Random ROH Thoughts Thread

[AndyDiaz]

Would love the idea of Chris Hero coming back winning the title and elevating it by defending it on every episode of TV that was taped. Would give the TV Title more credibility and could give a lot of the roster guys a chance to work with a great talent as well as the ability to bring outside talent in to challenge Hero.

[TYFDK]

I think being TV champion should mean you get to be featured on TV every single week, whether you're wrestling a match, cutting a promo, hosting an interview, whatever you want to do. But being the champion should mean you get to show your face every week.

[dhads7161]

Didn't the ROH TV champion used to get a World title shot after dropping the strap?

[Big Red Machine]

Didn't the ROH TV champion used to get a World title shot after dropping the strap?

No. That has never, ever been a thing.
Eddie Edwards earns his via SOTF 2010.
With Roddy the idea was that Cornette thought he could beat Steen and it had nothing to do with him losing the TV Title. Cole's was the same deal.
Anyone else who may have gotten a world title shot recently after losing the TV Title (the only one who comes to mind is Ciampa) was just random booking.

[dhads7161]

Didn't the ROH TV champion used to get a World title shot after dropping the strap?

No. That has never, ever been a thing.
Eddie Edwards earns his via SOTF 2010.
With Roddy the idea was that Cornette thought he could beat Steen and it had nothing to do with him losing the TV Title. Cole's was the same deal.
Anyone else who may have gotten a world title shot recently after losing the TV Title (the only one who comes to mind is Ciampa) was just random booking.

Didn't Taven?

[Big Red Machine]

Didn't the ROH TV champion used to get a World title shot after dropping the strap?

No. That has never, ever been a thing.
Eddie Edwards earns his via SOTF 2010.
With Roddy the idea was that Cornette thought he could beat Steen and it had nothing to do with him losing the TV Title. Cole's was the same deal.
Anyone else who may have gotten a world title shot recently after losing the TV Title (the only one who comes to mind is Ciampa) was just random booking.

Didn't Taven?

Yes, but I don't recall there ever being a reason given for it. It certainly wasn't "because he lost the TV Title, he gets a world title shot." It's probably the same random booking as it was with Ciampa.

[TYFDK]

Here's how Taven/Cole was set up:



Not really 'you lost the TV title, so here, here's a world title shot.'

[DXvsNWO1994]

ROH World Champion Jay Lethal is doing another 1st Pitch at a MLB game:

Ring of Honor Wrestling World Champion and Tampa resident Jay Lethal with throw out the ceremonial first pitch Wednesday, July 6 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida prior to the Tampa Bay Rays hosting Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Lethal, who has held the Ring of Honor World Championship for 381 days, successfully defended his title in the main event against Jay Briscoe this past Friday at the “Best in the World” Pay-Per-View, and again the following night against Kyle O’Reilly.

Lethal’s next title defense will be against Colt Cabana July 16th in Philadelphia.

For Information on all upcoming Ring of Honor events visit ROHWRESTLING.com.

[monster mafia]

thinking about rpg vice vs war machine at vegas...great match.

rpg vice are the most underrated tag team in roh..a shame that they dont have a direction...a great tag team

war machine maybe work better as heels.

[monster mafia]

NJPW VERY OWN! Matt Sydal to represent roh in the super j cup.

[TYFDK]

Pretty sure that referee that made those claims about Delirious and Mandy Leon was the ref in the Final Deletion.

[Burnside]

Pretty sure that referee that made those claims about Delirious and Mandy Leon was the ref in the Final Deletion.

In fairness, they're not really "claims" so much as "the truth."

[Big Red Machine]

thinking about rpg vice vs war machine at vegas...great match.

rpg vice are the most underrated tag team in roh..a shame that they dont have a direction...a great tag team

war machine maybe work better as heels.

I think a big part of the reason why they don't have a direction is because they're only in about a third of the time.

[DXvsNWO1994]

NJPW VERY OWN! Matt Sydal to represent roh in the super j cup.

