What era should be recognized as ROH's greatest? (read thread before voting)

[supersonic]

With the 20th anniversary being prepared for next February, including talks of a potential inaugural HOF class, the time has come for the company to start digging into and really celebrate the various eras, and I'd say to even define them as WWE does with Rock 'n Wrestling, New Generation, Attitude, and Ruthless Aggression.

In saying that, which era of ROH in its first 20 years would be your favorite, and which are truly worthy of celebrating?

The Feinstein Era
Start: The Era of Honor Begins - February 23, 2002
End: At Our Best - March 13, 2004

The Reborn Era
Start: Reborn Stage 1 - April 23, 2004
End: Good Times, Great Memories - April 28, 2007

The Taped PPV Era
Start: Reborn Again - May 11, 2007
End: Final Battle 2008 - December 27, 2008

The HDNet Era
Start: Full Circle - January 16, 2009
End: Best in the World 2011 - June 26, 2011

The Smoky Mountain of Honor Era
Start: Tag Team Turmoil - July 8, 2011
End: Supercard of Honor VIII Weekend - April 4, 2014

The AJ Styles: IWGP Champion Era
Start: Baltimore TV Taping - April 19, 2014
End: Winter Warriors Tour 2016: Atlanta - January 23, 2016

The Elite/NJPW-Heavy Era
Start: Nashville TV Taping - February 6, 2016
End: G1 Supercard - April 6, 2019

The Post-MSG Era
Start: Steel City Excellence - April 13, 2019
End: TBD

[Montana]

Think the time frames for the era’s is about right, but the naming seems a bit off. How does AJ Styles have an Era and not Jay Lethal?

Smokey Mountain of Honor? Idk, seems like Steen/generico were big around that era. American wolves. Don’t really see how that’s Smokey mountain. If anything maybe SBG era.

I voted for the reborn era, and I assume that’s a majority of fans. ROH redefined and revolutionized wrestling in that era.

I really enjoyed 2007-2009 as well… as ROH was new to me, at that time. Truthfully I’ve always enjoyed ROH after I started following, but I’m way more skeptical of the product and direction…now more than ever. The company of which was known for comebacks, seem to be running out of ideas, and out of touch with the wrestling climate. Maybe as things return to semi-normal … ROH can run more shows again.

[KL_]

I voted for The HDNet Era but I believe that if it wasn't for SpeakingOut and Covid, today we would have Marty Scurll era (of course I mean "new and fresh" restart with him as a booker; not that he should be a champion) and I believe this could had been a very interesting option here.

[maxx_powerz]

For me:

1.) Reborn
2.) Taped PPV
3.) The Elite
4.) AJ Styles
5.) HDNet
6.) Early Years
7.) Smoky Mountain
8.) Current

Not to bury the current era because to me, even the "worst" ROH has been mostly passable, but for me the crowds post MSG and the no crowds post COVID have taken away from a talent roster that is on par or better with most eras and booking that has mostly been on par with everything post SBG (and better than Pearce or Cornette fwiw). With better atmospheres I'd probably put the current era ahead of the early years (bad undercards mostly) and Smoky Mountain (bad booking mostly).

[EvanKnight]

Think the time frames for the era’s is about right, but the naming seems a bit off. How does AJ Styles have an Era and not Jay Lethal?

Smokey Mountain of Honor? Idk, seems like Steen/generico were big around that era. American wolves. Don’t really see how that’s Smokey mountain. If anything maybe SBG era.

I voted for the reborn era, and I assume that’s a majority of fans. ROH redefined and revolutionized wrestling in that era.

I’d agree that calling it the AJ era is questionable, but the list is overall on point.

Smokey Mountain is fair as that time period is highlighted by a directional change, a big part was Cornette (for better or worse.)

[EvanKnight]

For me:

1.) Reborn
2.) Taped PPV
3.) The Elite
4.) AJ Styles
5.) HDNet
6.) Early Years
7.) Smoky Mountain
8.) Current

Not to bury the current era because to me, even the "worst" ROH has been mostly passable, but for me the crowds post MSG and the no crowds post COVID have taken away from a talent roster that is on par or better with most eras and booking that has mostly been on par with everything post SBG (and better than Pearce or Cornette fwiw). With better atmospheres I'd probably put the current era ahead of the early years (bad undercards mostly) and Smoky Mountain (bad booking mostly).

