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Originally Posted by Fragile X
Well first of all, your wrong in that "nobody cares" comment. Because clearly they do as ROH does have a strong fan base which has kept them the largest non national company in America for 9 years.
Also the selling point of ROH has never been a star, it's the name itself Ring of Honor and what that means which is simple, ROH = The Best In The World. If ROH can get rid of what makes them seem like a 90's indie (undercard cheese dicks) and replace them with the hardcore indie workers that are so loved like Homicide, Jay Lethal, Daniels, WGTT, KOW, The Briscoes, El Generico, Edwars and Richards, as well as perhaps add some talented national players like Antonio Banks, Low Ki, or perhaps even Finlay (who could work a reduced schedule as well as behind the scenes) ROH could be on the uprise.
People always wanna compare ROH and make it more than it is. The truth is they don't concern themselves with TNA or WWE, they simply are not competition, the best thing they could be is the alternative. So if ROH markets their name instead of stars then they will have a better shot...
In the past the beauty of ROH is that I would buy a ticket not knowing who was on the card because I knew they would put out a killer show with the best matches I could hope for, just like ECW did. This is how you book the alternative, BRAND BRAND BRAND, build up ROH to new audiences as the place to go to see heart stopping moves and hard hitting action that you don't always find in WWE or TNA.
Problem is that they have to really keep up with WWE because WWE has had some great wrestling on free tv lately.
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ROH stays afloat because of a small group of hardcore fans who go to all of their shows and make it a "cult hit", and the internet fans who I already mentioned, who, in all honesty, are probably the same people.
But outside of that core group of fans who have kept this place going, nobody outside of them knows or cares about Ring of Honor. Most people haven't even heard of or watch TNA, and they have been on TV for several years and have huge names like Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. Ring of Honor, with it's group of hard working, but uncharismatic and uninteresting wrestlers, doesn't really stand a chance at gaining mainstream attention.
And say what you want about them marketing the company as "Ring of Honor, where the best wrestlers are", but without a main face to pull people in, people simply won't care. 80's/90's WWF had Hogan, Macho and Warrior, later they had Austin, then they had The Rock, now they have John Cena. WCW had Hogan, Flair, Sting, and then the nWo and Goldberg. ECW had the brilliant writing and storyline creation coming from Paul Heyman, who created believable and interesting characters in Sandman, Raven, Taz, Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer. Without CHARACTERS, a ROH show is going to fail in the ratings, and say what you want about "at least it will be the best wrestling on TV", what does that matter if no one is watching it?
What I'm saying is that they can't simply market themselves as "We Are Wrestling" - they NEED storylines, they NEED interesting characters, and they NEED a main event face.