Here are the brackets for the Super J Cup, for anyone that's wondering:

- Jushin "Thunder" Liger (NJPW) vs. EITA (Dragon Gate)
- Yuma Aoyagi (AJPW) vs. Taichi (Suzuki-gun)

- KUSHIDA (NJPW) vs. Taiji Ishimori (NOAH)
- Gurukun Mask (Ryukyu Dragon) vs. Kenoh (NOAH)

- Ryusuke Taguchi (NJPW) vs. Daisuke Harada (NOAH)
- BUSHI (Los Ingobernables de Japon) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (Suzuki-gun)

- Titan (CMLL) vs. Will Ospreay (CHAOS)
- Matt Sydal (ROH) vs. Kaji Tomato (K-Dojo)

[YimYac]

Pretty sure that referee that made those claims about Delirious and Mandy Leon was the ref in the Final Deletion.

In fairness, they're not really "claims" so much as "the truth."

The truth in what way?

That ref claimed he was fired because they're apparently dating, ignoring that he sexually assaulting a co-worker(which he admitted to). That's psychopathic level of thinking. Seems like a standup guy.

[isles11]

Say what you will about the commentary and crowd, this was an awesome match, with an awful finish.

[DXvsNWO1994]

So what's the deal with Truth Martini? There was that video of him leaving the hospital after he got attacked by Dijak, but he hasn't been seen since....

[stevenkmason]

So what's the deal with Truth Martini? There was that video of him leaving the hospital after he got attacked by Dijak, but he hasn't been seen since....

A class session recently started at the HOT school here in Michigan. Zach Gowen has been leading the last couple classes but I've heard that Truth has been leading this one.

Don't know how that fits into ROH kayfabe but with Lethal kind of slowly turning tweener/face, maybe keeping Truth off of TV for now is best. Maybe Lethal will complete a face turn by bucking some sort of heelish command from Truth when he returns.

[The Dragon Saga]

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... rwhelming/

Very good post on Reddit, recommend giving it a read, think many of us have mutual feelings.

