Less than a week after Ring of Honor flaunted plans to run a show at Madison Square Garden, the company no longer has its previously secured date.
Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley confirmed just last week that the organization had plans to run a show in New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden in 2019, via the Baltimore Business Journal. He made a point to note the calculated decision to run in WWE’s “home arena” would have been a transitional move to larger arenas beginning next year.
The latest news, however, comes from ROH COO Joe Koff, in an interview with PWInsider. Apparently after getting word that ROH was headed to their turf, WWE stepped in to block the move.
“I’m not going to discuss beyond this statement because I am not going to litigate this in the press. 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. I’m expecting that our lawyers will be contacting all the parties involved and the best we can hope is that we can find a resolution, so we can bring the kind of energy and excitement that ROH and our partner New Japan to a bigger audience and to bigger arenas and to the fans of New York City. “
Koff later acknowledged that there is currently no date set for the show. No date had been previously announced, but some speculated ROH was looking to run their big event during WrestleMania weekend while WWE kept its big events running at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the actual WrestleMania event at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Regardless of whether ROH is able to land in MSG next year, the company is preparing to take another step forward in 2019 (along with partner NJPW). According to Wrestling Inc, Mexico’s AAA will run at The Garden in September, becoming the first wrestling promotion since 1925 not named WWE to run there. There’s no current information on whether WWE is attempting to block AAA as well.
