10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ring Of Honor
8. The Promotion Was Born To Push Video Sales
Long before Ring Of Honor hit the scene, RF Video helped distribute pro wrestling VHS tapes for several companies.
The most notable was the original Extreme Championship Wrestling, and the downfall of that organisation in 2001 would leave RF needing something new to plug the gap. ECW had been the group's best-seller, but now it was gone.
Originally, RF owner Rob Feinstein tried to make links with CZW, but was rebuffed. Going all out, he decided to help start a new wrestling promotion in early-2002, and that's how Ring Of Honor came to be.
At first, the company only existed so that RF Video could continue to sell tapes at the same volume they had.
In essence, ROH was a (more limited) replacement for the ECW tapes avid buyers had been purchasing for years through the distributor. It's surprising that Feinstein didn't simply try and make Ring Of Honor an ECW rip-off, but that's perhaps why he wanted to make inroads with CZW.
Trying something very different, ROH was a successful venture on the tape trading market.