Last year was the most successful year in the history of Ring of Honor. Over 40,000 people attended ROH events last year, even more when cross promotional events such as Supershow of Honor with UK promotion Preston City Wrestling are taken into consideration, the highest number of attendees for ROH shows in a single year. Their coverage increased by 11% across Sinclair affiliates due to their parent company's purchases of more local television channels plus their deal with New England Sports Network making ROH widely accessible in the New England region. They struck a barter deal with Destination America - who were also airing TNA's Impact Wrestling at the time - and their PPV's were successful with Dave Meltzer commenting that if PPV providers wanted them to do even more PPV's that there are enough people watching to warrant more shows. They even had a short lived run on top French sports channel L'Equipe 21.
Ring of Honor were even able to get 2,400 people to attend Field of Honor at MCU Park in Brooklyn, up against NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. UP AGAINST THE BIGGEST INTERNET DARLING OF THIS GENERATION, NXT!
Everything was on the up-and-up, it seemed like ROH were one or two stroke of lucks away from capturing many fans imaginations, but then as 2015 turned into 2016 - and some positives remained - as the year has progressed, six months in and its a sad case where not as many people are talking about Ring of Honor.
Their TV product was voted as the second best last year in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards, second behind NXT. What most viewers saw as an always consistent, wrestling heavy show that featured continuity and old school, big fight feel builds to matches, has slowly turned into a one hour a week show that was either taped over a month ago and has little relevance to the actual on-goings following PPV events or nothing matches that seem to be just happening so they can happen. While the wrestling is still good, the angles, character and storyline development is scattered in some cases and non-existent in others. What makes this even worse is that in years gone-by Ring of Honor's biggest fault had been viewed as their production costs which earlier this year they made a large boost to improving the viewing experience of Ring of Honor Wrestling, however the sad part is what fans are viewing isn't interesting and most are either lost as to why their watching a "Best of 2016 So Far" episode and not a continuation from a PPV which happened two weeks prior.
The show has also suffered with the loss of talent such as AJ Styles and now Roderick Strong, with "stars" being few and far between. Aside from Jay Lethal, The Briscoes and Dalton Castle, not many of the roster would be considered "stars" by the general wrestling fan. So their solution to this seems to have been, "lets bring in Okada, Tanahashi, etc, and that'll sort the issue out." But it hasn't, in fact its backfired. Instead now most fans are seeing Ring of Honor Wrestling episodes becoming all about New Japan Pro Wrestling. Their PPV's - aside from this past months Best in the World - also heavily feature New Japan talent, and while this wouldn't be an issue for most fans it's the booking of the inter promotional relationship which has caused the relationship to become an almost burden in the eyes of a fanbase who two years ago saw the Ring of Honor/New Japan working agreement as a blessing in disguise. Most matches on PPV's either have no build, which means no hype or are random matches booked solely to make sure that the New Japan stars are more often than not put over the Ring of Honor talent. There are some exemptions for this, see: Bobby Fish def. Tomohiro Ishii at the 14th Anniversary, but this is a rare occurrence and the build to it revolved more around Roderick Strong/Bobby Fish than actually involving the champion.
TV has become something fans can miss because either the show does little to build to the next big event or it features - again - random matches, featuring overhyped New Japan talent who are more often than not put over the ROH talent which makes the show predictable and not overly interested. The wrestling is still good, nobody can deny that, but with all the options these days with the advent of multiple promotions Networks and with other promotions like TNA and Lucha Underground on TV, Ring of Honor needs to do better.
Ring of Honor not having an "ROH Network" is and of itself is somewhat of a farce. The obvious issue with this is - for those unaware - that for the better part of a decade ROH used licensed music from major recording artists ("The Final Countdown" by Europe, "Misiera Cantare" by AFI, "Gimme Back my Bullets" by Lynard Skynard, etc) on their shows so it would take a big effort on ROH's part to edit over a decades worth of footage and it would also be costly. The price of their PPV's - especially with the booking the way it has been and the over emphasis on the New Japan talent - simply isn't worth the price of purchase. I for example, am a big ROH fan and want them to do their best, but I didn't purchase Best in the World - the first ROH PPV I have not purchased. I didn't see the point in paying for a PPV I viewed as two matches (Lethal/Briscoe II and Corino/Whitmer). These prices aren't set by ROH and they have little argument to give to providers (most providers would just tell ROH it's not worth showcasing them if they have an issue with the price) so in-order to make the purchase worth it, the product has to improve, immediately!
This week TNA's "Final Deletion" match is hopefully an eye opener to some Ring of Honor figureheads, Joe Koff, etc, to what they should be doing. That buzz should be something ROH are building and attracting and not TNA. It's great that their bringing Shibata to the United States and sure, I'll pay to see that, but what about the rest? Does Okada, Naito and Tanahashi really need to continue going over ROH talent over two years into the relationship? Can they not get Kyle O'Reilly or Dalton Castle a win over one of them and start building them as legitimate threats? Does the booking have to be so lackluster that there are no reasons for why most wrestlers are fighting other than, "I want to win"? Can we not get more 15 second promos - even 15 seconds between matches - on Ring of Honor Wrestling for different talent, not just Jay Lethal, The Briscoes and The Addiction, to cut promos to build to their PPV's or their matches, like we used to?
If the problem is as many think it is, maybe it's time for Joe Koff, Ring of Honor, Sinclair Broadcasting, Greg (forget his surname, "Office Boy" as Cornette referred to him will do for context" to review Delirious' performance and determine that 7 years of booking a promotion for the most part, is maybe enough. Gabe was booking ROH for six years and he inevitably burnt out and that was with less shows and Gabe wasn't running a wrestling school like Delirious is. Ring of Honor is a business, it's a promotion, if something isn't working then someone is to blame and for me and I know many others, Delirious' creative direction for the past six months, maybe a bit more, hasn't been up to par and with all the improvements in the past couple years, the enhanced production, the easier accessibility, Ring of Honor needs to be doing more, it needs to be doing better, because for me it's the most squandered potential out of any promotion right now to start capturing fans imaginations, all it needs is to remove its head from its arse and start producing an hour a week of interesting, relevant content that builds to upcoming shows and creates new stars, not a recap of events we've already seen that shows how many times Tanahashi can go over the entire roster.
I hope you guys have enjoyed this write-up, I just needed to vent.

[DXvsNWO1994]

Anyone know what's up with Kyle O'Reilly? He isn't advertised for the shows in July, and hasn't appeared on any of the Death Before Dishonor XIV advertising yet.