ROH COO Joe Koff Talks ROH Streaming Service, Indie Wrestling & Business Fundementals

ROH COO Joe Koff Interviewed By AV Club

Ring of Honor COO Joe Koff was recently interviewed by Kevin Pang of The AV Club. In the interview, Koff discussed ROH’s business fundamentals, the company’s relationship with talent, their relationship with NJPW, a possible ROH streaming service, and the term “indie wrestling.”

The full interview is available is available at The AV Club. Some highlights:

Koff on the possibility of an ROH streaming service:

“It’s in development right now. I would expect it to be around the first of the year or a little bit after.”

Koff on the partnership between ROH & NJPW:

“Together the two make for a stronger in-ring promotion. But they did two shows in U.S., and they have a nice clearance on AXS-TV. Not to take anything away from the quality and what they represent, but quite frankly, ROH has helped them in exposing their talent and exposing their people to a broader audience. We’re over-the-air carrier, you don’t need to pay to get us. If a New Japan star is working on Ring Of Honor television, they’re getting to see that for free. So I think the relationship is mutually beneficial.”

Koff on ROH’s “business fundamentals:”

“We’re methodical and disciplined in our business fundamentals. We don’t rely on TV, we’re not Lucha Underground. We have a touring business, we sell merchandise and tickets.”

Koff on the proposed purchase of Tribune Broadcasting by ROH’s parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting:

“It doesn’t hurt to have a bigger distribution source. The one thing I like about the proposed Tribune-Sinclair deal is that it would take us across the country. Assuming that when we have a station that becomes part of Sinclair, Ring Of Honor finds a place on it. There’s been no discussion at this point because we’re in a phase of the deal where it doesn’t make sense to get distracted by that. We’re in a middle of a four-city, four-day tour. It’s ambitious. Show me another “indie” company that does that. So I think it would be great, the Tribune portfolio of stations certainly is not going to hurt us. Will it bring more viewers, more revenue? Yeah, it should do all those things.”

Koff on the term “indie wrestling:”

“I don’t see it as pejorative at all. When we bought the company from Cary Silkin back in 2011, Ring Of Honor was considered one of the top independents in the country. We’ll always be labeled as that because that’s how we’re remembered, and sometimes memories are much stronger than present tense. But I hardly look at us as an independent promotion. We’re in the middle of a four-day, four-city tour. We have weekly television. We have incredibly distribution. We’re on internationally. I don’t think we’ll ever get that [indie connotation] out of the hardcore fan’s mind. I’m not insulted by it by any means. But when you lump everything into that category, then we’re either at the top of that category or we shouldn’t be included in it at all.”