04-20-2019, 07:57 PM | #1 |
Posts: 60,919
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What, if anything, can Ring of Honor do?
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. |
04-20-2019, 10:15 PM | #2 |
World Class References
Posts: 30,617
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Change it to Ring Of Rubber.
Problem solved. |
04-20-2019, 10:18 PM | #3 |
Posts: 60,919
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Sounds too safe for my liking.
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04-20-2019, 10:20 PM | #4 |
World Class References
Posts: 30,617
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It would be like slamball but even better
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04-20-2019, 10:23 PM | #5 |
Posts: 60,919
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Now when I think of Ring of Honor, I think of a tyre swing.
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04-20-2019, 10:38 PM | #6 |
RoBOT Reigns
Posts: 9,619
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They need more flippy since they lost so much flippy to AEW.
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04-20-2019, 11:44 PM | #7 |
Posts: 52,478
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I don't think the ROH/NJPW thing will last much longer when you have NJPW guys calling ROH nothing but shit and actually airing it the one time AXSTV shows ROH matches
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04-20-2019, 11:44 PM | #8 |
President of Freedonia
Posts: 58,167
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Well they’ve supposedly already cancelled the Enzo and Cass experiment so that’s a good start.
Agreed on Scurll. I think he needed the win at Supercard way more than Taven did. |
04-21-2019, 05:13 PM | #9 |
Taller than Adam Cole
Posts: 10,873
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Replace Delirious with someone more assertive.
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04-21-2019, 05:24 PM | #10 |
It's a blood match!
Posts: 27,374
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I don't really see ROH gaining a whole lot of new fans regardless of what they do. They've been surpassed by PWG, NXT and now AEW. ROH used to the place to catch the best rasslin in the states but you can get matches of high quality about anywhere now days.
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04-21-2019, 09:38 PM | #11 |
Former TPWW Royalty
Posts: 66,588
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ROH's biggest problem is they somehow never really grew despite being very stable as a company with Sinclair on board. Same for not taking advantage of TNA/Impact's incompetence to become the undisputed #2 promotion in the US.
Like the partnership with NJPW and CMLL should have been the launch pad to grow into a bigger and stronger company but instead they've become weaker than before. Supposedly they are doing that with Bully Ray and Joey Mercury but if G1 Supercard is any indication, its not going to be a net positive in the end. |
04-22-2019, 07:07 AM | #12 |
I W C DEEZ NUTZ!
Posts: 10,137
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The "stars" thing has been my issue with it for awhile, to be honest.
It's like everytime they try to home grow some talent, they either suck ass or get plucked by WWE. |
04-22-2019, 09:23 AM | #13 |
Inno Knows.
Posts: 43,710
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They relied too much on the Elite and it's biting them now.
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04-22-2019, 09:52 AM | #14 |
President of Freedonia
Posts: 58,167
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Yep. And even still, other than PCO, the biggest reaction by far for any ROH guy at G1 Supercard was Marty.
They're going to be fucked when he goes to AEW in the fall. |
04-22-2019, 10:22 AM | #15 |
Inno Knows.
Posts: 43,710
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I mean they tried with Dalton, but they couldn't have known he was going to fall apart physically.
They have something with Flip if they would just give him a fucking clean win over Bully Ray and let him move on |
04-22-2019, 10:49 AM | #16 |
Trickster Demon
Posts: 59,750
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Flip has big star potential but I feel like they will not push him properly
I'd focus on finding the stars in the making and then making them. Avoid turning ROH into a giant campy mess. |
04-22-2019, 10:52 AM | #17 |
Trickster Demon
Posts: 59,750
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I would argue also that ROH fans at shows I have watched online are more 'out there' and 'annoying' than IMPACT or NXT fans r/n.
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04-22-2019, 01:28 PM | #18 | |
Taller than Adam Cole
Posts: 10,873
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Quote:
The thing is, he's not one of the boys, he's the booker. At the end of the day, he has to dictate the direction of the show. He doesn't. Bully is more assertive, but that doesn't mean he's good at the actual booking part. It appears that the last good booker ROH had was either Gabe or... and this is kind of hilarious to me... Jim Cornette. |
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04-22-2019, 03:17 PM | #19 |
TPWW's #3 Peep
Posts: 20,891
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Ring of Honor was like, the biggest indy fed when the indy scene was nonexistent. Now, with a flourishing indy scene (indy meaning anything that isn't WWE), ROH is just kinda there.
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04-22-2019, 11:51 PM | #20 | |
I W C DEEZ NUTZ!
Posts: 10,137
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Quote:
They have talent. Dalton is one of them. (and on the subject of him falling apart, the guy really needs to rest the fuck up - maybe his recent turn is the start of that. If he has to appear, just promo. He's been a workhorse/trooper, and that has to have taken more of a toll than neccessary for the good of the company) Jay Lethal has been their Sting. Jeff Cobb looks to be their future. And my god, Silas Young is an unsung hero for them. But they get "stuck" with guys like Taven (who has heat, but he's taking advantage of "go away" heat more than anything dastardly he's doing as a heel), or poor Rhett Titus, who can never really seem to find a gimmick or tag team that works for him in the long run. Then, you have them pushing Dijak(ovic), only for him to go to NXT, so they focus trying to build up Martinez, who later also heads to Full Sail. Keith Lee and Shane Taylor were a thing, until Lee disappeared and also re-appeared in Florida under the WWE banner. Scurll and (very much moreso) Flip got more of a rub from BTE than being in the promotion. Same with Adam Page, who is gone now. Flip was a going nowhere Marine Cena ripoff, Adam was a perpetual lackey, and Marty got most of his notoriety before he even showed up in ROH. They need a "Jericho goes to Japan" talent or two. Someone who doesn't stink of WWE castoff, but big enough to draw attention. I'm definitely not going to say Brock, even hypothetically, because not only do we know better, but Sinclair would have to sink sooo much money into the guy for limited dates. They also could use a couple more guys like Jeff Cobb who they thankfully aren't overpushing and overexposing to where nobody would give a shit six months from now. Lifeblood is an interesting idea, but aside from Juice and my comment awhile ago about Bandito (seriously, wtf did I miss?!), I don't really know any of them. I guess I say all that to say this: ROH seems like too much of a revolving door. They need more stability to their roster than they ever truly seem to have. Even Impact, as devalued as it has been over all this time, has a handful of talent they're trying to finally rebuild around. Ring of Honor never really seems to have that. It feels like they're an unofficial feeder system for EVERYONE else. |
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04-23-2019, 03:30 AM | #21 |
Posts: 60,919
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I don't think it's so much the indies that has hurt ROH, but rather that their style is no longer "other" as it was when the WWE was stuck in Triple H Reign of Terror mode and looking to move onto your John Cena's and Randy Orton's. There's just nothing "special" about what ROH can offer the wrestling fan.
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