More Info on WWE Possibly Purchasing Ring of Honor

Original Story:

Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet is reporting that Sinclair Broadcast Group, the current owner of Ring Of Honor, is in talks with WWE about a potential purchase of ROH.

Satin said WWE and Sinclair Broadcast Group have been in discussions since January according to multiple sources. WWE is interested in a complete buyout of Ring Of Honor and the deal would see ROH become a weekly series on the WWE Network.

However, the discussions are just that at this point and there is no deal on the table, so things could fall through, of course.

Written by Kenton Lane

Update:

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there had been rumors about talks between Sinclair and WWE about buying ROH for a few weeks now, but when ROH talent asked about it, “those in the company” denied that the story was true. According to Dave Meltzer, head of ROH Joe Koff has not yet commented, and others have said that they are not aware of any talks and that nothing has happened to indicate that anything unusual is going on or that it isn’t “business as usual” going forward. However, Meltzer is reporting that the story is true.

WWE apparently first inquired about purchasing ROH back in August and they have also sent out minor “feelers” about possibly purchasing other smaller independent and oversees companies, mainly for their tape libraries.

There’s no word on how exactly ROH would operate if WWE purchases it, or if WWE would end up even closing it down like it was rumored they wanted to do when they were negotiating the purchase of TNA a few months ago. Current contracts could be honored, but it seems more likely that WWE would do what they’ve done in the past when purchasing WCW and ECW, and would “pick and choose” the wrestlers they want to keep.

A major reason for the ROH purchase would be their tape library, which has early matches of a lot of current top WWE wrestlers, including Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Austin Aries and many more.

Another major reason would likely be to limit competition and outside options for talent. With fewer alternatives, WWE would also be able to pay up and coming wrestlers less. ROH had actually been paying a few wrestlers more than WWE was willing to pay and many wrestlers felt that they had more potential to become stars in ROH rather than TNA, so with that competition out of the way, WWE almost has a monopoly on the US market. It is somewhat “evil,” but “that’s capitalism.”

New Japan and CMLL also currently have working relationships with ROH, with ROH being a place where younger talent was sent to gain experience. New Japan and CMLL previously had agreements with TNA, but those fell through years ago because both promotions felt that TNA used their talent poorly. With ROH gone, that would leave them with very limited options for a US partner. Lucha Underground would really be the only other “significant” promotion in the US.

Update 2

ROH Chief Tells Talent That WWE Talks Are About ROH’s Tape Library