ROH Should Be Tony Khan's Touring Brand

 

Ring of Honor is in a interesting place in the pro wrestling landscape right now. Owned by Tony Khan and AEW, episodes are currently only available via a paywall on Honorclub. Some talent jump over to the main AEW show's Dynamite and Collision every now and then. Alot of main AEW roster talent jump over, win a championship and are back on AEW. However other than big names, most fans aren't always familiar with the talent, and can't connect with them. Then you have names like Athena who has been the ROH women's champion for close to a 1000 days, not getting any love when she hit's the main AEW stage. Yet her talents are being wasted behind the streaming paywall.

Although it wasn't disclosed, I'm sure Khan and co. paid a shit load of money for ROH primarily for the library and more importantly rights to All In which kicked off the foundation for AEW. On the other side of the wrestling world, TKO has announced they were significantly cutting back on house shows or live event as they like to call them for WWE. So that leave's a bit of a void for fan's who enjoyed the house show experience.

Which creates a perfect opportunity for AEW and ROH, more specifically ROH to fill that void. ROH could be primarily a touring brand that would allow the younger less experienced roster members to gain some more exposure. Improving their move sets, reps, and character development while they wait to be given a chance to pop up on TV. They could hit often overlooked towns and cities to build up the brand. This could also help Tony draw a definitive line between AEW and ROH. As right now belts and people flip flop and it can get confusing.

Additionally it could help the ROH brand grow for a new generation. Which in turn could entice them to pay for ROH material to learn the history of the organization, beyond All In. Helping Tony get some return on his investment, and reinvest back into the company. One hurdle I see is live events are ran on weekends, which could run against Collision if it stays on Saturday nights.

Other than that, I think the benefits of ROH primarily touring for live events far outweigh any potential issues. The wrestlers waiting in the wings can really grow, while the potential for the ROH brand to become a household name again can become a reality.