ROH messed up with Michael Elgin's title reign

[PoyzunTiiiger]

I know he got stuck in Canada. I know he let Trevor Lee go over him (Which really shouldn't have been a big deal they could have told Super Dragon to book Elgin vs. Lee and have Elgin go over, or even better Elgin could have put the ROH World title on the line against Lee at a PWG show and got his win back)

When Elgin got stuck in Canada they could have come out honestly and said "The Champ is stuck in Canada ROH & Elgin apologize Michael Elgin will be put to the test when he returns to the US.

Elgin's baseball tweet was dumb AF but lets be real I love Michael Elgin but he wouldn't have made it anyway (come on lets keep it 100)

Even after all of that he could have still done his Angry at ROH gimmick and been a heel for a little while as an angry world champion still defending the belt. Then he could have gone to NJPW in the G1-Climax as ROH World Champ got the exposure he and the belt needed and kept going. They had a chance to book Elgin as the new Samoa Joe AND they could have booked Elgin vs. Joe for the world title UGH sometimes ROH makes me scratch my head because they missed the boat on their own superstar for Jay Lethal..........Who is a tweener/heel basically in the shadow of Adam Cole and is not really as interesting as Kyle O'Reilly, Young Bucks, MCMG or the NJPW guys. If they had stuck with Michael Elgin they would have a dominant heavyweight champion that NJPW would probably let go over their light heavyweight wrestlers (Omega, KUSHIDA etc.) and probably some of their non-main event heavyweights. Now Elgin is stuck in the "Have good matches please" Stratosphere that Roderick Strong has orbited for years.

Hopefully they add Elgin to the ROH vs. Bullet Club feud.

[Big Red Machine]

I agree that they cut Elgin's reign WAY too short over a relatively dumb issue (not that I think the champ should be jobbing, but it would have been MUCH more constructive to tell Elgin "DON'T DO IT AGAIN!" and use this as a pre-tense to bring Trevor Lee in so Elgin could get his win back with the title on the line). They really did get lucky that they look smart in hindsight because of the border thing.
He was putting on great matches as champion, and not only did they have nothing built up for Briscoe, but they completely failed to use the shows they had in the interim to build other challengers up.

[Thelone]

He was putting on great matches as champion, and not only did they have nothing built up for Briscoe, but they completely failed to use the shows they had in the interim to build other challengers up.

Did he ?

The Alexander match was atrocious, Young was barely better because they killed the hot crowd with a ridiculous promo before, Ciampa was a boring """strong style""" spotfest, and I think the O'Reilly match was pretty good but not much else. Also he was the least over guy by a mile in that 4-way at Field of Honor.

I'm sure the Trevor Lee match and stupid baseball comment didn't help his case, but Elgin's title reign was tanking hard and didn't need to go longer. Hell, Jay winning the belt out of nowhere was the last time ROH had any kind of buzz.

[Burnside]

Elgin was absolutely floundering as champ. I 100% agree with Delirious's decision to pull the plug on him. He just was not over at the level you need for a babyface world champ, and was not delivering in the ring.

[WHG]

Burnside is 100% correct. The only mistake Delirious made with Elgin in 2014 was putting the title on him at all. It was obvious at that point that the window for him had passed in late 2013 and Cole was just gaining momentum as champion, having finally moved past Jay Briscoe. They opted for the "big PPV debut moment" and it was obvious within 30 days that it was a mistake. It may actually be the best example of Delirious seeing a booking mistake and quickly rectifying it. Watching Briscoe win he title back on live iPPV is one of the more shocking moments of the last few years and Briscoe had a better reign from there than Elgin was capable of.

[AndyDiaz]

Elgin's reign was underwhelming indeed. Really wish they would've done a Canadian angle with Elgin, Monster Mafia, And Tyson Dux, around the time I remember all the other guys being booked, would've added fresh matchups and three guys that would add a lot to the roster.

