Ring Of Honor fans were shocked when it announced that the company was going through a reimagining last year. This led to the company releasing all of their contracted talent. Then Tony Khan swooped in and bought the company, but things might not be that cut and dry.
AEW President Tony Khan previously announced that he had purchased the entirety of Ring Of Honor. After that, Khan has managed to hold two pay-per-views under the ROH brand.
Fans have wondered why ROH doesn’t have a television deal yet. According to uncovered trademark documents, Tony Khan does not even have full ownership of Ring Of Honor.
The only copyright that has been transferred so far is the ROH video library. The copyright holder for ROH Wrestling Entertainment LLC is linked to the Sinclair Broadcasting Group.
Tony Khan is an owner only in name, and it is not exactly known when he will acquire full ownership of Ring Of Honor in general. At this point, Tony Khan is an owner of ROH, but only through a shell company he created called ROH Acquisitions LLC, a company which has the Jacksonville Jaguars office listed as their address. Sinclair Broadcasting is still listed as a part owner.
To put things into perspective, this is the same trouble that WWE faced when they tried to get WCW on the air during the invasion storyline. To add to that, it is also why they got trademarks for ECW in July 2001 but could only run shows until June 2005.
Obviously, there is a lot more to unpack in this situation. We’ll keep you updated on this ongoing story right here at Ringside News.
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