The wrestling world is in mourning after the passing of former Ring of Honor COO Joe Koff. In August, he made the decision to discontinue treatment in order to enhance the quality of time he had left with his family. Mike Johnson of PW Insider reports that Koff had been privately battling cancer for some time. On behalf of SEScoops, we express our deepest condolences to Joe Koff’s family and friends.
Joe Koff Remembered
Koff became Senior VP of Training and Development for Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2003, and became ROH’s COO when the company was purchased by Sinclair in 2011. As COO, Koff oversaw several major developments, including announcing a streaming service for the promotion in November 2017. The service, later named Honor Club, was unveiled on February 2, 2018, and launch on February 19.
While Koff joined ROH as part of the Sinclair deal, his involvement in the wrestling world was not merely business. A lifelong fan, Koff attended WWWF events with his father in the original Madison Square Garden. Decades later, it’d be the efforts of Koff and others that would bring ROH to the World’s Most Famous Arena for the G1 Supercard in April 2019. The show became the first non-WWE entity to run the arena in decades, a claim that stands to this day.
Koff’s time with ROH came to an end in 2022 when the promotion changed hands and was acquired by Tony Khan, but his love of wrestling continued long after that.