[PoyzunTiiiger]

His reign had so much going against it tho. It felt like it was meant to be a long title reign in the vein of Joe, Dragon, Nigel
but all of the outside stuff made the office lose faith in him quickly. The bout with Silas was great, the bout with Strong was the best those two had with each other. The matches against Cole were always good even the three-way with Jay was great. I think ROH should have stuck with him and had him be a face champ who turned heel and then slowly turned face again (kinda like how he is being booked now) Think about this....we missed Styles/Elgin III for Lethal/Styles. Hate on Elgin all you want him and AJ had amazing maybe even phenomenal chemistry with each other. Lethal looks like he's out of Style's league anytime they wrestle TNA, ROH, main event, or show opener.

[Burnside]

You make it seem like they took the belt off him because he got stuck in Canada - in fact, they took the belt off him first, THEN they found out he was stuck in Canada. So it was an extremely fortunate move for them that they gave up on him, otherwise they'd have had to strip the title (again) or have no champ for four months. They avoided a fiasco.

And nobody cared about the prospect of seeing Styles/Elgin III. In fact, people were disappointed and pissed when it looked like that match would be the main event of War of the Worlds 2014 before Okada got added.

[jordidebaas]

Well, he missed like, one show, so it wouldn't have been that horrible at all

[Wilson]

Everything about Michael Elgin’s run in late 2014 was a travesty. Some of the forces that caused this were out of his ambit, but it was a problem he could have avoided nonetheless.

By Final Battle 2014, he became like this foreboding anti-draw, and it made everybody uncomfortable. It’s a miracle he was able to bounce back at all. Thank goodness for him he was able to figure something out with New Japan.

[187_Joeism]

Elgin showed that he can't handle himself like a champion (like Cole did and Lethal does) neither be trusted to have the title.

It sucks because i was looking foward to his reign but he blow it with different things during his reign to the point that i like more him being semiregular right now and work New Japan more.

[Big Red Machine]

I thought his matches with Cedric and Kyle were great, and his match with Roddy was fantastic. As for the claim that he was "the least over guy in the four way," I'd argue that Lethal hasn't been the most over guy in the company for pretty much his entire reign, too. Elgin was in there with a big star/special attraction in AJ, the former champ who was a cocky douchebag heel so people cheer him no matter what in Cole, and Jay Briscoe who... to be honest, I really don't get why Jay is quite so over. He was a fresh babyface champion who hadn't had anything going on other than "I want to win the title" and had just won the title. Other guys getting cheered over him is going to happen in front of really smarky crowds, and it's not a situation Elgin should have been in in the first place because there really was no reason for either AJ or Briscoe to be in that match in the first place (AJ maybe, but certainly not Briscoe).
Also, wasn't that the horrible baseball stadium crowd that everyone hated?

[Big Red Machine]

Hell, Jay winning the belt out of nowhere was the last time ROH had any kind of buzz.

Alberto coming in? JOE coming in?

[Big Red Machine]

And nobody cared about the prospect of seeing Styles/Elgin III. In fact, people were disappointed and pissed when it looked like that match would be the main event of War of the Worlds 2014 before Okada got added.

But that's only because people (including the ROH office) thought we were getting Elgin vs. Okada and they had been pushing Elgin vs. Okada. ROH had no idea New Japan was going to switch the title and it was too late to change things because ROH had already done a Steen vs. Elgin match with the winner specifically being said to receive a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Title at War of the Worlds.

[Thelone]

Also, wasn't that the horrible baseball stadium crowd that everyone hated?

Did you hear the crickets during his reign ? That match could have happened anywhere and he still would have been the least over guy by a huge margin. Hell, people were behind Briscoe in TORONTO.

And yeah, Lethal is trash as champion, looks like it took an ice age for people to finally realize it.

[Thelone]

I thought his matches with Cedric and Kyle were great

You really need to rewatch this Alexander match because THIS is when you knew this reign was going to die a thousand deaths if it went much longer. It didn't help that the match fucking sucked and just felt like two guys doing moves forever to polite applause at first, then the crowd turned on both and started chanting for COLE by the end of it. This is also the beginning of the end for Alexander I might add, a whole TWO YEARS before he was actually released.

After that, you got the 4-way at Field of Honor where he died some more, the Young match where Silas had to cut a moronic (albeit in-character) promo that killed the crowd who didn't want to cheer for Elgin, then the Ciampa match.