AEW buys Ring of Honor
Tony Khan announced Wednesday night on Dynamite that AEW has purchased Ring of Honor, and there are many factors tied in.
AEW will now own the ROH video library, which will be quite attractive if and when AEW decides to start its own online video platform of its own or if it signs a deal with a platform like HBO Max.
To a lot diehard wrestling fans, this is a big deal, but for others, it doesn鈥檛 mean much.
One massive bit of news out of this is AEW will now own the rights to the 2017 show titled 鈥淎ll In.鈥�
This was the event that Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks promoted in association with ROH in 2017.
The event was looked at as a trial run for Khan to invest in AEW.
Since its birth in 2002, Ring of Honor was always a solid alternative to WWE.
Speaking of WWE, www.pwinsiderelite.com reported Thursday that WWE had interest in purchasing ROH and the two companies had talks in December.
So will Khan fold up ROH, or will he try to run it as a separate entity from AEW?
Several fans reached out Thursday and Friday mentioning a possible invasion angle down the road, and it could happen.
Back to Rhodes. What if he is still under contract with Khan, but will now oversee ROH if it were to branch off on its own?
Then the whole 鈥渓eaving鈥� of AEW would be legit, but only partially.
It will be interesting to see what the ROH card on April 1 in Garland, Texas, will look like.
Garland is 45 minutes from Arlington, the home of WrestleMania, and fans from all over the world will be in town already, so look for a massive show.
AEW Revolution on PPV
AEW returns to PPV Sunday night when it presents Revolution.
Eight matches have been announced, and several of them look enticing on paper.
Some of the top matches include AEW champion Adam Page defending his title against Adam Cole, Dr. Britt Baker defending women鈥檚 world title against Thunder Rosa, CM Punk taking on MJF and Jon Moxley facing Bryan Danielson. The show begins at 8 p.m.
Longtime reader John McLaughlin will be at the show and will provide a first-person review in next week鈥檚 column.
Mania ticket sales light
According to a report at www.pwinsiderelite.com, there have only been between 45,000-46,000 tickets sold for the two-day event at AT&T stadium.
Considering WWE 鈥渁nnounced鈥� over 100,000 fans for Mania 32 at the same stadium in 2016.
I use he word announced loosely as I was at the event.
Having seen what 100,000 fans looks like for years at Penn State football games as well as at Michigan games, I disagree with WWE鈥檚 numbers, but hey, it is its show!
The confusing aspect of the number of tickets sold for this year鈥檚 event is WWE has sold three different types of tickets: only Saturday night鈥檚 show, only Sunday night鈥檚 show and combo tickets for both shows.
Whether giving away tens of thousands of tickets or whatever WWE has to do, look for AT&T to be at or near full capacity.
Another WWE TV deal
On Tuesday, WWE and A&E announced they have agreed to a new deal that will bring more episodes of Biography and Most Wanted Treasures to fruition.
There will be 35 new biographies over the course of the multiyear deal.
Also, as part of the deal, a new show called WWE Rivals will debut as well.
Sparx joins unique club
Friday night, Kayla Sparx joined an exclusive club when she appeared on both Smackdown and AEW鈥檚 Rampage show.
She was featured on the Lothario Kiss Club during Smackdown and was on the pretaped episode of Rampage, where she wrestled Serena Deeb.
In 1997, Rick Rude appeared on a pretaped episode of Monday Night Raw while appearing live on WCW鈥檚 Monday Nitro.
The funny thing about Rude鈥檚 double appearance was he had a full beard on Raw but was clean shaved on Nitro.
Rude had been appearing for WWE without being under contract, and he signed a WCW deal.
Sparx appeared on both shows without being under contract to either WWE or AEW.
This Day in History
In 1999, Vader defeated Akira Taue to win the AJPW Triple Crown in Tokyo, Japan.
Email questions/comments to powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to @BillHughes_III.