THANK YOU CHRIS HERO

[supersonic]

With the confirmation that he's returning to WWE, in what I imagine will be a job for life after the incredible 2016 he's had, now's the time to appreciate everything he did for ALL of underground wrestling.

His peak contributions in ROH would undoubtedly be kicking off the CZW feud, followed by the ROH reformation of the Kings of Wrestling. A star that spent 4 years being snubbed by ROH to eventually become accompany legend, and now gets his fair chance to showcase his world-class skills to the mainstream audience.

Thank you for everything, Chris Hero. The entire underground wrestling scene is better because of your contributions, belonging in the same breath as Punk, Joe, Danielson, and the Briscoes.

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

With the confirmation that he's returning to WWE, in what I imagine will be a job for life after the incredible 2016 he's had, now's the time to appreciate everything he did for ALL of underground wrestling.

His peak contributions in ROH would undoubtedly be kicking off the CZW feud, followed by the ROH reformation of the Kings of Wrestling. A star that spent 4 years being snubbed by ROH to eventually become accompany legend, and now gets his fair chance to showcase his world-class skills to the mainstream audience.

Thank you for everything, Chris Hero. The entire underground wrestling scene is better because of your contributions, belonging in the same breath as Punk, Joe, Danielson, and the Briscoes.

Absolutely agree with this. Hero fan for life right here.

[The Dragon Saga]

I don't see why we, an ROH fan forum would need to thank him though? He spent four months in 2014 with ROH and that was that. Hes had a really good couple of years and if he's heading back to WWE then fair play to him, especially considering the way he looks, but I don't feel the need to necessarily thank him for things he did five years ago when he already went to WWE, had a run and was released. I hope he does better this time around.

[famicommander]

Hopefully they pair him up with Claudio, even though it sucks to see WWE swallow up more talent. Not that I blame or begrudge Hero for going, and I hope he gets paid well.

[Memphis Mark]

Chris Hero belongs in NJPW . Chris has already been burned one and yet he is going back for more WWE magic. There is an old adage that you cannot get a good deal with bad people. Good luck . Hero.

[Brada]

Back to NXT as Kassius Ohno or let him come in as Chris Hero?

[supersonic]

Back to NXT as Kassius Ohno or let him come in as Chris Hero?

Outside of people who didn't own the rights to their names (like Dorada/Sombra), WWE doesn't seem to be asking anyone who's made their name elsewhere to change their names now. I can think of Biff Busick/Oney Lorcan and not much else. It's hard to wrap my mind around how much of a shift has been made in a short time, but Hero getting brought back is really big sign of it.

Satin made up the Kassus Ohno thing out of thin air for hitz. There's ZERO to it. ZERO.

[Wilson]

The entire underground wrestling scene is better because of your contributions, belonging in the same breath as Punk, Joe, Danielson, and the Briscoes.

God. He feels so removed as ROH establishment to me at this point. I don't know if it speaks more to the talents of Hero or the weaknesses of ROH that Hero has felt as best as he's been these past twenty months. I understand why it didn't happen, but I had wishes of him being in some infrequent special attraction matches for ROH.

I think Hero's 2015-2016 run will go down as one of the best "recharge" runs that we've seen. He's also a great kind of worker that only gets better one wrestled. Maybe now we'll get the true Joe/Hero feud that independent wrestling has been wanting for the past fifteen years.

[supersonic]

I want the match that Pearce passed on doing, but could've done so had he just booked the reunion and the split just a few months apart instead of on the same night, the match that PWG never capitalized on, the match that IWA-MS, CZW, everyone failed to book.

Kings of Wrestling vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens

[monster mafia]

so maybe hero was waiting to come back and thats why he and roh part ways 2 years ago?

maybe.

[AlexROH]

Hero just posted this on his official Twitter:

‏@thechrishero
I can't help but to be disappointed by irresponsible journalism.

[King of Indy Style]

Let's hope that this whole thing was blown out of proportion and Hero isn't going.

[Jay Lethal's Hair]

I don't know why you would root against the guy achieving this goal. It isn't like he's going there against his will.

