ROH’s Joe Koff: We Never Used the Words “Shutting Down”

[Kemo]

In late October, Ring of Honor announced that the promotion would be going on hiatus following Final Battle. They also noted they planned to return in April of 2022. It was further revealed that the company would no longer be using contracted talent moving forward. Some fans took this to mean ROH was shutting down. ROH COO Joe Koff recently appeared on the ROH Strong podcast to refute this.

“What seeped into the narrative … is that we were shutting down, when all we announced is that we were not doing any live events in the first quarter,” Koff said. “We never used the words ‘shutting down.’”

According to a report from PW Insider, a venue for a Ring of Honor show in April during WrestleMania week in Dallas has been booked and paid for. It’s not clear what date the show will run or what venue has been booked, however.

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With ROH returning in April but running with no contracted talent, they are likely looking at booking wrestlers much like independent promotions do, using whoever happens to be available on the date with no exclusive contracts. The ROH Championship titles are currently held by Jonathan Gresham (ROH World), The Briscoes (Tag-team), Rok-C (World women’s title) and Josh Woods (Pure).

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[Smartmark]

There is still some hope ROH will be back strong in the future.

[LionDen]

I am interested to see what this re-imagining of ROH might be after it goes dark next year.