ROH COO Joe Koff Says Next Step For Ring Of Honor Could Be Weekly Live Television
ROH could be joining the weekly live television fray.
This coming Fall, WWE, Ring Of Honor, All Elite Wrestling, IMPACT Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance will all have weekly television shows whether those shows be live or taped. AEW and WWE are the only live shows as of this writing but Ring Of Honor’s C.O.O. Joe Koff could be considering a move to live television for Ring Of Honor. Koff chatted with TSN for an exclusive interview ahead of ROH’s Summer Supercard show in Toronto on August 9th and he talked about the idea of ROH producing a weekly live show. Koff added that as of right now, their ratings over their TV stations and TV networks are fine and haven’t fallen as some would think.
“I think that would be our next step to create a weekly show that is time-sensitive, so people are seeing it in real-time pretty much like we’re going to see from the other promotions,” Koff said. “But we have to stand on our own. We’re not doing it because they are. I’m doing it because I think that’s what the consumer would rather have. They’re very satisfied with what they get. Our ratings over our TV stations and TV networks are fine and they’ve been good and haven’t really deteriorated to any degree that people might think. I think having appointment television, destination television in one solid place would make a big difference and that would be my goal.”
Ring Of Honor and the NWA recently parted ways as partners. Following that report/announcement, Billy Corgan announced NWA’s weekly television series. Joe Koff commented on the split and said people are making it bigger than what it is and ROH still has a good relationship with the NWA.
“I think everybody is making a bigger case [of the split] than what it was,” Koff said. “I love the people at the NWA. We had an opportunity to work with them like we’ve worked with other promotions. I can’t speak for them – I can only tell you what we spoke about, but I think there was a lot of good that benefited both companies. When there is good benefit for both, then it’s a good thing. I think the NWA wants to have its own brand identity that is not associated with someone else and I think they should. They deserve that and maybe this is the right time to do that in the face of the popularity of the sport right now. So there was no big dissolution, there wasn’t any big anything. It was just time. It was their time and it was our time. They are more than welcome to be part of our company. They know that and I hope at some point we can do things together as we have in the past. I have no vitriol and I think that would be good for the business.”
Koff also talked about All In being the precursor to All Elite Wrestling launching. AEW will host their first show on TNT on October 2nd and it is on that show that the first AEW Women’s World Champion will be crowned.
