Report: The CW Pursued Ring of Honor Before Acquiring WWE NXT
Tony Khan declined to pursue ROH talks with The CW in 2022.
Ring of Honor remains without a broadcast home. AEW President Tony Khan purchased the promotion in early 2022 to much fanfare, as the ROH tape library was a highly sought after commodity. That said, Khan's acquisition of the famous brand was not just to secure its archives. ROH began running quarterly pay-per-view events once again and integrated a bulk of its roster into AEW programming. AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage were largely tasked with building the storylines and matches for ROH PPVs as the promotion remained without a weekly television home. ROH would eventually launch a weekly series in early 2023, streaming it on its relaunched streaming service, HonorClub.
The CW Wanted Ring of Honor
In another timeline, Ring of Honor is currently being broadcast on WWE NXT's new home.
As reported by Haus of Wrestling, a "high-level CW executive" pitched the idea of bringing ROH TV to The CW to Tony Khan back in June 2022. This would have been just months after Khan's purchase of ROH was finalized.
Khan ultimately declined to pursue further talks with The CW, citing a desire to wait on shopping ROH TV until AEW begins re-negotiating its broadcast deal. AEW is currently under the Warner Bros. Discovery banner until Fall 2024. While negotiations between Khan and The CW never materialized, Khan was said to feel "very pleasant" about The CW executive but it was "just not the right time" to make a deal.
The CW's Aggressive Pro Wrestling Pursuits
As announced this past Wednesday, WWE NXT will be moving to The CW in 2024. The CW paid a record price to land WWE's developmental program, as reports emphasized that this was the biggest rights increase in the white and gold's history.
Landing WWE NXT culminates a lengthy pursuit of professional wrestling content by The CW. Reports surfaced earlier this fall that the channel was set to bring the National Wrestling Alliance's NWA Powerrr as well as a reality series about Billy Corgan's promotion to television. That deal was reportedly jeopardized by a controversial NWA segment that aired on pay-per-view last weekend.
Haus of Wrestling's report adds that The CW also looked into "two other notable pro wrestling promotions" and engaged in talks with them recently about broadcast deals. Even though it is now the home of WWE NXT, The CW is said to be "open" to hosting multiple different pro wrestling shows on its network.