50 Fun Facts About Ring of Honor

Which Jacksonville Jaguars executive announced on live TV in 2022 that he had bought Ring of Honor?

Tony Khan broke the news on AEW Dynamite and promised to make the promotion's entire video library available to fans.

Which WWE world champion won the ROH World Championship in 2010 while wrestling as Tyler Black?

Seth Rollins already used his stomp finisher in those days, when it was called the Blackout rather than the Curb Stomp.

Which WWE star won the ROH World Championship in 2012 while wrestling under his real surname, Steen?

Kevin Owens was the first Canadian to hold that title. In 2010 he had been forced out of ROH after losing a match that staked his career against a rival's mask.

Which Chicago wrestler won the ROH world title in 2005, then vowed to take it with him to WWE?

CM Punk even signed his WWE contract on top of the title belt, in a storyline that ROH called the Summer of Punk.

Which ROH Founding Father, nicknamed the American Dragon, later led WWE's Yes Movement?

Bryan Danielson came to the ROH ring to a 1986 hit by the band Europe, climbing the top turnbuckle to sing the refrain with the crowd.

Which New York venue did ROH and New Japan Pro-Wrestling sell out for a joint show in April 2019?

Madison Square Garden had not hosted a wrestling show from outside the McMahon family's companies since 1960. The last tickets were gone within 16 minutes of going on sale.

Which later NXT and TNA champion held the ROH world title for a record 21 months from March 2003?

Samoa Joe made 29 title defences in the United States and Europe during that reign, which lasted 645 days.

Which Fozzy frontman and former WWE champion first won the ROH World Championship in 2022?

Chris Jericho styled himself The Ocho during that reign, because it was the eighth world title of his career.

In which city did Ring of Honor stage its first show, The Era of Honor Begins, in February 2002?

Philadelphia hosted ten of the promotion's shows in its first year, more than every other city combined.

Which gesture does ROH's Code of Honor ask wrestlers to exchange before and after every match?

A handshake came first among the code's five original laws, which were meant to give ROH matches the feel of Japanese pro wrestling.

Which son of the American Dream won the ROH World Championship in 2017, a year after leaving WWE?

Cody Rhodes had never held a world title before that night, and in ROH he wrestled under his first name alone.

Which Pennsylvania-born future NXT Champion was first to win the ROH world title three times?

Adam Cole spent eight years in ROH, where he also helped to found the villainous stable known as The Kingdom.

Which pair of brothers from Delaware won the ROH World Tag Team Championship a record 13 times?

The Briscoes spent 20 years with the promotion and were the very first inductees into the ROH Hall of Fame in 2022.

Which future WWE Champion and TNA mainstay won ROH tag gold in 2003 with Amazing Red as his partner?

AJ Styles vanished from ROH a year later, when TNA abruptly pulled all of its contracted wrestlers from the promotion's shows.

Which legend became ROH's ambassador in 2009, a year after losing to Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania?

Ric Flair's stay ended in court: ROH sued in 2010, claiming he owed more than $40,000 and had missed appearances he was contracted to make.

Which former WWE Diva joined ROH in 2011 as the villainous valet of her partner, Mike Bennett?

Maria Kanellis later stood beside The Kingdom, one of ROH's leading villain stables, and married Bennett in 2014.

Which New Japan faction, famous for its Too Sweet hand gesture, did The Young Bucks bring to ROH?

Bullet Club recruits needed the approval of New Japan's booker, even when they signed up at an ROH show.

Which 2018 show near Chicago began as a bet that an ROH-style event could never sell 10,000 tickets?

All In sold out in under 30 minutes. The Young Bucks and a fellow ROH star paid for it themselves, with the promotion's official sanction.

Which Paul Heyman promotion's 2001 collapse cost RF Video its best-selling tapes and inspired ROH?

ECW tapes had been RF Video's top seller, so owner Rob Feinstein built a new promotion whose shows he could film and sell exclusively.

Which owner of local TV stations across the United States bought ROH from Cary Silkin in 2011?

Sinclair Broadcast Group put a weekly ROH show on its own stations from September 2011, mostly in weekend afternoon or late-night slots.

Which annual December show, first held in 2002, is ROH's flagship event, its answer to WrestleMania?

Final Battle ran in New York City every year from 2006 to 2014, and the 2009 edition was the first ROH show to be broadcast live.

Which ROH event was long staged in the same weekend and metropolitan area as WWE's WrestleMania?

Supercard of Honor began in 2006 near Chicago, where a six-man tag team match was given a rare five-star rating by the Wrestling Observer.

Which ROH title, retired in 2006 and revived in 2020, allows each wrestler only three rope breaks?

Pure Championship rules also outlaw closed-fist punches to the face: the first earns a warning and the second a disqualification.

Which wrestler, later WWE's Kaval, won a 60-minute Iron Man match to become the first ROH Champion?

Low Ki outscored three rivals in that four-way match, and eight years later he won the second season of WWE's NXT.

Which English wrestler won the ROH World Championship in 2007 and kept it for 545 days?

