Tony Khan was as forthright as he could be when detailing his purchase of Ring of Honor. The AEW President spoke with the media following the Revolution PPV and plenty of the questions were directed towards him acquiring ROH. Right off the bat, Khan claims that he has plans to keep the brand moving along while still adhering to the promotion’s legacy.
“I do still want to continue the operations going forward and I am very excited about and do have a lot of plans for it,” he said but still remained mum on any details regarding television distribution.
“Distribution I can’t say anything yet about what it will be and how it’s will live and exist but I’m very excited about not just about the library and past content, but the opportunities to create more content,” Khan said, but did give further context later as to why he chooses to not break some silence on that specific subject.
“One thing I did have was the support of my media partners when I went and bought Ring of Honor when I made an agreement to do it so I owe I think the people in the process that it’s a complicated asset transfer that we’re in the middle of right now and so I don’t want to say to much about that complicated asset transfer or where those assets are going going forward. Like I’m trying to be very respectful of the party that I just had a great negotiation with and we’re still transferring these assets.”
“It creates a lot of opportunities for us and it’s great I think for AEW, strategically, it’s very good that I also gonna be owning Ring of Honor,” he said during the press scrum. “There should be a Ring of Honor and I think I got the resources to present a better version than anybody else. That’s why I’m really excited about it.”
Tony didn’t give much details regarding roster plans, but said their will be a mix of talent competiting under the ROH banner.
“I’m not going to say what I’m going to do with it in terms of the roster moving forward, but there’s a lot of opportunities, there’s a lot of great wrestlers out there, young wrestlers, and there’s a lot of great wrestlers under contract here and not under contract here,” he said. Khan mentioned how the transition process in purchasing was amicable before making clear that he will be booking ROH moving forward.
“Joe Koff and all the people at Sinclair, they talked about how respecting the legacy was important to them and I think that’s why they were so happy to see it end this way. I am going to be the booker and there’s a reason for that,” he said, stating that it was key to understand the past of certain talent Khan then presented several questions to the media regarding NXT’s “black and gold” version in preference to the new 2.0 identity. Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture asked Khan if he does plan to have support in the process of balancing two brands and Tony note names he’ll more than likely get help from including Sonjay Dutt, Ace Steel, newcomer William Regal and even Bryan Danielson who has jumped in from an educational perspective.
Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone
RELATED: Bryan Danielson Shares His Thoughts On Tony Khan Buying ROH
