After several months of speculation, Tony Khan recently revealed that Ring Of Honor, the promotion that he bought earlier this year, will resume original programming with its shows landing on Honor Club, the streaming service that was set up by Sinclair Broadcasting before they sold it to the All Elite kingpin. Khan, the ambitious and eccentric owner of AEW, clearly wanted to have his own “wrestling moment” when he gleefully announced the acquisition on television, proclaiming “there’s no Shane, it’s me” a nod to the WCW purchase when Shane McMahon was revealed as the new “owner” when there were originally plans for a relaunched World Championship Wrestling to have its own two-hour time slot on Saturdays on TNN.
Make no mistake about it, Ring Of Honor wasn’t WCW, and Tony isn’t Shane McMahon.
The similarity is, much like how the relaunch of WCW never materialized, Ring Of Honor wasn’t picked up for its own television show either. As we know, the two-hour WCW slot went to the horrendous Excess show that never quite had a point and then that spot was divided into the B-show Velocity and Confidential for the WWE’s tenure on the network. How the Honor Club experiment unfolds remains to be seen, but it could create more problems than its worth.
I know this is a slight retread of my previous comments on this topic, but it should be mentioned within this discussion as well. The ROH brand wasn’t a draw after The Elite left to form All Elite Wrestling. That’s not a knock on the talent that remained on the roster, but the point is, the wrestling landscape got more crowded and ultimately, Sinclair opted not to invest money in its wrestling project when it counted. If Sinclair would’ve offered The Elite and Cody Rhodes the right number a few years ago, All Elite Wrestling wouldn’t exist today. The bottom line is, Sinclair Broadcasting bought ROH from Cary Silkin for the original programming the promotion could provide that would secure better ad rates than reruns of other shows on the stations, not to get into the pro wrestling business.
When The Elite had a chance to sign with a billionaire for big money, Sinclair opted not to attempt to compete in the wrestling industry, and that was eventually a decision that prompted them to sell the organization. Still, the point being, the Ring Of Honor brand couldn’t sustain itself so it was sold. The brand couldn’t draw the revenue to make it profitable so it’s biggest asset isn’t it’s “value” as an organization in 2022, but rather the video library that has footage of some of the biggest stars of the current generation. The influence of ROH, which is represented through that video library, is its legacy.
As I’ve said before, Khan’s attempt to relaunch the group with its involvement on AEW programming dilutes the product and makes it more difficult to establish All Elite. Again, it should be emphasized that All Elite Wrestling is the best chance that Tony Khan has of long term success in sports entertainment so that should be the only focus of Dynamite.
The attempt to put ROH television behind a paywall is silly because there will be a cost associated with taping the content with transportation, production staff, etc. Plus, the company would theoretically have to sell tickets to have fans in attendance for these shows. Would Honor Club generate enough revenue to cover the costs of taping new content? Furthermore, is there truly enough interest in the ROH brand that fans would rather buy tickets to those tapings than Dynamite events? Sure, Tony could book the ROH tapings for Universal Studios, which hosted Dark before or schedule ROH matches before Dynamite tapings, but then you’re asking fans to pay $10 a month for a show that at least aesthetically looks like the secondary Youtube shows.
The problem this creates is two-fold. On one hand, if Tony Khan can put ROH on a streaming service, the fans will clamor for All Elite programming to be put on its own streaming platform, which would imply the transition away from the traditional $50 pay-per-view broadcasts, but as we know, that is one of the most profitable revenue streams for the company so it’s not a realistic option as long as AEW pay-per-views sell reasonable well. Secondly, assuming that fans would think it was worth spending the $9.99 a month on Honor Club, it would slice into their “wrestling budget” throughout the year. It doesn’t sound like much, but when there are quarterly AEW pay-per-views, that means that four months of Honor Club would be close to the cost of an original All Elite PPV so over the course of the year, that would almost double their costs on wrestling content for Khan-owned groups if they ordered at least two All Elite shows.
From what we know of reported buy rates, the All Elite broadcasts generate a very similar number on a consist basis, which translate to the fact that there’s a core group of fans that are willing to spend money on All Elite pay-per-views. Granted, that’s a niche, even if it’s a profitable niche. Now, you must take into account how many of those diehard fans would be willing to spend another $120 a year on wrestling shows for Honor Club?
It might be a harsh reality for the diehard All Elite fans, but the totality of AEW wasn’t a good year in 2022. There was questionable booking, underutilized talent, (Has anyone seen Miro?) and chaos behind the scenes on multiple occasions that fueled speculation about the lack leadership in the company. Both WCW and TNA are examples of what can happen with a lack of leadership of an organization so it was certainly concerning to read reports of so much disarray backstage. Adam Page wasn’t booked well as champion and his stock is probably at its lowest than any other point in his AEW tenure. MJF walked out and took the focus away from Wardlow, who is also at a low point in his All Elite career. The Elite were suspended after a backstage fight with CM Punk, who buried the company at a press conference while Tony sat there looking lost during the press conference. Speaking of Punk, he made big money and didn’t truly move the needle, as the ratings were more or less the same and he spent three months of the year he was under contract injured. Andrade wasn’t happy with how he was booked so he provoked a backstage confrontation with Sammy Guevara to attempt to get fired. The signing of Jeff Hardy didn’t work out as planned. Most importantly, in September of last year, Tony Khan just added Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Adam Cole to the roster, but the numbers are basically at the same level a year later so how much progress was made for the company?
If All Elite Wrestling looks like it plateaued, and it clearly has, should ROH even be a priority for Tony Khan?
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram & Facebook @jimlamotta89