Nigel McGuinness wrestled in TNA as Desmond Wolfe, then came back to ROH in 2011 as a commentator and on-screen authority figure.

Which Generation Next member became the first two-time ROH World Champion in June 2009?

Austin Aries had first won the title in 2004, when he ended a reign that had lasted 21 months.

Which wrestler won a 2015 winner-takes-all match to hold ROH's World and Television titles at once?

Jay Lethal walked in as Television Champion, and his win also made him the first African American to hold ROH's top title.

Which Brooklyn wrestler vowed to quit ROH unless he won its world title in 2006, then won it?

Homicide made good on the vow on December 23, with eight days to spare, while he was also wrestling for TNA in the Latin American Xchange.

Which country is home to Claudio Castagnoli, half of ROH's Kings of Wrestling and WWE's Cesaro?

Switzerland shaped his early act too: before ROH he played a Swiss banker in a tag team called Swiss Money Holding.

Which wrestler, escorted by attendants called The Boys, won the ROH World Championship in 2017?

Dalton Castle once wagered The Boys on a match and lost them to a rival, though they were back at his side within months.

Which streaming service did ROH launch in February 2018 for its pay-per-views and video archive?

Honor Club began with two price tiers, then was relaunched with a single $9.99 monthly fee after the promotion changed hands in 2022.

Which manager of The Midnight Express joined ROH in 2009 as executive producer of its TV show?

Jim Cornette also played an on-screen authority figure, and on his first episode he ordered the champion into a four-way title match that same night.

Which host of the podcast The Art of Wrestling belonged to ROH's Second City Saints stable?

Colt Cabana first entered ROH as a rival to one of his future Saints partners, and went on to win its tag team titles twice.

Which wrestler nicknamed the Fallen Angel was one half of the first ROH tag team champions?

Christopher Daniels finally won the ROH World Championship in 2017, fifteen years after he wrestled in the main event of the company's first show.

Which wrestler, known in WWE as Ember Moon, won the ROH Women's World Championship in December 2022?

Athena then kept the belt for years, the longest reign of any champion in ROH history.

Which Japanese legend won a 2005 ROH match rated five stars and named Match of the Year?

Kenta Kobashi was making only his second appearance in North America, and he won a tag team match for ROH on his third.

Which promotion, founded by John Zandig, invaded ROH in 2006 in a feud settled in a Cage of Death?

Combat Zone Wrestling was the promotion RF Video had spent months trying to join before its owner created ROH instead.

In which capital did a May 2003 title defence turn the ROH Championship into a World Championship?

London hosted Frontiers of Honor, a joint show with Britain's Frontier Wrestling Alliance, where the title was defended outside the United States for the first time.

Which Canadian city hosted Global Wars in May 2014, the first show ROH co-promoted with New Japan?

Toronto had first welcomed ROH in 2008, and the Global Wars partnership went back there for two nights the following May.

Which hardcore legend joined ROH in 2004 and argued with Ricky Steamboat over how to wrestle?

Mick Foley spoke up for hardcore wrestling against Steamboat's traditional style, and the two made peace at an ROH show that December.

Which cable channel founded by Mark Cuban premiered ROH's first weekly TV series in 2009?

HDNet carried Ring of Honor Wrestling for two years, until the contract ran out and the last episode aired in April 2011.

Which member of The American Wolves became ROH's first Television Champion and Triple Crown winner?

Eddie Edwards completed the set by winning the World Championship, and later became the first wrestler to hold both the ROH and TNA Triple Crowns.

Which promotion, founded by Mitsuharu Misawa in 2000, co-promoted ROH's first Tokyo show in 2007?

Pro Wrestling Noah helped to stage the Tokyo show one night before ROH ran Osaka with a different partner, Dragon Gate.

Which show, taped in New York in May 2007, became ROH's first pay-per-view that July?

Respect Is Earned reached homes through Dish Network, and the move to pay-per-view prompted TNA to pull its contracted stars from ROH shows.

Which masked ROH wrestler, who runs wild screaming when the bell rings, became head booker in 2010?

Delirious, whose real name is Hunter Johnston, wrote and produced more than 500 episodes of ROH's weekly television and ran its wrestling school.

Which Ghanaian-American manager founded The Embassy, a villainous ROH faction formed in 2004?

Prince Nana claims to be the son of Ashanti royalty and heir to a throne in Ghana, where he really did spend five years of his childhood.

Which Japanese heavyweight became the first non-American ROH World Champion in early 2007?

Takeshi Morishima went on to defend the title in the main event of ROH's first show in Japan that summer.

Which winner of ROH's first women's match in 2002 later became the first Women of Honor Champion?

Sumie Sakai waited sixteen years between those two firsts, and nobody held that version of the title for longer than she did.

What does ROH call a match in which lasting ten minutes with a champion earns a title shot?

Proving Ground rules reward an outright win too, and Lee Moriarty lasted the ten minutes to earn a 2024 title shot, then won the belt.

Which ROH tournament, first held in 2004, puts qualifying winners into one match for a title shot?

Survival of the Fittest was modelled on the Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup, a Maryland tournament that ROH had been due to take over.