What’s the story?
Cageside Seats reports that the talks between the WWE and Ring of Honor (ROH) could potentially lead to more content for WWE network subscribers. PWInsider claims that the talks with WWE and ROH are mainly focusing on airing ROH’s TV show on the network as opposed to a complete buyout.
In case you didn’t know...
Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet broke the news this week regarding WWE possibly looking to buy out ROH. The report claimed that both companies were in communication with each other back in January and that talks have slowly progressed from there. Cage Side Seats claimed that WWE inquired buying out ROH back in August 2016.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter claimed that the WWE attempting to buy ROH would mostly be for the tape library and to kill off their competition.
The Heart of the Matter
The report from Cage Side Seats also claimed that in addition to ROH’s TV, the WWE wanted to acquire licensing material for other projects. This could indicate that the company could be planning to create more documentaries involving former ROH Superstars like Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins, and Cesaro.
This also means the company would try to raid ROH for talent but establish a mutually beneficial business relationship.
The impact
If the WWE is talking to ROH just to get its television on the WWE Network, then this means the WWE is attempting to boost its numbers by including non-WWE wrestling on their streaming service.
Back in 2016, the WWE sent out a survey asking fans if they would be willing to pay more for their network subscription if it included content from independent wrestling promotions, and this potential deal with ROH will be the first step towards expanding the WWE Network past its own content and into the indies.
Author’s take
Fans of ROH will probably be a lot happier to learn that the talks are mostly about airing content as opposed to a complete buyout. There are very few wrestling promotions that are viewed as a legitimate alternative to the WWE and ROH is one of them.
The WWE buying out ROH would be a potentially devastating blow to the indies in the United States and could ruin working relationships with other promotions like Pro-Wrestling Guerilla and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
I doubt any fan would have a problem with ROH being on the network and it could potentially boost the subscription count for the WWE. This really could be a win-win scenario for everyone involved if this deal pans out.
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