By Will Pruett, ProWrestling.net Co-Senior Staffer (@itswilltime)
Allow your mind to drift back to a worse time to be a wrestling fan – 2015. We were deep into the long monopoly from WWE and, seeing fans leave their produce consistently for over a decade, WWE started creating their own counter-culture. After years of producing one specific brand of wrestling more and more people walked away from, WWE did something different.
The NXT brand – brought to prominence with the launch of WWE Network in 2015 and the inception of NXT Takeover specials – was WWE’s answer to a growing indie wrestling scene. Pulling stars straight from PWG and ROH then putting them on WWE network as the exact same acts. After decades of WWE pulling wrestlers from the Indies, changing them completely, and breaking them of any personality, NXT became a welcome change of pace.
There were a few notable changes from the mainstream WWE product to NXT – a deeper and more dynamic women’s division, a shorter weekly show, and shorter premium events happening the evening before WWE pay-per-views. NXT also turned one night shows into full weekend events. WWE learned they could sell arenas for Takeover specials and milk more money from traveling wrestling fans.
NXT told stories at a distinctly different rhythm from mainline WWE – the stories were slow, peaking at Takeover events, but settling back into a glacial pace after. Multiple times I swore after a great Takeover that I wouldn’t miss another episode of weekly TV and every time I was bored to tears by the second week.
Ring of Honor, upon Tony Khan’s purchase of it in 2022, was thought to be destined to be All Elite Wrestling’s version of NXT. That promise has never truly been fulfilled. ROH has often seemed like more AEW but also worse AEW. It’s a show for people who love matches and will sometimes give you more than ten of them. It’s filmed before and after AEW shows, often with crowds that are not passionate about it. Ring of Honor has mostly floundered since the Tony Khan purchase – even with moments of brilliance like the Briscoes vs. FTR mixed in.
At Supercard of Honor 2025 in Arlington, Texas, ROH seemed to lean into the NXT of it all. Taking place less than 24 hours before AEW All In Texas, Supercard of Honor was slotted into the old NXT Takeover slot. Taking place in a much smaller venue with a deeply passionate crowd, Supercard of Honor felt like the old NXT shows did.
Supercard of Honor also had the match of the weekend. Despite AEW being a promotion that prides itself on match quality, nothing at All In Texas matched the dynamic work of Bandido and Konoske Takeshita in Supercard of Honor’s main event. From the moment that match was announced, we knew it had the potential to steal the weekend. One lasting memory of the Takeover era of NXT was walking into the WWE show the next night knowing nothing could match what you had just experienced one night earlier.
Ring of Honor has long been praised for its depth of talent and storytelling in the women’s division, particularly with Athena as the centerpiece act of ROH for the last year. ROH shows what could happen if AEW fully relied on its female talent, as ROH does on Athena. The four-way match for the Interim Women’s Television Championship was really good and the Women’s World Championship match between Athena and Thunder Rosa was great. There is the talent depth in ROH to go even further than 2016-17 era NXT.
Now, ROH is still a promotion ran by Tony Khan and he still has his own booking philosophies that differ from the NXT Takeover era. Tony Khan will not run a short wrestling show. New matches were being announced as we walked into Supercard of Honor on July 11. As a booker, Khan believes more is always better. The show will always feature more matches and be faster paced than the five match NXT Takeover shows often were. Additionally, Tony Khan cannot help himself when it comes to creating interim titles. He believes fans show up for a title match and thus, title matches should happen on these large shows, even when champions cannot compete.
What lessons can ROH learn going forward? Let’s start with scheduling. Major Ring of Honor shows should happen the night before AEW pay-per-view events. I don’t know if they should accompany every AEW pay-per-view, but I would argue for most. ROH special events often happening without anyone noticing, but capturing attention when AEW already has people excited for a weekend is the right move. It makes AEW feel like a bigger promotion when they can capture a weekend this way.
ROH should also look to its roster to show fans the future of wrestling. Just as NXT presumed to show fans what they could expect from wrestling in the next ten years (a vision WWE has come close to meeting after Vince McMahon’s scandalous departure), ROH should be a forward-looking promotion. Show fans the state of the art. Push the main AEW roster to be better. Experiment with new match ideas and storytelling concepts on a show with lower stakes.
If Tony Khan is going to insist on booking both AEW and ROH, use ROH as a testing ground for new ideas, not as a nostalgic look back at what ROH was in 2005.
Takeshita vs. Bandido was the state of the art in wrestling today. It was the kind of match I would show anyone to show them the potential of modern professional wrestling. ROH reached its true potential, not as its own standalone promotion, but in what it offered to AEW on that weekend. Give me a great show with one standout match. Give me something to reward the hardcore fans looking forward to the pay-per-view with a little more action.
ROH should be AEW’s NXT – but not just a junior version of the promotion. ROH needs to be a vision of what wrestling can and will become.
For photos from ROH Supercard of Honor, check out my instagram @itswilltime where I’ve posted my photos from ROH and AEW shows in July.
Will Pruett writes about wrestling and popular culture at prowrestling.net. To see his video content subscribe to his YouTube channel. To contact, check him out on Bluesky @itswilltime, leave a comment, or email him at itswilltime@gmail.com.
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