Ring of Honor has been Sold...

Garseys

Source:

BRISTOL, PA. (MAY 21, 2011)–Ring of Honor Wrestling owner, Cary Silkin, announced today the sale of the promotion to Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., one of the largest television broadcasters in the country and which owns and operates, programs, or provides sales services to 58 television stations in 35 markets across the United States.

ROH, currently the third largest wrestling promotion in the country, just celebrated its ninth anniversary, and Mr. Silkin is excited about taking the next step towards increasing the company’s visibility and expanding its operations.

“We have been waiting for and working for this opportunity for quite some time”, he said, “and of our 9 years in business, there has been no better roster of wrestlers than this one to expose the ROH product to the masses. With Sinclair’s resources and many avenues of distribution, we believe many new fans around the world will be as captivated as those who have followed Ring of Honor over the years.”

The month of September will see the debut of the new Ring of Honor television program which will be syndicated across the Sinclair network of stations, and with it, ROH will become the only wrestling promotion in the United States with a major, multi-market presence on broadcast TV. But if you don’t live in a market with a Sinclair station, fear not, says Mr. Silkin. “Through our revamped website we will be able to make the TV show available to anyone in the world with internet access.”

Sinclair officials are enthused about the project as well.

“We are very excited about this acquisition,” commented Steve Marks, COO of Sinclair’s Television Group. “Television and professional wrestling have a long history of successful partnerships and driving viewership. Unfortunately, the broadcast networks have not protected that relationship, allowing professional wrestling to migrate to cable network distribution. We believe that the powerful promotional platform that our TV stations provide, coupled with our 22% share of the U.S. TV households, will allow ROH to achieve name brand recognition and grow its share of the wrestling market. When you consider the makeup of our station mix and the number of CW, MYTV and FOX affiliates we operate, this is a perfect fit for our viewer demographics.” Mr. Marks also noted, “Longer-term, we can envision syndicating ROH wrestling to broadcasters in markets where Sinclair does not have a presence, and even internationally.”

Mr. Silkin assures the ROH fans worldwide that they will be seeing the same exciting, hard-hitting style of pro wrestling that they have become accustomed to. “We have established the name Ring of Honor as synonymous with the best in-ring action in the sport. The only thing that will change is that it will now be easier for fans around the world to follow. Our visibility will increase greatly–our production will be upgraded–but the work ethic of our incredible talent roster and our athletic style of wrestling will remain the same. This is what our fans have told us they want, and we will continue to give it to them.”

The current front office staff, including Cary Silkin, Syd Eick, and Ross Abrams, will remain with ROH going forward. Hunter Johnston, a favorite of ROH fans for years as the masked grappler Delirious, will still handle matchmaking, Jim Cornette will remain as executive producer, and other familiar faces like ring announcer Bobby Cruise and senior referee Todd Sinclair will be in place.”

Additionally, longtime wrestling broadcaster Kevin Kelly, already the voice of ROH internet pay-per-views, will assume the TV play-by-play chair this fall. Veteran NWA and WCW promoter Gary Juster will come aboard to be in charge of live event operations, which are planned to continue in current ROH markets as well as expanding into new locations concurrent with the increased TV exposure.

Mr. Cornette, who along with Mr. Johnston, will be in charge of talent and matchmaking, sees this as a new beginning for pro wrestling. “This is not old-school wrestling, and it’s not sports entertainment,” said Mr. Cornette. “This is wrestling for the 21st century, a new style developed by fresh, young stars that incorporates wrestling, mixed martial arts and high-flying, high-risk action with unique personalities, and it’s showcased by a sports-based presentation completely different from any other product out there. In my 30 years in the sport, it’s the most exciting live-event wrestling experience I’ve seen, and I’m thrilled to help bring it to broadcast TV.”

A major press conference, open to wrestling press and mainstream media alike, is being planned for Baltimore on Friday, June 24th. This event will feature a number of the ROH staff and wrestlers both announcing news about ROH’s future and answering questions. The media event will be presided over by new ROH COO, Joe Koff. Mr. Koff, a longtime Sinclair executive with an extensive background in TV sales and management, also has experience in pro wrestling television production and syndication. Most visible of his projects may have been the first-ever live, prime time syndicated pro wrestling events, the Battle of the Belts, which aired from 1985 to 1987. These Championship Wrestling from Florida-based cards were broadcast live to a syndicated network of stations and may be best-remembered for the classic Ric Flair vs. Barry Windham NWA World Title contest from St. Petersburg.

