Longtime Ring of Honor ring announcer Bobby Cruise recently revealed that many people within the company believed WWE was set to purchase ROH before Sinclair Broadcast Group ultimately acquired the promotion in 2011.
Speaking on What Happened When, Cruise recalled the uncertainty surrounding the sale and admitted he was caught completely off guard when the real buyer was announced.
“We all thought—not all, but the people at the core that had been there for a while had thought we were being purchased by WWE. We all thought that.”
Cruise explained that the roster and staff were called together for a meeting in Chicago Ridge, Illinois, but had little information going in.
“We were told we’re going to have a meeting that day, but nobody really had any info.”
As he arrived, Cruise noticed unfamiliar faces around the venue and immediately began to suspect something had changed.
“We walked past some people that introduced themselves by name, but I didn’t know any of them… Joe Koff was one, Dan Bynum was another, Mark Davis was another. I’m like, ‘I don’t know who these people are.’ So now the wheels are turning in my head. I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t think the rumor of who bought us is true. It’s got to be somebody else.’”
The announcement that Sinclair Broadcast Group had purchased Ring of Honor came as a major surprise.
“Sure enough, we get told that it’s this Sinclair Broadcast Group… They basically said, ‘Hey, what do you think about doing a weekend in Charleston and North Carolina, triple shots,’ this kind of stuff. They explained the kind of company they were and that they had all of these affiliates throughout the country.”
While optimistic about the future, Cruise admitted he immediately sensed that the company was about to undergo major changes.
“It was a huge shock to me because first of all I was really believing that we were getting bought by someone else, but also it didn’t seem like to me the company was going to remain the same.”
He continued:
“Just in that first meeting it seemed like the company wasn’t going to remain the same. When you start mentioning all of these markets we’ve never been to before… I was not panicked, but I was uneasy, I guess is the best word.”
Cruise also looked back on the first television taping under Sinclair ownership, describing it as a difficult experience behind the scenes.
“That first TV taping is one of the most painful things I’ve ever been through in my life. We would do a match and have 15 to 20 minutes between matches… I thought to myself, ‘If this is the way we’re going to do this, then we’re in for a lot of problems.’”
Despite his initial concerns, Cruise remained with Ring of Honor through its various ownership changes and continues to serve as one of the promotion’s longest-tenured figures.
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