AEW's CM Punk "Relieved" WWE Didn't Buy ROH

While All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan was the man who purchased Ring Of Honor last week, he wasn't the only interested party.

WWE also reportedly wanted to buy Ring Of Honor, seemingly for the promotion's tape library, and they opened negotiations with Sinclair Broadcast Group in December of 2021 after ROH had announced they would be going on hiatus. Both sides failed to agree to a deal, though, and this paved the way for Tony Khan to buy the company. 

Speaking at the AEW Revolution media scrum, CM Punk, who used his old ROH theme and ring gear at the pay-per-view, revealed he was "relieved" that Tony Khan bought Ring Of Honor instead of WWE's Vince McMahon. 

"I was relieved. Let's talk facts, it was either Tony was going to buy it or Vince was going to buy it and I don't want Vince to own any of my footage. He owns enough of it that I don't get paid off," Punk began.

"People need to understand that when I left, I was asking questions about the network which had not been launched yet. I was saying, 'How am I gonna get paid off this? We don't even understand what the pay scale is. I don't know if I get paid off of gate for a pay-per-view or buy-rate for a pay-per-view. You guys already just threw darts at an imaginary board and you pay me whatever you want. I still get royalties, that's the only hard copy thing I see is DVD sales. So once all the DVD sales go away and you're just putting stuff up on the Network, I'm not getting paid. Or am I?'" he continued.

"They couldn't tell me and now I've watched my royalty cheques, which I still get, dwindle to nothing because they just put everything on the Network and the boys don't get paid. That's not just me, that's everybody. That's criminal."

Punk also commented on using his ROH theme at Revolution before he admitted he was "so happy" that Tony Khan now owned the ROH video library.