2002–2011: Formation and early years In April 2001, the pro wrestling video-distribution company RF Video needed a new promotion to lead its video sales when its best-seller –
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) – went out of business and WWE purchased its assets. RF Video also videotaped events held by other, less-popular, regional wrestling promotions; it sold these through its catalog and website. After months of trying to join
Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), RF Video's owner, Rob Feinstein, decided to fill the ECW void by starting his own pro wrestling promotion, and distributing its made-for-DVD/VHS productions exclusively through RF Video. The first event, titled
The Era of Honor Begins, took place on February 23, 2002, in
Philadelphia, the former home area of ECW. It featured nine matches, including a match between
Eddy Guerrero and
Super Crazy for the
IWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship and a
triple threat match between
Christopher Daniels,
Bryan Danielson, and
Low Ki (who would become known as the "founding fathers of ROH"). In its first year of operation, Ring of Honor confined itself to staging live events in a limited number of venues and cities – primarily in the northeastern United States. Ten shows ran in Philadelphia, two in
Wakefield, Massachusetts; one in metro
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and, one in
Queens, New York. In 2003, ROH expanded to other areas of the United States, including
Ohio,
New Jersey,
Connecticut, and
Maryland. It also began to build its international identity by co-promoting an event with
Frontier Wrestling Alliance in
London, England on May 17, 2003. In 2004, Feinstein was caught in an internet-based sting operation, in which he allegedly tried to solicit sex on the internet from a person that he thought to be an underage boy (but was actually an adult, posing as a minor). After this was publicized by some news outlets, Feinstein resigned from ROH in March 2004. In the aftermath of the scandal,
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) ended its talent-sharing agreement with Ring of Honor, abruptly withdrawing all of its contracted wrestlers from their prior commitments to perform in ROH shows—including major ROH draws
A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels, who held and were about to hold
ROH championships, respectively. Doug Gentry eventually bought Feinstein's stake in ROH, and later sold it to Cary Silkin. ROH then started its own mail-order and online store operations, which sold DVDs of its live events, plus
shoot interviews (dubbed The Straight Shootin' Series) with wrestlers and managers, DVDs of
SHIMMER (which would serve as a second sister promotion from 2005 to 2010) and even some merchandise from competitors, such as
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Under Silkin, ROH branched out across the world. On January 23, 2007, ROH announced plans for a Japanese tour, resulting in a show on July 16 in Tokyo called "Live In Tokyo", co-promoted with
Pro Wrestling Noah and a show on July 17 called "Live In Osaka" in
Osaka co-promoted with
Dragon Gate. On May 2, 2007, Ring of Honor announced the signing of a
PPV and
VOD deal with G-Funk Sports & Entertainment to bring ROH into homes with
In Demand Networks,
TVN, and the
Dish Network. The deal called for six taped pay-per-view events to air every 60 days. Because of the move to pay-per-view, TNA Wrestling immediately pulled its contracted stars (
Austin Aries,
Christopher Daniels, and
Homicide) from ROH shows. The first pay-per-view, titled
"Respect is Earned", taped on May 12, first aired on July 1 on Dish Network. Ring of Honor continued to expand throughout 2008, debuting in Orlando, Florida on March 28 for Dragon Gate Challenge II, in Manassas, Virginia on May 9 for Southern Navigation and in
Toronto, Ontario on July 25 for Northern Navigation. On May 10, 2008, Ring of Honor set an attendance record in its debut show, A New Level, from the
Hammerstein Ballroom in the
Manhattan Center in New York City. It had plans for shows in
St. Louis, Missouri,
Nashville, Tennessee, and
Montreal before the end of 2008. On October 26, 2008, the company announced the departure of head
booker Gabe Sapolsky, and his replacement by
Adam Pearce. On January 26, 2009, Ring of Honor announced that it had signed an agreement with
HDNet Fights for a weekly television program. The first tapings for
Ring of Honor Wrestling took place on February 28 and March 1, 2009, at
The Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and series premiered on
HDNet on March 21, 2009. After nearly a year of producing weekly television broadcasts, RoH announced on January 20, 2010, that it would commission a new title, the
ROH World Television Championship, to be decided in an eight-man tournament beginning February 5, 2010, and ending February 6, 2010, on its
Ring of Honor Wrestling program. Due to a
blizzard, however, the second half of the tournament did not take place until March 5, 2010, when
Eddie Edwards defeated
Davey Richards in the finals. On August 15, 2010, Ring of Honor fired head booker Adam Pearce and replaced him with
Hunter Johnston, who wrestles for the company under the ring name Delirious. On September 8, 2010, Ring of Honor and
Ohio Valley Wrestling announced a working relationship between the two companies. On January 11, 2011, Ring of Honor announced the ending of
Ring of Honor Wrestling, after the completion of the promotion's two-year contract with HDNet. The final tapings of the show would be taking place on January 21 and 22, with the final episode airing on April 4, 2011.
