WWE Hall of Famer calls for Ring of Honor to be shut down
Ring of Honor is a dying brand. It was dying before Tony Khan purchased it, and the acquisition hasn't changed the tide. Furthermore, it's hurt AEW's casual viewership, who are being force-fed matches with ROH talent every week.
On a recent episode of his "83 Weeks" podcast , Eric Bischoff revealed that he would shut down the promotion. His reasoning behind the decision would be to pour more resources into Dynamite, AEW's flagship show.
"It was a bad decision to buy it in the first place, and there’s nothing anybody’s going to do to make it interesting or important outside of the hardest of hardcore Internet wrestling community fans," Bischoff said. h/t to Fightful for the transcription. "That’s it. There is no solution. If it was a horse, I’d put it out of its misery and move on. I would take the resources that are going into Ring of Honor... and put them into my core product, Dynamite...It dilutes the core product. It’s being shoved down the audience’s throat, and they’re gagging on it."
AEW is at somewhat of a crossroads. They've enjoyed a stellar year in terms of talent acquisition. Yet, they're struggling to sell tickets for their live events. Part of their struggles could be due to Khan's focus being split between two companies. There's also the issue of ROH talent being pushed on AEW programming.
Khan would be better served by following Vince McMahon's handling of his WCW purchase in 2001. Take the best talent the roster has to offer, pit them against the best of AEW, and slowly integrate them into a stellar combined roster.
Mark Briscoe, Eddie Kingston, and Samoa Joe have all been big hits with the fanbase and would undoubtedly stick within the AEW roster. The jury is still out on talents such as Dalton Castle and Gates of Agony, who haven't had the strongest of impressions.
There is value in the ROH video backlog. It makes sense to keep those tapings alive and potentially monetize them via a subscription service. However, Bischoff makes a good point. With WWE going from strength to strength and AEW's casual fans slowly changing sides, now is the time to focus on the core product.
The ROH experiment didn't work. The focus should now be on scaling AEW and making the best of an exceptional roster, regardless of which direction Khan wants to take the company.
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