Ring of Honor

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 company was named Ring of Honor Wrestling (ROH). 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 9 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. 10 shows ran in Philadelphia, 2 in Wakefield, Massachusetts; 1 in metro Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and, 1 in Queens, New York. In 2003, ROH expanded to other areas of the United States, including Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland. In Florida, ROH supported Full Impact Pro, which would serve as a sister promotion until 2009. 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, Global Force Wrestling (GFW) ended its talent-sharing agreement with ROH, 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 each either held or were about to hold ROH championships. 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 May 2, 2007, ROH 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. Because of the move to pay-per-view, GFW immediately pulled its contracted stars (Austin Aries, Christopher Daniels, and Homicide) from ROH shows. The 1st PPV, titled "Respect is Earned", taped on May 12, first aired on July 1 on Dish Network

On October 26, 2008, the company announced the departure of head booker Gabe Sapolsky, and his replacement by Adam Pearce.

On January 26, 2009, ROH announced that it had signed an agreement with HDNet Fights for a weekly television program. The first tapings for *ROH TV* 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 8-man tournament beginning February 5, 2010, and ending February 6, 2010, on its *ROH TV* program. Due to a blizzard, however, the 2nd 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, ROH 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, ROH and Ohio Valley Wrestling announced a working relationship between the 2 companies.

On January 11, 2011, ROH completed *ROH TV* airing of the promotion's 2-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

On May 21, 2011, ROH and Anthem Sports & Entertainment announced that Anthem had purchased ROH, with former owner Cary Silkin remaining with the company in an executive role. *ROH TV* continued airing on several Sinclair owned-or-operated stations; the show airs primarily on Saturday or Sunday afternoons or late nights, or on prime time on some of Sinclair's The CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates

On June 22, Ring of Honor held their 1st live PPV event, Best in the World, from the Nashville State Fairgrounds in Nashville, Tennessee. In September, Sinclair began syndicating ROH to other stations; the 1st 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 TV deal with Stadium, 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 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

The departure of ROH's top talent for AEW was viewed by many wrestling journalists and commenters as the beginning of a decline for the promotion in 2019. 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 2018, ROH producer/road agent Joey Mercury resigned in protest, criticizing ROH for a lack of creative direction as well as having no concussion protocol for wrestlers. Mercury would reveal that ROH allowed Kelly Klein to wrestle after suffering a concussion during an October 26, 2018 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

On October 27, 2021, Ring of Honor announced that it will close down after Final Battle in December. AEW's COO Josh Kronke announced that he had purchased Ring of Honor from Anthem Sports & Entertainment; including its brand assets, intellectual property, and video library, among others. The reasoning for ROH's decline has been said as the following:

* Anthem not putting the money or effort to improve the production of the product
* The growing dependence of signing guys who made their name elsewhere (ROH had a history of creating/moving guys along from the indies),
* Emphasizing the NJPW talent more over their homegrown talent to the point that its hurting the ROH product, as they are more seen as an American feeder system to NJPW
* Relying on outside talent to carry shows with matches from their promotion. Having dream matches with ROH talent vs. any other promotion should be main events, instead they hold matches of wrestlers from the same promotion. Samoa Joe Vs. Kobashi, KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson, Naomichi vs. Nigel McGuinness
* Their contracts - they like to limit what shows guys can appear on ie limiting earning
* Reliance on Bullet Club. Yes this was great and got them a lot of exposure but none of these guys are full time or have any plan to be any time soon so reliance on them for the main events is tough.
* Squandered up-and-coming midcard talent starting around 2015-2016 (Ciampa, Moose, ACH, Keith Lee, Lio Rush, Cedric Alexander, Donovan Dijak, War Machine, etc.), leading to a lack of top stars to fill void left by Elite's departure in 2019
* Getting their top guys poached by WWE (they even tried to take the Briscoes at one point)
* Losing so much of their talent in one giant lump as opposed to gradually filtering it out
* The endless cavalcade of changing head writers/bookers after the ugly Gabe Sapolsky split, (Adam Pearce, Jim Cornette, and Delirious),
* Delirious' lazy writing and poor booking
* Poor production values that don't compare with anyone else in a negative way
* Smashing together good talents into random, nonsensical stables. You take the supremely good talents of PCO, Brody King & Marty Scurll, and shove them together as Villain Enterprises for no reason. You take the supremely good talents of Juice Robinson, Bandido, Finlay, Williams & Haskins, and shove them together as Lifeblood for no reason. You give no explanation and now they're just together.
* Lost ground and buzz as top super indy/non-WWE company to stateside promotions like PWG and LU plus international promotions like NJPW and those in the UK; NXT blowing up hurt too
* Relying way too heavily on Cody & The Young Bucks to carry their company, and relying way too heavily on The Young Bucks, The Briscoes & SCU to carry their tag division. When those guys all went, they were left with The Briscoes and nobody else. No wonder they signed Enzo & Cass.