2011–2019: Acquisition by Sinclair and expansion ,
Mark and
Jay, wrestled primarily for ROH for 20 years and as a duo were stalwarts of the company. On May 21, 2011, Ring of Honor and
Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that the broadcast carrier had purchased ROH, with former owner Cary Silkin remaining with the company in an executive role. The promotion's programming began airing the weekend of September 24, 2011, with a relaunched
Ring of Honor Wrestling airing on several Sinclair owned-or-operated stations; the show aired primarily on Saturday or Sunday afternoons or late nights, or on prime time on some of Sinclair's
CW and
MyNetworkTV affiliates (as those networks do not run programming on weekend evenings). On June 22, Ring of Honor held their first live pay-per-view event,
Best in the World, from the Nashville State Fairgrounds in Nashville, Tennessee. In September, Sinclair began
syndicating ROH to other stations; the first deal was reached with
WATL, a
Gannett-owned
Atlanta station, which began airing ROH on September 13, 2014. On October 27, 2014, ROH announced a toy licensing deal with Figures Toy Company, which would see the distribution of
action figures based on the Ring of Honor wrestlers, replica title belts and more. On May 27, 2015, ROH announced a 26-week television deal with
Destination America, beginning on June 3. On December 13, 2015, ROH announced a partnership with Southern California promotion
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), which would allow ROH contracted wrestlers to continue working for PWG. On August 30, 2016, ROH announced the creation of a new title, the
ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship. The inaugural champions were crowned in December. On November 9, 2017, ROH COO
Joe Koff announced that ROH would be developing an
OTT streaming service, similar to
WWE Network and Impact Wrestling's
Global Wrestling Network. The service,
Honor Club, would be unveiled on February 2, 2018, and launch on February 19. At
Final Battle 2017, on December 15, 2017, ROH announced the creation of the
Women of Honor Championship, adding its fifth championship and the first for
its female roster. On September 1, 2018, ROH wrestlers
Cody Rhodes and
The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) promoted and wrestled at
All In – an event that was produced in collaboration with ROH, featuring wrestlers from numerous promotions that drew over 11,000 fans in suburban
Chicago. This was the first U.S. pro wrestling event not promoted by
WWE or the defunct
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to reach the 10,000 attendance mark since the 1990s. Also in 2018, ROH and longtime partner
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) announced a joint event at
Madison Square Garden in
New York City called
G1 Supercard, which was held on April 6, 2019. The event quickly sold out, and became the biggest and most attended event in ROH history.
