Ring of Honor presents Final Battle head-to-head this Friday night with WWE SmackDown. A Jay Briscoe tribute match has already been announced for the show, featuring FTR and Mark Briscoe taking on Blackpool Combat Club’s Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, and Jon Moxley. This is far from the first time Tony Khan has gone up against the WWE on TV, but there was another contest between the two between the scenes over the last year or so: Who can The CW woo over?
Haus of Wrestling reported last month that a high-level CW executive approached Khan at the LA Forum in June 2022 about bringing ROH content to their platform. Khan declined talks because he wanted to keep ROH free of contractual agreements until AEW’s TV rights came up in early 2024. When that happens, Khan can bundle AEW and ROH and take them to market together.
On today’s ROH Final Battle media call, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp asked Khan about our report, and he confirmed that the talks did happen as we described.
“I think CW is a great network, and we did have a visit; Dennis visited us at the Forum last year and was great,” he recalled. “And I have a lot of respect for Dennis Miller and The CW folks, and I think the timing for us wasn’t necessarily right.”
Dennis Miller currently serves as President of The CW Network.
Our report about The CW’s interest in ROH can be found at THIS LINK.
WWE NXT has announced a five-year deal with The CW beginning October 2024. The news comes on the heels of our reporting about The CW’s dissatisfaction with Billy Corgan allowing a segment at NWA Samhein to play out that included cocaine.