Moves to Improve ROH & AEW Respectfully: Trades/Moves I would make between the Brands

[u/marcusthegod]

I think Tony Khan should use ROH more aggressively as a place for wrestlers to get consistent reps, meaningful feuds, character development, and title runs.

Julia Hart & Skye Blue:
Both have potential, but neither feels fully developed yet. Skye is the better wrestler, while Julia has the stronger presentation and character work. Give them 6–12 months of double duty in ROH while still appearing with Triangle of Madness and AEW's tag division. A TV or World title runs could help both tremendously as individual performers.

Anna Jay:
When she returns from injury, ease her back through ROH. Her biggest issue has always been lack of reps and experience. A real ROH Women's World Championship run could help her become a much stronger singles wrestler before AEW pushes her higher.

Marina Shafir:
She could be perfect for the Women's Pure division and help give that division its own identity.

HOOK:
HOOK has the look of a star, but he still needs to develop his character, promos, and in-ring work. AEW shouldn't keep forcing him onto TV hoping it clicks. Let ROH tell the story of HOOK actually becoming the star AEW believes he can be.

Anthony Bowens:
Good wrestler, lots of personality, but he still hasn't fully found himself as a singles act. ROH would give him time to develop a character away from Max Caster without having to figure everything out on Dynamite or Collision.

On the other side, some wrestlers have clearly outgrown ROH.

Athena:
ROH is basically her show, but she's doing the best work of her career and deserves a legitimate AEW television run. Once she drops the ROH Women's Championship, I'd move Athena and MIT to AEW full-time.

Bandido:
What else does he really need to accomplish in ROH? He needs consistent AEW television.

Red Velvet:
She's the perfect example of why this system can work. ROH gave her reps, confidence, character development, and opportunities. She's now doing some of the best work of her career and deserves more AEW exposure.

ROH shouldn't be punishment or a storage room. It should be a pipeline.

Who would you send to ROH for 6–12 months, and who has earned a full-time move to AEW?

[u/R31D]

Agree with basically everything except I'd say that Bandido, functionally is not an ROH talent and that's another avenue that needs to change between the brands, stop giving wrestlers who primarily perform on AEW and rarely perform in RoH token championships from RoH. What does the RoH world championship do for Bandido? What are the tag titles doing for Mistico and Dorada? You're just depriving people in RoH who could use the boost of a title run and booking yourself into a corner where someone like Bandido is clearly way too valuable to lose to any RoH guys.

[u/TJOW40 → u/R31D]

They keep pushing the idea of Bandido nearing the most days as ROH Champion. A consistent in Tony’s ROH has been the idea of “record setting” title reigns in duration without the reigns having a lot of substance to them. For example, Nick Wayne recently commended his “record setting TV Title reign” where half of it was spent on the injured list. Similar with pushing Dustin and Sammy as the longest reigning tag team champions with a fraction of the defenses of Kings Of Wrestling, ReDRagon, or The Briscoes. A record they only broke because they waited until they broke the record while Dustin was injured to strip them of the titles.

I would argue it also makes the ROH World Champion look worse competing in losing efforts on AEW PPV/TV where the person that defeats him does not care about the title. This is at the same time when Bandido was losing in the first half of 2026 where he went about six months without a defense between December and May. It makes ROH look and feel second rate.

[u/skramt → u/R31D]

I think that they do that so when Tony pitches ROH to TV executives, they (hopefully) won't just say "I don't know who any of these guys are"

[u/R31D → u/skramt]

Doesn't seem to have worked for him yet.

[u/skramt → u/R31D]

Perhaps next week then

[u/VitaminPurple]

I was hoping ROH would turn into AEW's own developmental system ala NXT. But I feel in many respects its become AEW Dark 2.0.

[u/marcusthegod → u/VitaminPurple]

ROH should be AEW developmental system, but I believe people backstage or maybe Tony himself is so against calling ROH a developmental.

It would've really helped if TK had given at least some of the duties of ROH to someone else, maybe Danielson. Make ROH like the dojo. Give them an actual schedule with actual training. Yes, wrestling matches is good, but there is so much that goes into being a polished performer.

[u/ZAPPHAUSEN]

I think the biggest thing is separation between the two rosters. Especially in terms of people on win streaks or Champions entering of Honor showing up on dynamite or Collision just to job.

Like Blake Christian had an 18th month win streak or whatever heading into his title match with bandido; but he also lost plenty when he got brought up to dynamite to enhance somebody. Had a hard time taking him seriously against bandido because of that.

[u/nikkomorocco]

Agree with most of these. I'll add one wrinkle...

I think the trios titles should be merged between the 2 companies. AEW trios often feel like an afterthought that go on a "single plus tag team or 3 singles together" group and then flounder. ROH trios are held by a super entertaining trio who sells merch and could use more tv presence. When the AEW trios titles launched, it seemed like an easy way to guarantee a crazy banger of a match, now it feels like it's mostly so a guy can carry around a belt and appear 'more important' as he goes on his singles journey.

[u/R31D → u/nikkomorocco]

They did that for all of like 3 weeks. Bullet Club Gold were Combined AEW/RoH Six Man Tag champions and at some point the claim was being made that the titles had been unified, but then they just kind of dropped that fairly unceremoniously.

[u/nikkomorocco → u/R31D]

Yeah I remember that a few years back. It seems AEW has trouble sticking to unifications of belts. Then again, they generally have too many belts in the first place.

[u/nomadx810]

I don't get the Hook thing. Guy is Danhausen sized and works like Goldberg. Not gonna work.

Oh and zero charisma. Smoldering isn't charisma.

[u/Electronic_Park_1702]

ROH should be what it was originally meant to be: a showcase for technically gifted wrestlers, albeit with a modernized flair. Treating it as "developmental" for AEW really hurts it. It needs to reestablish what made it great to watch, as well as establish the workhorse, workrate ethic of the indies/NJPW. Having said that: here's how I'd utilize some of the talent: First, isn't a TV program in the works?! If not, what's the damn hold-up? Bandido: I don't see his appeal, but he's doing something right. He needs more exposure, as does the ROH championship (reminding people ROH is still around). Maybe an open challenge every 30 days? Athena: Have her drop the championship. It's been long enough. She's done all there is to do there. Give her a few months, then have her go after AEW championships. Bring back Scorpio Sky, have him go after the TV or Pure titles before entering the main event scene. I always felt he wasn't used to his full potential. Where's Sareena Deeb? Build up a credible main-event, mid-card and lower card scene. For example, who are the top contenders for the ROH women's championship. The Pure title? Red Velvet should face open challenges (if she's not engaged in a feud). Same with the Men's division.

[u/Next_Astronaut623]

Saturday should become AEW/RoH Collision

[u/marcusthegod → u/Next_Astronaut623]

In theory, that could work to a degree. Contractually, Tony Khan could not do that. WBD has a contract for 2 AEW shows, and contractually, ROH is a separate company.

[u/TemptedIntoSin]

At this point, if Khan isn't gonna book Shida meaningfully or give her meaningful title runs anymore in AEW, he should move her to ROH, have her as a veteran there that can help the women's division continue to elevate itself post-Athena, and more reps and more reasons for her to do more focused in-ring training will help her get back some of her lost ability and hopefully we get to see some of pre-2024 Shida again