Tony Khan Gives Updates On Future Plans For ROH
Tony Khan, the owner of AEW, now also owns Ring of Honor, which he purchased back in March and closed the deal on earlier this month. On today's media call to promote AEW Double or Nothing this weekend, Khan revealed the thought process behind his decision to buy the promotion.
"I just jumped on it, honestly," Khan said. "It was a unique opportunity. I was on the phone, and I heard that if I paid a certain price, I could buy Ring of Honor then and there. I didn't want to complicate it or make it any more difficult than it was going to be. I just said 'I'll do it' right then and there. It's easy for me to do that. I guess the way I looked at it at the time was, the price was right, the opportunity was right, and I was looking out for AEW. I always am thinking of AEW."
Despite this, Khan wanted to make it clear that AEW and ROH are two separate brands.
"It makes sense for Ring of Honor to be its own brand and stand on its own feet," Khan said. "I'm not saying Ring of Honor is a subsidiary of AEW or secondary in any way. And I think that's one of the things that made [Supercard of Honor] a really compelling event. You didn't feel like it was a developmental show or a secondary show. You got great matches on the card, it was a very well-received card and one of the best-reviewed shows of the year, critically. And commercially, it was a massive success.
"Is Ring of Honor as big as AEW right now? No. Is it selling as many PPVs? No. But that was incredible growth for Ring of Honor, a company that has over 20 years of history now. And they sold a ton of PPVs over the years, and that was, of all the shows they've promoted, one of the biggest Ring of Honor shows. It was the biggest show by far in years. When we get all the final numbers in, it's going to be probably 20 times or more than the recent Ring of Honor PPVs. So we've been able to rebuild and get Ring of Honor, I think, to a stronger place it's been in many years."
Later, Wrestling Inc.'s own Nick Hausman asked Khan what the plans were for Ring of Honor in regards to the brand running shows full-time.
"We're still working on that," Khan said. "It's an exciting time in media. It's big for AEW that we've gotten some very kind interest, and that we're being hosted in Los Angeles by the biggest content creators in the world, Warner Bros. Discovery, our great media partner. That is a great conversation that I've had with them, and will continue having with them, about what could potentially be a future for Ring of Honor, in conjunction with things we can do to expand the AEW audience, expand the ways we deliver AEW content to our fans, in addition to all the awesome shows we have now.
"I would love to get Ring of Honor weekly TV series, or streaming series, wherever it ends up going, very soon. And it's something I'm working on, and I think it would be awesome for the fans, in addition to the great shows they get from AEW. There are a lot of Ring of Honor fans around the world that can't wait until the TV comes back. And I am hopeful we'll have Ring of Honor TV and continue the great calendar of Ring of Honor PPV events. Supercard of Honor was a big success for us, and I'd like to bring Ring of Honor back to PPV as well and follow up on it. I don't know when the TV will start back up on a weekly basis, but that is my goal, to get it going again. It's something I'm working on."