[Mr. Nerfect]

ROH used to have quite a bit of buzz among the internet wrestling fan. In its early years, it provided an emphasis on technical wrestling, or something more akin to what you'd find in a Japanese promotion firing on all cylinders. But now a lot of the more "iconic" (if that's not a stretch) ROH talent basically found their way up to WWE, and their style seems to be perpetuated in every corner of wrestling. ROH's no longer "counter-culture." It's basically a feeder system for NXT.

At their recent MSG show, it seemed that ROH was experimenting with a more "trashy" style. Kendo sticks, PCO being killed, Enzo & Cass, etc. This seems very contrary to what ROH represents, and dated in the sense it seems to want to chase the ghost of ECW. It's no surprise that Bully Ray is allegedly gaining more influence in the promotion.

Sinclair Broadcasting have a lot of money, but have pretty much kept ROH perpetually in "maintenance mode." They seem happy with its spot in the world. But with the MSG show and a few of their signings from Mexico, it seems Sinclair are more intrigued by breaking budget a little bit in order to get ROH out there.

Is there any hope for them? What do you think they need to do? Here are some of my typically outlandish suggestions:

Sinclair needs to accept that they are owners of it as a property, and that it is not property of Sinclair.

By that I mean maybe appearing on a few Sinclair affiliates just isn't enough for growth. With AEW allegedly flirting with two cable networks, perhaps Sinclair should be looking into picking up a deal with larger, or more prestigious, exposure than their affiliates? They can still run ROH weekly syndicated TV on their stations, but courting a cable deal might allow them to get out there and have a hot-issue show that can feed their maintenance ventures. In this scenario, I guess the cable show becomes something akin to Nitro, whereas ROH TV or whatever the fuck they call it is Saturday Night or Worldwide.

Lean on their New Japan relationship.

This goes in conjunction with the cable deal. If you featured an Okada/Tanahashi match on your first cable program, there's a chance you'll be internet buzz of the week (even if your ratings aren't killing it). While getting your own ducks in order, New Japan provide something that the potential ROH fan would be interested in.

They need stars.

These may not be available outside their current paradigm. I'd absolutely piss my pants laughing if Brock Lesnar went to ROH and suplexed Matt Taven into oblivion, but that just seems unlikely. They'll need a booker who knows how to cultivate a star, build them up, put them in situations where they can talk and actually either strike a nerve with wrestling fans or earn their support. It really feels like ROH is thin in this department.

PCO is over because he's doing this freakish fucking thing right now. How long can that last? Jeff Cobb is rising. That's pretty cool, but I'm not sure how stimulating. I honestly think the answer, short-term, would be Marty Scurll, and I'd suggest giving him the edge of actively promoting AEW, since it's well known he's part of The Elite. It'd be very similar to the Summer of Punk angle, but that worked, and options are thin.

Try and work with AEW.

In their podcast about Wrestle Kingdom and AEW, Liam O'Rourke said that it makes sense for everyone in wrestling to get what they need. I think ROH and New Japan not working with AEW is wallowing in sour grapes a bit. They want to be #2 worldwide and #2 domestically, respectively, but when a billionaire shows up and wants to run arenas, it's not going to work out like that. Some of the ROH talent would be wonderful fits for AEW. The Briscoes feuding with The Young Bucks has been done to death in ROH, I'm sure, but The Briscoes jumping the guardrail at an AEW show and beating the piss out of them would be fairly glorious.

Invasion angles can work. I'd actually suggest trying to get Jim Cornette as a ROH mouthpiece for this sort of thing, so he can cut promos on The Bucks, which people would buy. You don't want to bog down AEW down, but a little bit of cross-pollination could help out both sides. But ROH would need AEW, and likely not vice versa, which can be a problem.

And that's me done.

I dunno, it's tough. Is ROH just destined to spin around in perpetual irrelevancy forever? Probably.