WWE Hall Of Famer Says Tony Khan Buying ROH Was A Mistake
A WWE Hall of Famer thinks that it was a bad idea for Tony Khan to buy ROH.
It was in March 2022 when AEW’s Owner, CEO & GM Tony Khan and his family purchased the Ring of Honor wrestling brand.
Later in 2022, the brand officially relaunched as a weekly show on the Honor Club streaming service, which doesn’t have that many subscribers and is obviously not seen by as many people that watch AEW’s television shows like Dynamite, Collision and Rampage.
While speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff criticized Tony Khan for buying ROH in the first place.
“It was a bad decision to buy it in the first place, and there’s nothing anybody’s going to do to make it interesting or important, outside of the hardest of hardcore Internet wrestling community fans. That’s it.”
“There is no solution. If it was a horse, I’d put it out of its misery and move on. I would take the resources that are going into Ring of Honor, which is never going to be viable, ever, I would take the resources that are being dumped into that, and put it into my core product, Dynamite.”
“By putting Bryan Danielson and the rest of the people that they put into this thing, you’re diluting their characters. You’re making them look like independent wrestlers. You’re not elevating their characters in any way, shape, or form. In fact, you’re doing exactly the opposite.”
“It’s really unbelievable to me, and I don’t know what the drive is. Is it ego? Is Tony [saying], ‘I did this and I’m gonna prove I can make it work’? It’s certainly not because it’s a great revenue opportunity. It dilutes the core product. It’s being shoved down the audience’s throat, and they’re gagging on it.”
Tony Khan And ROH Present Final Battle 2023
The final Ring of Honor pay-per-view will take place on Friday, December 15th (going head to head with WWE SmackDown). There have been reports of ticket sales being slow for the show as Tony Khan tries to add more matches to draw up more interest in the card.
* ROH Women’s World Championship: Athena vs. Billie Starkz
* Blackpool Combat Club – Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Bryan Danielson vs. FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) & Mark Briscoe
* Survival of the Fittest 6-Way Elimination Match for Vacant ROH World Television Championship: Dalton Castle vs. Komander vs. Lee Moriarty vs. Lee Johnson vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. TBD
* Keith Lee vs. Shane Taylor
* I Quit Match: Ethan Page vs. Tony Nese
There will likely be more matches announced for the event before Final Battle takes place on December 15th.