WWE Block ROH Plans
Last week Sinclair Broadcasting CEO Chris Ripley announced that Ring of Honor were going to be running its big show ever from the legendary Madison Square Garden next year – rumored to be over WrestleMania weekend. Although the venue runs a lot of different types of shows, the only wrestling promotion to ever run there in the last century is WWE due to their close relationship. In 1994 WCW tried to run a show with Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair on the card, but two weeks after it was announced Madison Square Garden cancelled the booking and WWF ran a show on the date instead.
Dave Meltzer wrote in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter last week after Ripley’s announcement that WWE were working hard behind the scenes to prevent ROH from doing the show from Madison Square Garden – despite the fact they won’t be using the building over ‘Mania weekend – with the Hall of Fame, NXT, Raw and SmackDown being held at the Barclays Centre. AAA also announced they were planning on running Madison Square Garden at some point in 2019, but it seems that neither is likely to happen.
Ring of Honor’s COO Joe Koff has revealed that the Madison Square Garden date has been cancelled because – you guessed it – WWE got their own way. Koff explained further to Mike Johnson of PWInsider,
“We had a deal with [Madison Square] Garden and they then told us they were backing out after communications from the WWE. We are not able to get any other dates in any kind of discussion.”
Meltzer writes in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
“One source said it only took one call from a high ranking WWE official, and not from Vince McMahon, and Madison Square Garden contacted ROH and pulled the date. We were told last week by sources close to the situation that it could and probably would turn into an ugly legal fight.”
He adds that although MSG agreed to the date, a contract had not been signed. According to Meltzer’s sources:
“Sinclair was furious and legal proceedings could take place and were being explored.”
Austin Aries Announced For Best In The World
Ring of Honor can look ahead instead to their upcoming Best in the World show – which airs next Friday on June 29th from Baltimore. The show features Dalton Castle defending his ROH Championship against Cody and Marty Scurll, The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks for the Tag Team Championships, Hangman Page vs. Punishment Martinez for the TV Title, Flip Gordon vs. Bully Ray and more.
And ROH have revealed that current Impact World Champion Austin Aries has been announced for the show. The former ROH Champion has been involved on Ring of Honor TV from time-to-time as of late, getting involved in a feud between former TV Champion Silas Young and Kenny King. Aries hasn’t had his match announced yet, and neither have King or Young, so one would assume they would be involved. Interestingly, the Belt Collector isn’t listed as the current Impact World Champion in ROH’s announcement, and Impact Wrestling themselves haven’t promoted the event on their social media – so it remains to be seen if that rumored Ring of Honor vs. Impact Wrestling show ever happen.
All In To Be Broadcast!
A show that will be happening, however, is All In this September from Chicago. The show sold out its 10,000 seats in under half an hour, which left a few fans grumbling about how they are going to see it. At New Japan’s Dominion a couple of weeks ago, The Young Bucks approached Oli Davis’ best friend Don Callis after their IWGP Tag Team Championship victory and told the WrestleTalk Insider that he was All In.
While that was a good indication that fans unlucky enough to get tickets would be able to see All In, Cody, Matt and Nick Jackson have now confirmed this via Twitter posting:
https://twitter.com/ALL_IN_2018/status/1009561573659152385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cagesideseats.com%2F2018%2F6%2F20%2F17486468%2Fall-in-will-be-broadcast-cody-rhodes-young-bucks-confirm
With the men having connections with both ROH and New Japan, it’s possible that All In could be featured on Honor Club, FiteTV or New Japan World. And with Callis announcing the show and his ties with Impact Wrestling, there’s also the possibility it airs on GWN or their Twitch channel.
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