Report: Triple H Wanted WWE To Buy ROH In 2018
Could have been so different
Mar 3, 2022
Tony Khan made his massive announcement on Wednesday's edition of Dynamite and the All Elite Wrestling President revealed he was now the owner of Ring Of Honor. How much exactly Khan paid for the company is unknown but the figure was reportedly between $30 million and $40 million.
Ring Of Honor could have been an entirely different promotion had things gone differently in 2018, though.
At the time, ROH was the second-biggest promotion in the United States and had popular stars like Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, SCU, Jay Lethal and The Briscoes. WWE NXT also had several Ring Of Honor stars of the past in the company and Triple H wanted WWE to buy ROH outright, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Dave Meltzer.
"When Ring Of Honor was kind of hot, I think this would be I'm gonna say 2018. Early part of the year, Paul Levesque wanted to buy Ring Of Honor and there was some smoke to that, even though Ring Of Honor obviously denied it at the time because you always do. But there was something there," Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio.
Talks between WWE and ROH then took place but Vince McMahon wanted to buy a bigger promotion and negotiations broke down.
"There were talks there and then they ended up going nowhere. Vince wanted to buy somebody bigger not realising that the bigger, which was New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he couldn't buy," Meltzer added.