The press event will kick off a weekend which includes ROH’s next internet pay-per-view event, “Best In The World 2011,” live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Sunday, June 26th at 4PM EST. In addition to all the top stars on the ROH roster, this event will feature the return of some favorite stars from Ring of Honor’s past, and can be ordered by anyone in the world with internet access through Gofightlive.tv for only $14.95. More information about Ring of Honor can be obtained through their website, www.rohwrestling.com.

flahavaj

This seems to be great news for ROH. Hopefully it puts them a more solid financial footing, while vastly widening their viewership, without compromising on their core value of excellent in-ring action.

Machismo Fan

Great for ROH, but reading that company's Wiki they don't seem to be in the most secure financial state (unless things have changed in recent years). Looked into it a little more, they lost 241 million in '08, 136 million in '09 and made 76 million last year.

the groutch

is this liekly to be aired on telly over here???

Machismo Fan

the groutch wrote: »

is this liekly to be aired on telly over here???

Last sentence of the forth paragraph in the article above. The shows are going to put online.

Andy_rse

the groutch wrote: »

is this liekly to be aired on telly over here???

Itll be available world wide online. Which is great news imo

drayme

Beats ROHBrazil

bradlente

More exposure and competition for PW in general,a very good thing:)

GTR63

Machismo Fan wrote: »

Great for ROH, but reading that company's Wiki they don't seem to be in the most secure financial state (unless things have changed in recent years). Looked into it a little more, they lost 241 million in '08, 136 million in '09 and made 76 million last year.

Thats some amount of money if its true.Can't help but feel a little underwhelmed at this announcement.Yeah its on the Internet but I was hoping for a tv deal over here.I bet they could get a ppv deal on that Primetime ppv channel if they went for it.

Machismo Fan

GTR63 wrote: »

Thats some amount of money if its true.Can't help but feel a little underwhelmed at this announcement.Yeah its on the Internet but I was hoping for a tv deal over here.I bet they could get a ppv deal on that Primetime ppv channel if they went for it.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=SBGI&annual

EoinHeffernan

Machismo Fan wrote: »

Great for ROH, but reading that company's Wiki they don't seem to be in the most secure financial state (unless things have changed in recent years). Looked into it a little more, they lost 241 million in '08, 136 million in '09 and made 76 million last year.

jesus there's some wacky figures!! not even wcw could do that! even if those figures were in yen they would still be off. moral of this story is, always take what is up on wiki with a pinch of salt, especially when it comes to wrestling!!!

jimmy jailbreak

Machismo Fan wrote: »

Great for ROH, but reading that company's Wiki they don't seem to be in the most secure financial state (unless things have changed in recent years). Looked into it a little more, they lost 241 million in '08, 136 million in '09 and made 76 million last year.

Those figures couldn't possibly be real. Considering WCW was a multi million dollar corparation backed by the richest media mogul in the world, and they only lost 60 million. How is it even possible for a small indi promotion to loose that much?

Gerard.C

jimmy jailbreak wrote: »

Those figures couldn't possibly be real. Considering WCW was a multi million dollar corparation backed by the richest media mogul in the world, and they only lost 60 million. How is it even possible for a small indi promotion to loose that much.

Chris Hero would charge you an arm and a leg to work for you, its down to him mostly

thebostoncrab

The reports of money being lost are from The Sinclair Group, not ROH.

Machismo Fan

Apologies for the confusion, I probably should have been clearer but I was indeed referring to The Sinclair Group.

Lord TSC

I'm going to use this as an excuse to get into ROH, me thinks. I didn't watch their previous TV shows and I'm desperate for an alternative to WWE right now. Hopefully their shows are good...

Vue

Teamshadowclan wrote: »

I'm going to use this as an excuse to get into ROH, me thinks. I didn't watch their previous TV shows and I'm desperate for an alternative to WWE right now. Hopefully their shows are good...

I'm the same as you dude, watched ROH a few times when it was up on ROHBrazil on youtube. Havent been following much since that stopped so looking forward to being able to watch again. Their shows have a lot of potential no doubt.