Rob Feinstein founded Ring of Honor in 2002, but due to serious accusations made against him, he would relinquish the company to longtime friend Doug Gentry. The promotion, though, was struggling, and ticket broker Cary Silkin bought them in 2004 and kept them afloat until selling to the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2011. Now, while speaking to the ROHStrong podcast, Silkin has revealed that former CM Punk rose to prominence while working for the promotion texted him before he sold to Sinclair and inquired about purchasing the company.
It hasn’t been publically revealed how much Sinclair paid for ROH. Still, it’s been reported to have been an insignificant amount to Sinclair. As Silkin was losing money running ROH, he was happy to recoup some of his losses. Perhaps had Punk picked up the phone rather than texting to set up a meeting, wrestling history now would be very different. During this time, CM Punk was an upper midcarder for WWE and worked as either the Straight Edge Society leader or on Raw ahead of taking control of Nexus. Had he purchased ROH, it’s possible his famous Pipebomb promo would never have happened, nor his 434-day reign as WWE Champion.
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