ROH Denies WWE Buyout Rumors; “There Is No Story Here”

“The wrestling world has been abuzz” with the story about WWE possibly purchasing Ring of Honor.

There have been multiple reports confirming at least that talks between WWE and ROH have taken place. However, there have also been conflicting reports that the talks have only been about WWE licensing ROH’s old footage or possibly having ROH TV air on WWE Network while still remaining an independent company.

A story in CBS Local by Chuck Carroll seems to douse even more water on the buyout rumors, saying flat out that “No, WWE Is Not Buying Ring Of Honor”.

According to Carroll, a “high-ranking source” told him that “there is no story here.”

ROH COO Joe Koff also “emphatically denied rumors of a potential sale” to him:

“No. No, no, no,” Koff told me. “It’s very flattering and humbling to us. It validates what we’ve done. A lot of their current performers and stars are ROH guys and we have their history. So maybe the content of the backstories of Kevin Steen before he became Kevin Owens or AJ Styles’ run in Ring of Honor, Tyler Black (aka Seth Rollins), Claudio (Castagnoli aka Cesaro) … all of the guys who have wrestled for us. We have their backstory and where it began… That’s our content.”

Koff also said that WWE outright purchasing ROH’s tape library is also unlikely, but that ROH is very open to “doing business” with WWE if they need to license old footage for DVDs or WWE Network specials.

“I’m always open to any conversation,” said Koff. “We do business with them if they want to do a DVD or VOD if they need footage from early matches they do come to us. We are open to work with them on that basis because it doesn’t hurt us. It actually helps us.”