Sinclair Broadcast Group is selling its Ring of Honor wrestling promotion to sports executive Tony Khan, founder of Jacksonville-based All Elite Wrestling.
Khan, also a co-owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, announced an agreement to acquire the assets of Ring of Honor Wrestling Entertainment LLC from Hunt Valley-based Sinclair during an AEW live event on TBS on Wednesday night.
“This is the biggest week in the history of this company,” Khan announced to the “AEW Dynamite” crowd. “I’ve been a fan of Ring of Honor for a long time, a huge fan. … Today I signed a deal. I just became the new owner of Ring of Honor.”
Joe Koff, chief operating officer of Ring of Honor Wrestling, said the organization has produced some of the best professional wrestlers over the past two decades.
“Tony has the utmost appreciation and respect for Ring of Honor, and I’m truly excited to see how he continues the legacy,” Koff said in a statement.
The deal will include the Ring of Honor’s extensive video library, which dates back to 2002, as well as brand assets, intellectual property, production equipment and more, AEW said. The acquisition price was not disclosed.
Shares of Sinclair slipped nearly 1.8% Thursday to close at $29.34 each.
The sale will be completed through an entity that is wholly owned by Khan. AEW said additional details will be announced in coming weeks.
Khan described the sale as kicking off a new chapter in the future of professional wrestling. He started AEW three years ago, and it’s become the second-largest wrestling promotion in the U.S. behind WWE, drawing the youngest-skewing wrestling audience on television, according to the company.
Ring of Honor had said in October that it would be shutting down this year for at least three months while the company reevaluated the business. Ring of Honor said then that the loss of live events during the pandemic made it necessary to “reimagine ROH.”
Under Sinclair, the company had produced live events and a television show. ROH TV aired on Sinclair-owned or operated stations, such as CW 54 and MyTV in the Baltimore market, on the Sinclair-owned Bally Sports Network and on other channels.
Ring of Honor is known for launching some of wrestling’s biggest stars, including some on the AEW roster such as CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Hangman Page, Dr. Britt Baker and Adam Cole.
“Ring of Honor’s influence on modern professional wrestling is etched permanently in the history books, and this acquisition ensures that its legacy will be kept alive and treated with the utmost respect,” said Khan, AEW’s CEO, in a statement.
Khan is also chief football strategy officer of the Jaguars and general manager/sporting director of Fulham F.C., an English soccer club currently in first place in the Championship and poised for promotion to the Premier League.
He said the Ring of Honor deal would add thousands of hours of content to AEW’s rapidly growing library and create opportunities to expand its footprint nationally and globally. AEW also plans to produce new content under the Ring of Honor banner.
“I will immediately begin exploring opportunities to make ROH’s video library available to fans, who’ll have the opportunity to witness the beginnings of the careers of some of AEW’s biggest stars,” Khan said in the announcement.
More than 40 members of the AEW roster have appeared in Ring of Honor during their careers.
