Update On Potential TV Deal For ROH

For a number of months now, Chris Jericho has been a common target of wrestling's hardcore online fanbase, which when looked at historically, feels a bit weird. After all, for much of his career, the former "Y2J" was consistently one of the most beloved figures in the industry, able to constantly reinvent himself and find success in varying eras of WWE and more recently AEW. Many fans found themselves fuming when Jericho recently unseated Mark Briscoe to begin his second reign with the ROH World Championship, but according to a new report by The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there may be a very specific reason that AEW and ROH owner Tony Khan chose to pass the title back to the inaugural AEW World Champion.

According to WON, negotiations are in progress and getting "close" between Khan and AEW TV partner Warner Brothers Discovery on the matter of bringing the ROH product back to traditional television. The likely destination for ROH's new show would reportedly be TruTV, a WBD cable network looking to transition into being a channel focused on showcasing live sports during prime time hours. Whether that means the network will change its name to fit this new initiative is unclear. Notably, reports ahead of the recent announcement that AEW had inked a lucrative new TV deal with WBD often mentioned TruTV getting into the wrestling mix, although so far no AEW programming has been confirmed for its schedule.

With that in mind, WON's Dave Meltzer believes that Jericho once again being made the face of the ROH brand could very well be an attempt to make signing a TV deal for ROH a more appealing prospect to any potential partners. Like him or not, Jericho is still one of the most recognizable figures in wrestling, and also has a heavy entertainment world presence outside the ring, thanks to his tours with band Fozzy, his countless reality show appearances, and his small but memorable roles in films like the recent hit slasher threequel Terrifier 3.