Crowds or no crowds I honestly can’t see how anyone could put the current era any lower than 3rd, possibly 4th if you have strong attachment to some particular wrestler or story arc.

[maxx_powerz]

For me:

1.) Reborn
2.) Taped PPV
3.) The Elite
4.) AJ Styles
5.) HDNet
6.) Early Years
7.) Smoky Mountain
8.) Current

Not to bury the current era because to me, even the "worst" ROH has been mostly passable, but for me the crowds post MSG and the no crowds post COVID have taken away from a talent roster that is on par or better with most eras and booking that has mostly been on par with everything post SBG (and better than Pearce or Cornette fwiw). With better atmospheres I'd probably put the current era ahead of the early years (bad undercards mostly) and Smoky Mountain (bad booking mostly).

Crowds or no crowds I honestly can’t see how anyone could put the current era any lower than 3rd, possibly 4th if you have strong attachment to some particular wrestler or story arc.

Hope some other long time fans chime in tbh, because I find the idea of us currently being in a top 3 or 4 era to be nuts, and am very curious if I am in the minority or not.

[EvanKnight]

Crowds or no crowds I honestly can’t see how anyone could put the current era any lower than 3rd, possibly 4th if you have strong attachment to some particular wrestler or story arc.

Hope some other long time fans chime in tbh, because I find the idea of us currently being in a top 3 or 4 era to be nuts, and am very curious if I am in the minority or not.

Let me throw a qualifier in there. I would say current era started at the pandemic restart. Post-MSG to shutdown would be near the bottom of the list.

[Shanahan]

Reborn Era is clearly #1. After that i think HDNET/Tapped PPV are tied for #2. I may be nuts but i enjoyed SM Era over The Elite/NJPW era. I actually lost a ton of interest starting around early 2017.

[Big Red Machine]

1. Reborn Era
2. HDnet Era and Taped PPV Era (gun to my head, the HDnet Era edges it out just a bit simply by being longer).

It gets a little harder from here, as I find the way you chopped it up a little arbitrary, and definitely would have changed some things, but using the breakdowns you provided:

4. Smokey Mountain of Honor Era
I really don't understand why you kept this until 2014, but I'd put this one next, as I enjoyed chunks of 2013 and early 2014, and even thought that some of the Cornette-Era shows were better than they got credit for, in hindsight.

5.AJ Styles Era,although I think there was a marked drop in quality after DBD in 2015

6. The early years
It's not that the quality is bad in a lot of cases so much as it is that the shows (especially 2002) are very hard to sit through

7. Current
I was really hot on ROH in the Summer of 2019, and have liked some of the other things they've done in spurts.

8. Elite Era
There were some good shows and I liked Lethals' title reign, but there was way too much of this that was either a directionless mess, with the booker thinking that people chanting "SUCK IT!" AND "TOO SWEET!" and "TEN BOOTS!" is some sort of substitute for substance.

[Big Red Machine]

For me:

1.) Reborn
2.) Taped PPV
3.) The Elite
4.) AJ Styles
5.) HDNet
6.) Early Years
7.) Smoky Mountain
8.) Current

Not to bury the current era because to me, even the "worst" ROH has been mostly passable, but for me the crowds post MSG and the no crowds post COVID have taken away from a talent roster that is on par or better with most eras and booking that has mostly been on par with everything post SBG (and better than Pearce or Cornette fwiw). With better atmospheres I'd probably put the current era ahead of the early years (bad undercards mostly) and Smoky Mountain (bad booking mostly).

Crowds or no crowds I honestly can’t see how anyone could put the current era any lower than 3rd, possibly 4th if you have strong attachment to some particular wrestler or story arc.

I'm not trying to be rude by asking this even though it will come across that way, but how much of the earlier eras of ROH have you seen?
I ask this because ROH hasn't done anything in the current era (no matter how you define the "current era") that has created the amount of positive buzz that some of these other Eras (especially the 2004-2011 stuff) has. I'm struggling to remember a storyline that built to a crescendo and had a solid ending since Kyle won the belt). When was the last classic match we had; the kind of match that people come out of buzzing and thinking they saw something truly special?
And if you like the Pure division and the more "this is a sport" atmosphere they've been shooting for recently, you really should try to track down some of the "Reborn Era" stuff because you'll really like it.