2019–2021: Departures, effects of COVID-19, debt and hiatus In early 2019, Rhodes, the Bucks, and several other talents left the company to start their own promotion –
All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The departure of Ring of Honor's top talent for AEW was viewed by many wrestling journalists and commenters as the beginning of a decline for the promotion in 2019. Much of the criticism focused on the reign of then-ROH World Champion
Matt Taven. ROH had fewer PPV buys and a reduced live show attendance that year. According to
Dave Meltzer, ROH's average live show attendance in 2019 was 1,082—lower than its averages in 2018 and 2017. In October 2019, ROH producer/road agent
Joey Mercury resigned, criticizing ROH for a lack of creative direction as well as having no concussion protocol for wrestlers. Mercury would reveal that ROH allowed then-
Women of Honor Champion Kelly Klein to wrestle after suffering a concussion during an October 26, 2019, event. Klein sought medical treatment after suffering post-concussion-syndrome symptoms. She would not be booked for the rest of the year and her contract would expire in December. In January 2020, Ring of Honor re-signed
Marty Scurll; the deal was said to be the most lucrative in ROH history. In addition to being a wrestler, Scurll was also made head
booker, working with longtime booker Hunter "Delirious" Johnston. Scurll's deal allowed him to continue to make appearances in New Japan Pro-Wrestling and the
National Wrestling Alliance, where he began a cross-promotional feud with
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis. However, during the
Speaking Out Movement, Scurll was accused of taking advantage of a 16-year-old girl who was inebriated. Scurll would release two statements in which he did not deny the allegations, but claimed the encounter was consensual. On June 25, the promotion announced that they launched an investigation concerning the allegations, and Scurll was removed from his position as booker. By January 2021, Ring of Honor announced that Marty Scurll was no longer under contract after the two parties mutually agreed to part ways. On January 31, 2020, Ring of Honor announced the return of the
ROH Pure Championship, with a tournament to crown the first Pure champion since 2006. The following month, the promotion announced another tournament to crown a new
ROH Women's World Championship, following the deactivation of the
Women of Honor World Championship title. However, in response to the 2020
COVID-19 pandemic, Ring of Honor would postpone live events beginning in March. Television tapings for
Ring of Honor Wrestling would resume in August at the
Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena (formerly known as the UMBC Event Center) from the promotion's homebase in Maryland but without fans in attendance. New episodes would begin syndication on September 12, with a revamped format, and the beginning of the Pure title tournament. Ten days prior, Ring of Honor launched a Free ad-supported television (FAST) channel on the Sinclair-owned streaming service
Stirr called "ROH Best On The Planet".
Final Battle would be the promotion's sole pay-per-view event in 2020, while live audiences would return on July 11, 2021, at
Best in the World. On October 27, 2021, Ring of Honor announced that it would go on a hiatus after
Final Battle in December, with a return tentatively scheduled for April 2022. All personnel would also be released from their contracts as part of plans to "reimagine" the company as a "fan-focused product". In the interim, the men's and woman's championships were defended at events held by various other promotions, including
Impact Wrestling and Jonathan Gresham's new Terminus promotion.
2022–present: Acquisition by Tony Khan became the owner of ROH in March 2022. On January 10, 2022, ROH announced that
Supercard of Honor XV would take place at the
Curtis Culwell Center in
Garland, Texas, on April 1. These matches were also seen on
Ring of Honor Wrestling. In addition, it was reported that Ring of Honor would operate "like an indie", using non-contracted talent. On the March 2 episode of
All Elite Wrestling's live weekly series
Dynamite, president and co-founder
Tony Khan announced that he had purchased Ring of Honor from Sinclair Broadcast Group, including its brand assets, intellectual property, and video library. Khan also announced that he intends to make the ROH library available to the public in its entirety. It was clarified through a press release issued that night that the acquisition was made through an entity separate from AEW and fully owned by Khan. In a media scrum following AEW's
Revolution PPV on March 6, Khan revealed that he eventually planned to run ROH separately from AEW, and also indicated that ROH could be used as a developmental brand for AEW. On April 1 at
Supercard of Honor XV, the first ROH event after the hiatus,
Jonathan Gresham defeated
Bandido in the main event to unify the
ROH World Championship, and numerous other ROH titles changed hands. The event also saw the return of former ROH champion, and recently inducted
ROH Hall of Famer,
Samoa Joe. On May 4, the sale of ROH to Tony Khan was officially completed. ROH matches began appearing on
AEW programs, and
Death Before Dishonor was the first ROH PPV under the new ownership. On December 10, after
Final Battle, Khan announced that ROH's weekly televised program will be aired on the relaunched Honor Club streaming platform, starting in 2023. On January 18, 2023, a one-off special tribute show to ROH mainstay
Jay Briscoe, who had been killed in a car accident the day before, was taped for
Honor Club. On February 25 and 26, new episodes of the relaunched
Ring of Honor Wrestling program were taped at
Soundstage 19 in
Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida before shifting to taping new episodes in conjunction with AEW events across the world. On March 2, the weekly series began to air exclusively through
Honor Club. Beginning on March 1, 2026, episodes of the weekly
Ring of Honor Wrestling program would be taped at the
WJCT studios in
Jacksonville, Florida. ==Features==