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WWE and AEW are the biggest wrestling promotions on the planet right now. The two undoubtedly have the best rosters in the world performing on their shows each and every week.
Many of the wrestlers who perform for each promotion have competed in independent wrestling company Ring of Honor. A long list of elite talent made their names during their time with RoH, and it seems to hold a special place in many performers' hearts.
RoH has recently been on hiatus, due in part to the Covid-19 pandemic. The promotion announced in late 2021 that they would be taking a sabbatical to rethink their approach moving forward. At the same time, they announced that their entire roster would be released from their contracts in the new year.
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It left a lot of question marks surrounding RoH's operations and what they had up their sleeve. They eventually announced a return with Supercard of Honor XV during WrestleMania week in Texas.
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Things seemed to be getting back on track when a blockbuster announcement was made on AEW Dynamite this past Wednesday night.
AEW President Tony Khan opened Dynamite with the announcent that he had purchased Ring of Honor. What this means for the promotion moving forward remains to be seen, but the move has the potential to change the landscape of professional wrestling.
It's so big, in fact, that it begs the question: was Vince McMahon's WWE ever interested in purchasing RoH? According to Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, they were given the opportunity and made an offer.
"Both WWE and AEW were contacted when the idea was to sell the company and AEW was the one that, obviously, made the better offer of the two and got the company." (H/T Sescoops)
The purchase of Ring of Honor by Tony Khan also means that he now has control of the full video library dating back to the promotion's inception in 2002.
Triple H reportedly pushed for WWE to purchase Ring of Honor in the past
According to Dave Meltzer, WWE Executive Paul "Triple H" Levesque was keen on purcashing Ring of Honor in 2018, but the deal never came to fruition. Meltzer said:
"When Ring of Honor was kinda hot, I think this would be, I'm gonna say 2018, the early part of the year, WWE made a pitch... Paul Levesque wanted to buy Ring of Honor. There was some smoke to that, even though Ring of Honor obviously denied it at the time. You always do. But there was something there, there were talks there, and they ended up going nowhere." (H/T ComicBook.com)
The world of professional wrestling continues to get wilder, with both AEW and WWE entering an all-out sprint as crowds began coming back last year. Who knows what might come next?
It'll be interesting to see what steps Tony Khan makes with Ring of Honor moving forward, whether it will become a part of AEW or be seen as more of a development brand. Time will tell.
What was your reaction to Tony Khan announcing that he had purchased Ring of Honor? Let us know in the comments section below!
