All Elite Wrestling

WWE filed a trademark for the name “Cody Rhodes” on October 13, 2009. The filing was valid for 10-years, expiring on October 13, 2019. The United States Patent and Trademark office provides a 6 month grace period if a renewal is not filed. The 6 month grace period ended on April 13, and now the trademark has expired. Cody filed a successful trademark to regain his official wrestling surname

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. Ten shows ran in Philadelphia, two in Wakefield, Massachusetts; one in metro Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and, one 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, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) 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, WCW 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 second 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 Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that the broadcast carrier had purchased ROH, with former owner Cary Silkin remaining with the company in an executive role. ROH TV 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 26-week television deal with Destination America, 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

In early 2017, Rhodes, the Bucks, and several other talents left the company.

On September 1, 2018, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) promoted and wrestled at All In, an event that was produced in collaboration with ROH as well as NJPW, WCW, CMLL, AAA and the NWA, featuring wrestlers from those promotions that drew over 11,000 fans in suburban Chicago. This was the first U.S. pro wrestling event not promoted by WWE or World Championship Wrestling (WCW) to reach the 10,000 attendance mark since the 1990s.

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, 2018, ROH announced that it would go on a hiatus after Final Battle in December, with a return tentatively scheduled for April 2022. All personnel would also be released from their contracts. The reasoning for ROH's decline has been said as the following:


 * Sinclair Broadcasting saving the company from bankruptcy but not putting the money or effort to improve the production of the product and using ROH as a way to fill airtime on Sinclair affiliates
 * 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 New Japan
 * 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.

Rebranding of ROH to AEW
On November 5, 2018, several trademarks were filed in Jacksonville, Florida. Names filed for trademark included: All Elite Wrestling, AEW All Out, AEW, Double or Nothing, Tuesday Night Dynamite, AEW Double or Nothing, and several logos.

At midnight Pacific Time on January 1, 2019, in an episode of Being the Elite, a YouTube web series created by and featuring The Elite announcing that they, alongside entrepreneur, football executive, and longtime wrestling fan Tony Khan and Shahid Khan, have brought Ring of Honor Wrestling and rebranded it as All Elite Wrestling (AEW).

On January 2, 2019, Cody and The Young Bucks officially signed with the promotion as competitors as well as serving as AEW's co-Executive Vice Presidents, Tony Khan was announced as the CEO of the company. Shahid Khan is the company's owner

Cody's wife, Brandi Rhodes, was announced as the company's chief brand officer on January 3, 2019.

On January 8, 2019, the company held its inaugural press conference on the forecourt of the TIAA Bank Field, where they announced talents that were going to perform as part of the promotion, including the team of SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Scorpio Sky, and Frankie Kazarian), "Hangman" Adam Page; independent wrestlers Dr. Britt Baker, Joey Janela, and former WWE wrestlers PAC and Chris Jericho

On February 7, 2019, the group held a press conference where tickets were released for Double or Nothing. Other big announcements included Kenny Omega joining as a wrestler and the company's fourth co-Executive Vice President, as well as the signings of Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix), Best Friends (Trent Beretta and Chuck Taylor).

Corporate staff

 * Sadiq Khan-Owner, Chairman and Chief executive officer (CEO)
 * Tony Khan-
 * Chris Harrington-Director
 * Chad Glenn-Chief business officer
 * Don Callis-Chief human resources officer
 * Dana Massie-Chief marketing, sales and branding officer
 * Brandi Rhodes-Chief merchandise officer
 * Mark Caplan-Chief product technology officer
 * Megha Parekh-General counsel
 * Arn Anderson-Chief creative officer
 * Chief accounting officer
 * Margaret Stalvey-Legal coordinator
 * Denise Cutler-Seamstress
 * Dion Sekone-Fraser-Social media coordinator
 * Janet Ventriglia-Lead hair and make-up artist
 * BrookLynn Ramsey-Scenic design and Timekeeper
 * Kristy McConville-Audio producer
 * Michael Sampson-Head physician
 * Mikey Rukus-Music producer
 * Nick Mondo-Audiovisual director
 * Sadiel Ruiz-Portrait photography
 * Shane Hagadorn-Content operations specialist
 * Sunny Daze-Video editor
 * William Regal-Director of Talent Development and Head of Global Recruiting
 * Kenny Omega-Director of live events and producers (also a wrestler)
 * The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)-Director of live events and producers (also wrestlers)
 * Cody Rhodes-Director of live events and producers (also a wrestler)
 * Dean Malenko-Producer
 * Shawn Carr-Head of ring crew
 * Bryce Ready-Head athletic trainer
 * B.J. Whitmer-Coach
 * Jerry Lynn-Coach

Chief Business Officer combines the roles of chief visionary officer, chief strategy officer, chief commercial officer, chief revenue officer, chief administrative officer (CAO), chief financial officer (CFO), and chief operating officer (COO)

Chief privacy officer, Chief web officer, Chief technology officer and Chief product officer are combined

President and CEO are combined

chief product officer, Chief branding officer, Chief marketing officer and Chief sales officer is combined into one role and one team.

Learning from WCW and ECW's mistakes


 * Never let suits and ties run your company
 * Don’t have writers who write for shock value and don’t put anyone in charge that doesn’t know two cents about pro wrestling.
 * Don’t overextend / overspend yourself financially. Follow WWE in terms of being financially sound and solvent
 * Don’t focus on imported talent at the detriment of your home grown talent.
 * Make your own way; don’t try to be WWE and don't take potshots At WWE
 * Don’t lie to your TV network &, if you do, don’t accidentally CC them an email exposing your lie.
 * Don’t hire people to work behind the scenes who claim they can take you to the next level; especially if they were involved in killing another company.
 * Do not let your main financial backer become a TV character & don’t give them an action figure. And stop them overhyping surprises so that they ultimately feel like a let down.
 * Do not introduce creative control clauses in contracts. You can still consult talent on the basis of creative.
 * Respect the fans and don’t take them for granted
 * Don't act like you're too big or beyond reproach
 * Every Channel Hop Diminishes Credibility. On-demand is generally considered the way forward, but there is still something to be said for having a strong weekly presence on top of that. It must be in a fixed place, at a fixed time and that must be communicated well to the fanbase so they know when and where they can get their All Elite fix.
 * And MOST IMPORTANTLY - NEVER hire Vince Russo. In ANY capacity. It only leads to a lot of upset & the death or severe decline of your company.