Report: How Tony Khan-ROH Deal Came Together Revealed

We are still digesting the news that AEW President Tony Khan is the new owner of Ring of Honor.

While some details have emerged as to the nature of the deal, a report from The Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer may have shed some more light on how this historic sale came about:

“The purchase price was not revealed but obviously Khan made Sinclair a better offer than WWE, since those would be the two people approached. The deal was put together in a series of meetings on February 17 and all but finalised. Khan had mentioned privately that afternoon that he was working on a major business deal, but wouldn’t say what it was. He said similar the next day on Busted Open radio, and while the deal wasn’t done, him saying so publicly would indicate he was pretty confident of the deal. Since then he had done many interviews and spent a week heavily promoting a big deal announcement on the March 2 Dynamite, in an attempt to use it to boost ratings on a night that with all the news coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, drawing good numbers otherwise would have been difficult. Khan said in the ring the final deal was just closed this week, although he clearly expected on February 17 and February 18 that it would be completed.”

Meltzer also ponders that there must have been some sort of working agreement in place between ROH and AEW before any talk of a sale, due to Khan sending the likes of Jay Lethal and FTR to ROH for Final Battle 2022.