for his long term development into what AEW want is a run on a tv show in ROH as for example Pure Champion in storylines or winning on Dark & Dark Elevation each week. While wrestling is great for improving wrestlers in ring and we've seen that Dark & Dark Evolution but as far as the whole package goes having storylines to invest into should benefit in the long run. Imagine giving Lee Moriarty or Lee Johnson a ROH TV title run or any of the 4 killers a ROH World Title run it would really give them a boost to work on their whole game. 

Even away from streaming and wrestling the possibilities really astound me. I was sitting back and thinking that much like how WWE uses WCW & ECW arenas and titles that AEW can do this with ROH. How cool would it be if AEW had a career mode you can develop and go through ROH that would be so cool for any wrestling fan instead of making up a random show to start a career mode with. Beyond that you can have toys & shirts it opens a lot more merch opportunities. Even from a video package standpoint let's say if Jeff Hardy joins and we get another Young Bucks vs. Hardy Boys match you have their matches in ROH right there to use. Cole & O'Reilly eventually feud you have them as a team and as rivals all the way to their Final Battle match in a sense not just in ring can AEW benefit from this but as a full presentation of a product.

To round up, when looking at this for ROH it's a day of interest and sadness. ROH is effectively a company within a company now as a developmental as sorts. I would argue in a post WCW & ECW world that ROH was one of the most crucial companies you look at people all around the wrestling world have spent time in ROH. You look at Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn in WWE both signing big deals and both have legacies in ROH. However, on positive it will be the first time that ROH has a lot of interest in it after being a stagnant company since AEW founded, WWE signed a lot of their talents and Bully Ray started booking regardless ROH is a brand that people are talking about now. One thing is for sure this will send ripple effects throughout wrestling worldwide. 

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