Former Ring of Honor owner comments on Tony Khan buying the promotion
Cary Silkin, the former owner of Ring of Honor, reacted to Tony Khan's acquisition of his former company.
According to Post Wrestling, Silkin hopes Khan will keep the name and spirit of ROH alive. Silkin owned ROH from 2004 to 2011 and led its international growth, expanding in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan.
The AEW owner announced on Dynamite (March 2) that he purchased ROH, which has been on hiatus since December 2021. With the purchase, Khan also acquired ROH's video library dating back to 2002, intellectual property, and production equipment.
During his appearance at Ringsiders Wrestling, Silkin wished Khan well owned ROH. He doesn't know what the latter might do with the promotion but hopes it'll eventually become a part of AEW TV:
"I hate using these wrestling terms. Oh that I'm kayfabing, I'm full of sh*t, but I don't know about it yet. Let's hope that it, you know, this becomes a part of the programming or some additional programming and it keeps the Ring of Honor name alive and well." (from 1:11 to 1:36)
Here's Silkin's guesting on Ringsiders Wrestling:
Tony Khan plans for ROH to be a developmental territory
According to Chris Haynes of Bodyslam.net, there are urges and internal calls for Tony Khan to utilize ROH as a developmental territory for AEW, like WWE NXT.
Main roster talents might also appear on several occasions in the ROH brand, just like what WWE Superstars are doing in NXT 2.0 right now.
Sources confirmed that internal plans call for AEW to utilize Ring of Honor as a developmental territory of sorts.
Additionally, it was said that “Main Roster” AEW Talent will be dipping into the ROH brand on occasion.
- @Casshooole / @BodyslamNet https://t.co/IIsY36vsP9
AEW has its own de facto developmental territory called Dark and Dark: Elevation, so ROH wrestlers can also dip from those programs from time to time. In that way, wrestlers from both companies can show their skills against each other.
Some former ROH stars such as Bryan Danielson and CM Punk are wrestling for AEW. ROH as AEW's developmental will further tighten the association between the two companies.
ROH and AEW are now partners, and it'll be interesting to see how the partnership goes in the long run.