More on Tony Khan’s Purchase of ROH & WWE’s Talks for Potential Purchase in Late 2021

As noted before, AEW CEO Tony Khan recently announced that he had purchased Ring of Honor from ROH’s parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that one ROH source spoken to stated that an agreement for Khan’s purchase of the company was finalized as late as around 6PM EST this past Wednesday. Those spoken to within ROH stated that ROH officials had been working on production plans for their upcoming ROH TV show and events throughout that day until word of talks of a potential purchase began making the rounds backstage. Those spoken to within AEW stated that only a few people had been aware of Khan’s talks and believed it to be a done deal well before this past Wednesday.

In regards to ROH’s recent announcements for their upcoming Supercard of Honor XV event and ROH TV taping in Philadelphia, Johnson reported that those were made independent of the AEW side and were put into motion before the sale of the company was announced. Johnson reported that it is currently not known if those events will still be taking place as originally envisioned by ROH.

WWE reportedly had been interested in the idea of purchasing ROH following the announcement of the company entertaining a hiatus period late last year. Talks between the two sides reportedly took place this past December but fell apart for some unknown reason. Several sources within WWE stated that they were legitimately shocked when they learned of Khan’s purchase of ROH since they had believed his major announcement was going to be a new streaming deal with HBO Max.

One source spoken to within ROH described the sale of the company as being “bittersweet” due to feeling that this was the right thing to do for ROH’s long-term viability but a lot of people who truly loved working for the company were extremely saddened to see this chapter end.