The former ROH COO looks back at the event that was a precursor to All Elite Wrestling.
From September 2011 to May 2022, Joe Koff served as Chief Operating Officer for Ring of Honor. In March of 2022, AEW President Tony Khan revealed that he acquired the promotion.
Koff guest appeared on Busted Open to discuss his memories of Ring of Honor and the role he had within the promotion. The conversation shifted over to the 2018 ALL IN. He said that never happens with ROH. Koff added that he had an inkling that something was coming afterwards because they were in contract talks with Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson) at the time.
He has no regrets about not putting ROH in the ALL IN show title. For Koff, at the time, it was about ROH/Sinclair owning the footage but he knew it was The Elite’s show.
I was in the TV business. ALL IN was a pay-per-view, ALL IN was content. ALL IN was content that I was gonna own in my library. So I understood the risks. The one thing I was always aware of is that I was in business of wrestling and a lot of the wrestlers were in business of wrestling are two arches. We’re not quite the same. But I wasn’t gonna stop. I wasn’t gonna stop their passion for what they believed in. I didn’t know the end result really. I had an idea, I had an inkling, because we (ROH, Cody Rhodes & The Young Bucks) were in contract talks at the time. But they’re independent contractors. So, they had the freedom to do what they needed to do. Did I think that was a downside? Look, there’s always a risk. For me, I think it helped me sellout Madison Square Garden, because they weren’t announced, nobody was announced. I pivoted back to New Japan for that show, because I felt I might have needed a little bit of boost. I’m not sure we did or we didn’t but the show was great. But you know what? I would do it again. Because ALL IN was a terrific show and they could never, ever, ever have done it without us. We were the production company for that show. We took care of the management for that show, and they knew it by the way. There was no yin and yang here. You do this, I do that, you do this, I — they wanted a showcase. They wanted to show what they could be. I had a great show. It was a great show. So I have no regrets about any of that…
No. I had no regrets (Koff said when asked if he wishes he put ROH’s name in the ALL IN show title) because again, Bully (Ray), you’re a businessman, I’m a businessman. At the end of that program, the ownership rights were Ring of Honor/Sinclair… I know that (people don’t know that) but again, I didn’t even really go into it at that point so your point is well-taken. But, it didn’t matter to me. I knew it was their show. One thing I never did in Ring of Honor was really get involved in creative. I really tried to stay out of it. I’m not smart enough. I learned my lesson in Battle of the Belts with creative. I learned from some of the smartest guys in the world. Hiro Matsuda, Duke Keomuka, Wahoo McDaniel, they taught me about being on the business side. He said, ‘That’s where you are. You’re office…’ I thought it was good, and again, maybe in retrospect, I should’ve. But, it’ll never be remembered as ROH and All Elite. It’ll always be All Elite. But again, my thing was the ownership of the content. That was probably the single piece of content that had the most value, and I knew that because I understood the business side. But very fair point.
Since the 2018 ALL IN, All Elite Wrestling has presented two All In events at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The next installment of the show is going to take place in July 2025 in Arlington, Texas.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Busted Open with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
