In the opening of AEW Dynamite, President Tony Khan announced he had purchased wrestling promotion Ring of Honor (ROH).
He made this announcement at the beginning of AEW Dynamite, and it came as a huge shock to everyone. Rumours persisted about an AEW deal with HBO Max to stream their content, so fans were surprised and excited when Tony Khan buying ROH was revealed.
The deal was completed recently and ROH is under the ownership of Tony Khan, not AEW. The includes “the promotion’s extensive video library dating back to 2002, brand assets, intellectual property, production equipment and more”.
It is a huge get for Khan and AEW. A number of AEW stars like CM Punk and Bryan Danielson were recently inducted into the ROH Hall of Fame, and now Khan owns all the footage of those incredible runs, some incredible highlight reels can be created.
It is unknown if Tony Khan will continue to run ROH as it’s own promotion or simply absorb it into AEW. There are a number of top talents in ROH like The Briscoes and ROH Champion Jon Gresham who would be big stars in AEW, so time will tell what will happen with them.
AEW also acquired the rights to ALL IN, the show which was the precursor to AEW in 2018.
Cody Rhodes Ring of Honor
One of the most in controversial AEW releases in recent years was the departure of Cody Rhodes from AEW. In February 2022, his contract with AEW expired and he was no longer a part of the AEW roster.
He was the first of the AEW originals to leave, and the first EVP to leave the company. While the assumption was that we’d see Cody Rhodes at Wrestlemania, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select seems to think Cody Rhodes to Ring of Honor could be coming up in the future.
On the AEW Dynamite post show, Sean Ross Sapp, claimed that Cody Rhodes to AEW rumours “was something that people had come up with on their own.” Despite this, Sapp added that the source that said Tony Khan was purchasing ROH, who had given him some “pretty accurate information”, feels like Cody leading this could happen at some point.
This has led people to speculate that Cody Rhodes and Tony Khan actually have a deal for Rhodes to take over ROH. He reportedly left AEW due to a loss of control over his own storylines, so giving him free reign of an entire company may be enough to placate the young Rhodes brother.
Cody Rhodes is himself a former ROH champion and wrestled for them for a number of years prior to AEW.
Recent reports from Bodyslam.net reveal that talks with WWE and Cody Rhodes have broken down. Rhodes was expected to sign a bumper deal with WWE including a big pay rise and a main event push, although those talks seem to have been less than fruitful for the former TNT Champion.
Once source even claimed that there was hope for a Cody Rhodes ROH Return, with him signing with AEW again and giving him free reign as the head booker of AEW. This seems more and more likely as the time goes on, and at the moment a Cody Rhodes AEW return seems the most likely.