WWE News: Major Update On WWE Possibly Buying Ring f Honor Wrestling
There has been a lot of news regarding a possible purchase of Ring of Honor Wrestling by WWE, now there is even more talk that could change everything. For some time, ROH has had trouble getting a chance to grow due to the fact that they are considered independent. Eventually, Sinclair Broadcasting decided to buy ROH when they were never really in the pro-wrestling business prior to that. In fact, most thought this was a weird purchase for them when it happened.
Most thought that eventually someone would come along and buy ROH from them, as it would allow them to dump off the company and save the coin they would spend. ROH has improved in what it brings in per year, but they do not have a national or international television deal. ROH only shows in the United States and on Sinclair owned stations, which means they are not even available in every state and town.
The main issue is that they are seemingly stubborn about selling, as they have been willing to listen to offers for some time now yet they have avoided selling. Then it seemed a miracle happened. According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, ROH had reportedly been in talks with the WWE about a possible sale. The idea would be that WWE would be buying ROH to use them on the WWE Network on a regular basis and include their vast library to the network as well.
This could also bring over a lot of major ROH names like Jay Lethal and the Young Bucks, who have had interest in the past from WWE and other brands. It seemed perfect, then we heard that yet again Sinclair claimed that this was false and they were not going to sell. ROH COO Joe Koff spoke about the possible purchase in an interview with the Baltimore Sun, where he said the following regarding the story about WWE possibly buying ROH.
“It was not a story. It was not a story when it came out. I think people want to make a story out of nothing. I’m very open in conversations with very many different wrestling promotions. And I think sometimes because I don’t share a lot of stuff, we’re very private about what we do. I think it raises speculation. I think this thing with the WWE really started because we were in conversations about content for Kevin Owens’ DVD. There was a lot of back and forth between the two companies. I think that was the seed that drove that story.”
Joe Koff may not be saying this just to push rumors off either, as WWE is preparing a new Kevin Owens DVD and have spoken to ROH in the past about taking in footage to use for their DVDs on former ROH stars like CM Punk. It would not be shocking to see them continue to talk with ROH about the footage for years to come considering all of the former ROH stars they now have in the WWE, either on the main roster or the WWE NXT brand.
Now, it appears that according to The Wrestling Observer, talk of WWE buying ROH is now considered dead. However, it was noted that there is still talk involving WWE adding old ROH content to the WWE Network. With this noted, it says we still will end up seeing good ROH content come to the network and it’ll show off some of the top stars of WWE before they were stars.
People like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Austin Aries, AJ Styles, and others have worked extensively with ROH Wrestling. Some went on to join WWE and have been there since, while others would join TNA before eventually joining WWE. At the end of the day, having footage on the WWE Network of ROH stars is still quite valuable, so even independent wrestling fans may still have a reason to buy up the WWE Network as much as the people who just enjoy the WWE.
[Featured Image by WWE]
