Ring of Honor's Roster?

[oldandyounger]

So I was a huge ROH fan during the Punk days, and watched the company through the milestone series, through the KENTA & Morishima days, up until about 2008-ish.

I still missed out on a lot of the crazy cards where indy talent were being pulled from all over to compete in ROH, so I have alot to catch up on.

However, I have noticed something in the last two years that I was puzzled about. Why are the majority of ROH's shows only featuring the same people on their roster? I know they are trying to branch out and break in new audiences but to me, Supercard of Honor isn't a Super Card unless there's wrestlers from different parts of the world coming in to compete. So i guess my question is really, what happened? I'm not knocking the content or the wrestlers, I'm just wondering what led to this shift. 4-5 years ago you had NOAH stars, Chikara guys, even some PWG & IWA guys I believe. It seems like they are restricting their roster and I was wondering if anyone could explain how this all came to be?

[ColourMeCurious]

Budget probably plays a big role in the lesser amount of japanese and west coast talent, but having Karl Anderson on SCOH, the return of NOAH wrestlers to ROH at Border Wars, plus the fact they are using more and more Indy talent (eg. ACH, Young, Taven, TD, etc) is definitely helping the roster.

I think the roster is great right now and definitely better than the late 2010-early 2012 era of having Roddy,Eddie, and Davey main eventing almost all the cards.

[Hellfont93]

I'd also say contracts play a part aswell. The main indy companies have tight contracts on their talent nowadays, which pretty much restricts any cross-promotion between the likes of DGUSA and ROH.

[Kikuchiyo]

Firstly, DGUSA and TNA wrestlers aren't available so there's a much smaller talent pool available. Secondly, the company has TV and contracts so it makes sense both for the wrestlers and for the company to have a core roster that is booked regularly. Thirdly, Gabe's RoH booked to appeal to the IWC audience so booked more Japanese talent and up and coming wrestlers.

[YimYac]

Contracts are killing indy wrestling

The Bucks said it best in the ROHWorld interview, signing a contract to wrestle like 4 dates a month isn't worth it

[SamoaNOAH]

Co-sign on the contracts. For fear of being the "Gabe and ROH makeup" broken record ... WWE is too big to deprive us from seeing guys like Gargano and Fox and Riccochet because we're protecting our own small turf. I actually saw all 3 at the DGUSA event I went to in Boston, but that's beside the point ...

NOAH coming to Border Wars??? That's awesome ... hadn't read that yet.

[oldandyounger]

Ah I see, so contracts have taken control of the indy scene. Well either way the matches are still good I was just wondering. Also, I definitely agree that two years ago was no where near where ROH is right now.


also, thats awesome that NOAH is coming to Border Wars!

[Northwoods_Nightmare]

Bringing in the best indy talent for "dream match" type shows isn't as financially sustainable as having a set roster of guys. Having TV, it's important to build stars that become recognizable to a casual audience.
This is according to an interview I read somewhere shortly after SBG took over.

Personally, I'm thrilled to see them bringing in more indy/japanese guys.

[BTW10]

Contracts are killing indy wrestling

The Bucks said it best in the ROHWorld interview, signing a contract to wrestle like 4 dates a month isn't worth it

Davey and Steen also said this in their new Highspots shoot.

[Kikuchiyo]

They were more critical of DGUSA contracts. RoH contracts pay much better, there are more RoH dates and it gives them TV exposure. Steen made the point that he's recognized quite a bit now as the RoH champion. They would say that though! They also both said they wouldn't be in RoH if there wasn't a PWG presumably because, as well as being a fun place to work, it has reasonably regular shows and doesn't run iPPV. The interviewer was quite critical of RoH contracts though as he worked for/owned the indy they were working that night and didn't think they should be prevented from working iPPV. (which they weren't that night, ironically) It's worth watching unless you're Gabe.

[BigTChamp]

When they first started signing guys to deals around the time of the first taped PPV shows, wasn't there something about ROH offering their contracted guys an employee health plan? Does anyone know if this is still the case?

[YimYac]

When they first started signing guys to deals around the time of the first taped PPV shows, wasn't there something about ROH offering their contracted guys an employee health plan? Does anyone know if this is still the case?

WWE doesn't even offer their guys health plans so not likely

WWE will usually pay for surgeries but they don't have a health plan mostly because of the whole thing about wrestlers being independent contractors loophole so companies aren't forced by the government to provide benefits.

[Northwoods_Nightmare]

WWE will usually pay for surgeries but they don't have a health plan mostly because of the whole thing about wrestlers being independent contractors loophole so companies aren't forced by the government to provide benefits.

And I think the main reason they pay for surgeries is to avoid lawsuits.