AEW president and CEO Tony Khan is the new owner of Ring of Honor.
After hyping that he had a huge announcement to make, Khan opened Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite by revealing that he has purchased wrestling promotion ROH from Sinclair Broadcast Group, which had owned ROH since buying the company from Cary Silkin in 2011. The deal includes ROH’s video library, brand assets, intellectual property, production equipment and more.
ROH’s video library dates back to 2002 and features footage of many wrestlers who are now signed to AEW.
Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed. The purchase is being completed through an entity that is wholly-owned by Khan.
“Ring of Honor’s influence on modern professional wrestling is etched permanently in the history books, and this acquisition ensures that its legacy will be kept alive and treated with the utmost respect," Khan said in a press release.
“This deal adds thousands of hours of content to our rapidly growing library and creates new opportunities to expand our footprint on a national and global scale, while having the potential to produce new content under the ROH banner. I will immediately begin exploring opportunities to make ROH’s video library available to fans, who'll have the opportunity to witness the beginnings of the careers of some of AEW’s biggest stars.”
ROH celebrated its 20th anniversary last month. As part of the celebration, AEW’s CM Punk and Bryan Danielson were inducted as members of the inaugural ROH Hall of Fame class.
It was announced last October that ROH was going on hiatus for the first quarter of 2022 as it worked to “reimagine” the company. The promotion will make its return with Supercard of Honor being held in Garland, Texas on Friday, April 1.
The show will be headlined by Jonathan Gresham and Bandido facing off to determine an undisputed ROH world champion.
An ROH television taping is also set to take place in Philadelphia on Sunday, April 10.
“Ring of Honor has produced some of the best professional wrestlers over the past 20 years, but more importantly, it created a family. I will be forever grateful to everyone in the ROH family who has worked tirelessly for the past two decades to take ROH to levels previously unimagined,” said ROH chief operating officer Joe Koff. “Tony has the utmost appreciation and respect for Ring of Honor, and I'm truly excited to see how he continues the legacy.”
