Tony Khan, the CEO of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), announced Wednesday that he has acquired Ring of Honor (ROH), a promotion that has been a leader in non-WWE professional wrestling for nearly two decades.
Khan, whose father Shahid Khan owns the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham FC, made the announcement while opening AEW's Dynamite program and then brought out Bryan Danielson and Christopher Daniels for a match. Both men performed in Ring of Honor's first-ever main event in 2002.
ROH has been a launching pad for countless wrestlers who went on to star in WWE and now AEW, including Danielson, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and the Young Bucks.
ROH, which has been owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group since 2011, was launched in 2002 after WWE bought its top competitor, WCW, in 2011, leaving a void in the pro-wrestling space. Khan started AEW in 2019, and it has quickly become a force in the ratings and on pay-per-view, though still not on the same level as global powerhouse WWE.
Khan's acquisition includes ROH's video library dating back to 2002, brand assets, intellectual property, production equipment and more.
"Ring of Honor's influence on modern professional wrestling is etched permanently in the history books, and this acquisition ensures that its legacy will be kept alive and treated with the utmost respect," said Khan, who also works as an executive with the Jaguars and Fulham. "This deal adds thousands of hours of content to our rapidly growing library and creates new opportunities to expand our footprint on a national and global scale, while having the potential to produce new content under the ROH banner. I will immediately begin exploring opportunities to make ROH's video library available to fans, who'll have the opportunity to witness the beginnings of the careers of some of AEW's biggest stars."
More than 40 AEW roster members have appeared for ROH over the years, according to a release.
"Ring of Honor has produced some of the best professional wrestlers over the past 20 years, but more importantly, it created a family," ROH COO Joe Koff said in a statement. "I will be forever grateful to everyone in the ROH family who has worked tirelessly for the past two decades to take ROH to levels previously unimagined. Tony has the utmost appreciation and respect for Ring of Honor, and I'm truly excited to see how he continues the legacy."