Source: https://itrwrestling.com/news/tony-khan-admits-hes-open-to-divisive-ring-of-honor-rebranding/
At a recent ROH PPV Media thing, Tony Khan considered the idea of rebranding the ROH brand that he bought in 2022 and is generally considered an afterthought by anyone but the most hardcore of AEW fans to rebrand the show as AEW Ring Of Honor. The idea being to bring the two promotions closer together… which is what most people who stopped watching AEW DO NOT WANT.
Tony Khan bought Ring of Honor in 2022… and to say that he has done a great job with the promotion would be a bit of a fib. It exists, it provides a platform for wrestlers to work and earn a payday, and there’s occasionally good stuff happening on that show – Athena, I’m told, is a highlight and I’m happy for her that she’s getting the limelight on a show nobody watches. In fact, it’s quite sad that the most ROH stuff I’ve seen was on AEW television and that’s usually so that they can lose to the bigger AEW stars, even the champions.
One of my reasons for no longer watching AEW – and there are plenty of reasons, let me tell you – is that there’s more than a bit too much focus on ROH that could’ve been used to spotlight some of the other AEW talent that got signed, showed up on TV for a few weeks, and are now sitting on the sidelines. In fact, I could tell you that AEW really started falling off the rails the instant they started interjecting more ROH stuff on the program and the ROH stuff is often the worst part of the show. It certainly doesn’t help matters that ROH brings about another set of belts on top of AEW’s already inflated collection of championships that nobody could possibly care about… compared to when the promotion first started when they only had a handful of titles that were treated with some reverence.
On top of all of that, however, the idea to rebrand Ring Of Honor as AEW Ring Of Honor in hopes of getting more people interested? Does anyone remember when WWE revived ECW in 2006, where they teased you with a couple ECW tribute shows on PPV and then when the weekly series came along, they tried to turn it into a lesser third brand for developing talent? Because the last time I checked, that went over like a full-blown orgy at church. And also last time I checked, WWECW eventually died after a few years so that they can make way for NXT, and even that took a few years before it became what it is today. I would think that Tony Khan, who supposedly has an encyclopedic knowledge of wrestling history that almost comes across as a detriment in his booking, of all people, would know how rebranding a dead brand by associating it with your bigger brand would turn out.
I know some people like ROH. I know some people are happy to see ROH out there. I know some people want to see ROH succeed. I certainly don’t want ROH to fail. I just don’t want it on AEW television. This isn’t a spur of the moment thing that came out of the blue. I’ve been saying this for years now. The association would’ve been fine if it helped ROH in the slightest, but it really hasn’t. If Tony Khan wants people to care about ROH enough to get it on proper TV, then a simple rebrand isn’t going to cut it.
dtm666 