ROH Google Search interest has dropped off significantly | Column

Tony Khan purchased Ring of Honor/ROH back in March 2022, and since then, interest in the company on Google has unfortunately been on a steady decline. Google Trends scores measure relative search (interest rather than the total number of searches) and the highest point in the selected location and period is assigned a score of 100. It’s not an exact science of knowing how much hype is around a certain event/weekly show, but it’s a good indicator.

The chart below shows Google Search interest in ROH and Ring of Honor as search terms over the past 5 years, with the clear peak being the announcement of the sale to Tony Khan (100/100 in terms of interest) and then a gradual decline with a one-off pop in December 2023 (89/100). That spike in 2023 came around ROH Final Battle 2023, which had a Jay Briscoe Memorial Fight Without Honor. The trend chart (taking into account the Past 5 Years) now sits at 33/100 as of July 2026.

What happened?

Everything I say from here on has to be taken as my own perception of the situation, because honestly, that’s what it is going to be. I can’t definitively tell you exactly what happened, so just bear that in mind, and bear with me:

As you saw in the graph above, Google search interest in ROH was down -20% compared to the 5 years prior (around 2016-late 2021). I think the two biggest reasons for this are the rise in popularity of New Japan in the early to mid 2010s, NXT becoming somewhat of an alternative to WWE in the mid to late 2010s and AEW eventually becoming the “true” alternative to WWE in 2019 into the 2020s. AEW buying ROH in 2023 then muddied the waters further.

ROH’s identity has changed a lot over the years, with the original 2000s run, “Smoky Mountain of Honor” and Tony Khan’s patronage arguably being three of the clearest eras (beyond the Delirious booking run). Ring of Honor functioned as somewhat of an ECW but for the-then modern era when it first started gaining traction in the early 2000s, providing that third company alternative that ECW was in the 90s, except the presentation was more of a sports-orientated proposition compared to the shock jock tactics that helped build Extreme Championship Wrestling in the 90s.

The “Smoky Mountain of Honor” era, which saw Jim Cornette try to take the company to a bigger audience on HDNet, struggled with an identity issue, which then coincided with New Japan becoming more accessible to people on a global level. Delirious took over creative in around 2012, but NJPW continued to rise, got easier to watch because of FITE TV and NJPWWorld and became the alternative that people were gravitating to after TNA had its own identity crisis.

Where does ROH even fit now in wrestling?

I think the biggest issue with ROH in 2026 is that it doesn’t have a clear identity. Is it a developmental system for AEW? It’s really difficult to feel like the brand is meant to ‘matter’ when its World Champion is appearing in the undercard of AEW programming. Now don’t get me wrong, I love watching Bandido (he’s been my favourite wrestler for some years now), but perception is reality, and if your top draw on one show, is in the middle of the card on the other, then it tells fans instantly how the hierarchy works: AEW is what you should be watching, ROH is lesser.

Another of the issues is that major ROH PPVs have not felt must-see for a while, probably since we were getting The Briscoes vs FTR series (which is unfair to blame them for, yes, because of circumstances beyond their control with Jay Briscoe’s untimely passing). But really, when is the last time you personally saw an ROH PPV advertised and didn’t think “oh, there’s an ROH PPV this weekend?” That’s an issue.

I don’t know what the answer is here, but there needs to be something done to determine WHAT Ring of Honor actually is in 2026, otherwise it will keep limping along and not really serving much of a wider purpose. Could it work as a developmental system to AEW on a more clear hierarchical level? Possibly, but I think that would take having Tony Khan delegate and decide who is going to control that aspect of the business so he can focus on the “main roster” of AEW.