(Update 3-8-2022 @ 12:30 am
The fact that Tony Khan has declared himself to be the booker of ROH makes this article, more valid than ever.
Back in the 90's I wrote a column called "Below The Belt W/Bill" that was printed in several different monthly newsletters such as Evan Ginzburg's Wrestling Then And Now, The Wrestling Edge, among others. So since I helped created this site with Gino Bradley and Donnie Henderson I decided to revive the column, with a new name which as you can see is called "The A**hole In The Room". Since I seem to have then opinions that piss people off anyway and most consider me, the 'a**hole' in the room, it's a fitting title. And since I seem to be the ONLY wrestling writer that has the balls to say it like it should be said, because unlike the Meltzer's, the Scherer's, the Mike Johnsons, etc that are worried that they'll piss off people and they can't wrestlers to be on their podcasts and stuff, We here at WP&P don't have to worry about any of that since we have no interest in that. So since we don't answer to anyone and have no interest in having a podcast or interviewing people, WWEE can say what we want, and how we want. anyone and have no interest in having a podcast or interviewing people, WWEE can say what we want, and how we want.
The topic is pretty obvious by the screen grab that's posted above. Tony Khan buying Ring of Honor.
When I saw the bug eyed Khan make this grand announcement on AEW this week my first thought was, "what did he buy? Not much in reality".
Sure he got a video library but did he get any of the wrestlers under contract to ROH? Of course not because there ISN'T ANY wrestlers under contract to Ring Of Honor. So he bought a wrestling promotion that has no wrestlers under contract, and a video library. And maybe a couple of wrestling rings?
"OOOOOOOOO" Hell of a purchase, hell of an investment. (Rolls eyes).
While Khan HAS been utilizing guys like C.M. Punk and Bryan Danielson, what about one of the greatest workers ROH has ever had in Jay Lethal? Where's he? Oh yes, he's been regulated to the YouTube shows and when he IS on a main show like Dynamite, he's used poorly.
THAT right there, is all you need tom know about how Tony Khan underutilizes great talent, and what ROH might be destined to become. Because seriously, Khan has no booking experience, is the 'billionaire money mark' who became Meltzer's 'booker of the year" only because Meltzer (*for the most part) said so. His shows are mostly a fucking car crash and logic is a lot of times thrown out the window. So since it's bad enough he's created a company that for me and many people i know is hard to watch from beginning to end, what's he gonna do now that 'bought', a company that had a rich history?
My stomach turns at the ways Tony Khan is gonna fuck it up.
Let's look at when other companies have done this, and how badly it's failed WHEN they've done this.
In 1987 Jim Crockett Promotions bought Florida Championship Wrestling. I remember this because we had NWA World Wide Wrestling on TV in Chicago (replaced by NWA Pro which was pretty much the same thing) and Mike Rotunda came into Jim Crocket promotions as a member of the Varsity Club with Kevin Sullivan and Rick Steiner and he was holding the Florida title. As soon as Rotunda became World Television Champion Mike 'gave' Rick the Florida title, but it wasn't really defended nor was it taken very seriously.
And wouldn't you know, it wasn't long after that the Florida title 'mysteriously' disappeared off of Jim Crockett's TV altogether.
So much for buying Florida Championship Wrestling.
In 1985 Crockett bought out Georgia Championship Wrestling and simply took over their time slot on TBS.
In 1987 Crockett bought out the Central States Territory which was owned by Bob Geigel but after he claimed it was gonna be run like a separate promotion, was it? Nope, he simply took over the TV spots there and Geigel wound up buying it back from Crockett, opening it up again and after withdrawing from the NWA, starting a working agreement with the AWA.
I remember this because when I became involved in tape trading and selling I had gotten several tapes of Central States Wrestling, and guys like Crusher Blackwell, Sgt. Slaughter came thru the Central States area for shows.
!987 was also the year Crockett bought Bill Watt's UWF and it was 'said' that the UWF was gonna be run like a separate promotion. But when you saw the NWA TV title and UWF TV title get 'unified' you knew, it was just another case of bullshit running a marathon.
You see the pattern here, don't you? Bigger companies buy smaller ones and then those smaller companies are put out to pasture. But wait, the pattern continues.
Remember in 2003 when Vince McMahon bought ECW? I do, and the first thing I said then was "Vince is gonna fuck it up, because he has no clue how to properly push and promote something he didn't create".
As we all saw, that quote of mine, which pissed off 'marks' left and right? Was spot on, 100% correct.
And when Vince created his own 'version' of ECW, to the point of even making himself 'ECW' champion? Remember that fiasco?
Yeah, I do too. It wasn't a pretty sight.
And let's not forget when Vince bought WCW. Another one of those "It'll be run like a seperate promotion" claims that was total bullshit as we all found out.
So after all this, after this long well proven pattern of bigger companies buying a small coimpany and literally doing nothing with them, what makes the 'marks' think that THIS TIME with Tony Khan buying ROH is gonna be different from all the other times I just showed?
I'm finding it SSOO amusing that the 'AEW Marks' are fawning all over this like this is greatest thing that's ever happened. I'm like the only one with an I.Q. higher than a door knob that sees the reality of all this.
I mean seriously, THIS, is your new owner of Ring Of Honor.
AAHH yep, that sure looks like a guy who knows what the fuck he's doing, yes indeedy, we can put 'all our faith' into "that guy" to make Ring Of Honor great again. (rolls eyes).
How is it people can actually think, that a billionaire money mark who has no fucking experience booking anything, is gonna be capable of making a once great company like ROH viable again?
Is it gonna be like how Ring of Honor used to be? Even THAT is a mission in itself since there's so many other NOW well known indie groups who've taken the ROH formula and actually have done it better than ROH in some ways.
DEFY, Limitless Wrestling, AAW, Freelance Wrestling, just to name a few have done the Ring of Honor way better than ROH has, so how is it that the billionaire money mark gonna make his new acquisition of ROH stand out? Or is it just gonna be 'just another' AEW show?
Another thing, did Tony Khan get all the TV slots that ROH was shown on that Sinclair broadcasting aired ROH on? Probably not. Sinclair was looking to unload ROH as it wasn't helping Sinclair's bottom line and well? they kinda found a sucker for it named Tony Khan who probably paid more for it than it was worth.
So what did he get? Not much? Is he gonna do great things with it? My gut feeling knowing the pattern I just wrote about? Probably not.
I'd like to be proven wrong on this but knowing who owns it, and how he can't even keep his own shows logical half the time, it looks like I'm probably gonna be right on this as well.
And if that's the case? Remember I said it would end up that way, remember I, said it. because the Meltzer's, etc don't have the balls to say it.
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