The news may have been premature - and Hero is rightfully pissed about that - but it isn't something made up.

[Brada]

Let's hope that this whole thing was blown out of proportion and Hero isn't going.

You don't want him to have success?

[Montana]

Hero just posted this on his official Twitter:

‏@thechrishero
I can't help but to be disappointed by irresponsible journalism.

Well...hopefully he gets a fair shot one day. One of the most talented performers heel/face/in the ring/ on the mic. Not much he can't do. Was hoping he'd return to ROH, but i think he's certainly ready for the big stage.

[supersonic]

Might be about Satin, not Meltzer.

[famicommander]

Let's hope that this whole thing was blown out of proportion and Hero isn't going.

You don't want him to have success?

As a human being I want Chris to do whatever he thinks is best for himself and his family.

As a Chris Hero fan I want him to succeed in WWE and get the attention he deserves.

But as a selfish wrestling fan I want my favorite wrestlers as far away from WWE as possible because I don't think WWE will let them be as entertaining as they're capable of being. I firmly believe Raw and Smackdown are the two worst wrestling shows on US national TV right now (the others being ROH TV, Impact, NJPW on AXS, Lucha Underground) and I don't think it has anything to do with the talent.

Chris Hero going to WWE doesn't really improve WWE's product because to me, WWE already has dozens of incredible wrestlers. And it means I'm going to see what is in my mind a lesser version of Hero because he'll be arbitrarily limited by various WWE policies (random move bans that only apply to some wrestlers, wellness policy testing, TVPG, Vince McMahon's crazy whims, etc). Give me Kevin Steen package piledriving everybody and going on profanity laced rants over Kevin Owens' current character. Give me El Generico over Sami Zayn any day of the week.

And finally, in the general sense I'd rather see guys continue elevating promotions like ROH, NJPW, or LU rather than jumping to WWE as soon as they become real stars. It just continues the cycle of WWE's dominance over the business and makes all the other shows less entertaining because they keep losing all their stars.

To be clear, I'm not saying WWE is bad or wrong for continuing to sign guys from smaller promotions. Nor am I saying the wrestlers themselves are doing anything wrong. It's just means that wrestling will be come less entertaining to me, specifically, as a selfish wrestling fan.

[Brada]

It would be crazy to think what a big show like a Wrestlemania could be if they let them go all out, with zero restrictions or limitations, with the talent that currently have, and I am specifically talking about the undercard.

Imagine talent such as Apollo Crews/Dolph Ziggler/Sami Zayn/Neville/Kalisto/TJP.......guys like that with the ability to break that glass ceiling and steal the show.

Now that is a WWE I could get behind. Time to wake up though, as that will never happen.

Cue the Strowman music.

[supersonic]

Observer:

Chris Hero (Chris Spradlin, 36) may be returning. It’s not a done deal but he’s already gotten to the point he’s gone through the medicals. It’s notable because in the past, WWE rarely would bring back people they had cut in the past but the company is heavily scouting the indie scene and is getting the most aggressive it has ever been in trying to land the top in-ring wrestlers. Hero has been one of the best in-ring performers in the world over the past year and is Mr. Versatility, in the sense he can work seemingly every style at the highest level and is kind of master at working a match where everything means something. He was with the company from 2011 to 2013 in developmental. He had mixed reviews in the sense that everyone respected his knowledge and his ability, but there were issues with his body. He did end up losing a ton of weight when he was there. When C.M. Punk came up with the idea of The Shield, who were at first going to be his henchmen in keeping the title for a long period as a heel, the group was to be Ambrose, Rollins and Hero, but WWE wanted Reigns in the group because they believed he could be the next face of the company and that was the right way to feature him and have him learn working in matches with top guys. Hero was cut, and one coach there when he was cut noted being against that decision saying he believed Hero was the best all-around performer in developmental at the time. Since returning to the indies, he’s had a multitude of great matches, to where as far as in-ring consistency went, he was easily one of the top few wrestlers in the world. There’s no word on a start date or role. The story was huge on the Internet when it was broken and on our web site, it was one of the ten most read stories of the year