Strikes and Bumps XXI: ROH Reborn Stage 3

Since the inception of Ring of Honor it has had to re-invent itself almost every three years on the dot.  First was 2004, then there was 2007, and now in 2010 it looks like ROH is at it again.  Ring of Honor is once again forced to lose it’s champion, lose possibly two of it’s top contenders, and even has undergone another upper management shift.  But there is nothing new here.  It’s happened before, and it’s probably going to happen again in another three years… but many once again are questioning if Ring of Honor will even be here in three years.  I say it will survive.
In 2004 it was obvious the changes that needed to take place in order for ROH to stay in business so I hardly feel the need to go down that road.   After clarifying with ROH expert Ari Berenstein (cheap plug who you can connect to @ AriBerenstein.com) 2007 was once again a time of rebirth with the influx of PPVs, the then end of Colt Cabana in ROH as he was on his way to WWE developmental, and the start of signing of contracts for core Ring of Honor talent.  It was a time of building and growth for the company which ultimately has led to where we are today.
Management wise we have seen many changes as well.  The beloved Gabe Sapolsky was released and replaced by former NWA Champion Adam Pearce to much controversy over the years who now we know has also been let go recently.  There are clearly many issues facing ROH at this time but let’s list them for the sake of full disclosure:

1. Delirious aka Hunter Johnson is the new ROH head booker while also being head ROH trainer and booker of Pro Wrestling RESPECT
2. Jim Cornette will have a larger consultant role for ROH booking
3. Tyler Black has been signed to a WWE developmental deal despite what Matt Waters believes
4. Davey Richards has announced he is considering leaving the wrestling business at the end of 2010
5. Rasche Brown has quit the company with some harsh criticism

If I am missing any feel free to let me know but for me these are the major issues facing Ring of Honor at the current time.  Also of course there is always the ever present marketing and getting more eyes on the company.  Of course we here at ProWrestlingPonderings.com are doing our part by hosting full episode viewings of ROH on HDNet over on our Videos page which you can find at the top of the page but the main thing is trying to get more of that mainstream audience or possibly even the MMA audience to see that this is wrestling presented in a different way than the ever present WWE.
What can I say though that hasn’t already been said?  Ring of Honor has always been the company that focus’ more on their in ring product than their storylines.  Lately of course it’s almost seemed the exact opposite as Ring of Honor has been giving us some pretty well written feuds that for my money have been entertaining me in 2010 for than another mainstream company that decided to focus on 40 something year old veterans.  Not to say that they’ve been without fault.  At times it seemed as if ROH hadn’t planned on the possibility of losing their head talents and hadn’t really grown any stars to hopefully replace those at the top of the card.   While I may be in the minority here, I did feel that Rasche Brown was starting to gel with the crowd and was possibly going to be moving on up the card to the TV title and even the World title some day.  Of course the way he left and the reason’s he’s been stating on podcasts and other blogs leave me feeling that going back won’t be entirely met with open arms.   Tyler Black of course going onto “greener pastures” isn’t really something that Cary or anyone else can do anything about.  Tyler in my opinion has been a decent talent for ROH.  He’s grown and if he’s able to make more money somewhere else then ultimately you can’t blame him for that.  No one blamed Nigel McGuinness, Bryan Danielson, Homicide, Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe or the others that have gone onto larger things in Japan or WWE and I don’t feel that Tyler should be hated for it either.
But again this is the time for change in Ring of Honor.  Delirious as far as my knowledge a few other insider views who I’ve emailed have said that most of his booking experience has come from Pro Wrestling RESPECT, but that he’s been a real student in all the promotions he’s worked for.  I’ve heard from a few wrestlers that they’ve seen him ask around for advice not only about wrestling in the ring but about creativity in storylines in general which to me shows that perhaps he’s been interested in this line of work and perhaps Cary and Syd are just ready to give him a try.  It’s not anything I can really speak on beyond this because I have nothing to go on save for the few PWR shows which have been fun but nothing spectacular.
Get this for breaking news, Ring of Honor has just resigned the Kings of Wrestling of Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero. Earlier they stated that they resigned the Briscoes Brothers along with Adam Cole and Mike Bennett which also shows that they are looking forward alongside keeping those who are staples in this company.   As I write this, seeing this pop up on the ROH twitter really shows me the surprises that I’m hoping to see from them in the future.  I’m not as down on the product as many of the other bloggers seem to be despite stating that they are really just looking at the facts.  For me  the facts are this:

1. We are in a recession and DVD sales aren’t going great but they have put up their DVD streaming shop which has loads of potential.
2. ROH isn’t purely going on their in-ring any more but at the same time you can’t keep focusing on those niche groups if you want to expand your monetary streams.  If you want a purely in ring product watch EVOLVE or to a lesser extent PWG.
3. ROH has a new booker, but we have nothing to say he’s going to do poorly so how can we already be judging his ability when we haven’t seen it yet?
4. ROH is losing top stars.  Is this new?  Did we not lose huge stars almost every year since the beginning in 2002?  ROH has dealt with this before and are clearly looking forward with the signing of new talent and not just relying on their students.

At this point of the juncture, there is no denying that Ring of Honor is getting set to be “reborn” again and I’m more excited than I’ve been in the past to see what new talent will step up and show that they can be the next Samoa Joe or the next Bryan Danielson.  Kevin Steen has been that replacement for me for both of those spots in terms of his in ring style and his ability to seem “legit”.  I can’t say how many times I’ve gotten into arguments with people online saying that Kevin Steen really is the only legit fighter on the roster besides Davey Richards, which clearly shows how well he’s gotten his character over despite to my knowledge never having a lesson in any mixed martial art.
The point is this.  Is Ring of Honor losing money?  Probably.  Can they over come this?  They are definitely efforting to do so and for my money the DVDs are still some of the best product out there.  I won’t deny that there was no excuse for their lack of high definition quality on some of their releases. I won’t deny that at this point in the game they really should consider buying some high def cameras of their own instead of just shooting it when HDNet provides them.  Are these things unquestionably unforgivable at this point in the game?  Yes.   They need to step their production up and this has been an issue since 2007 when they started doing PPVs.
Many of the issues above can’t be unknown to higher management but I would definitely let your voices be heard when it comes to demanding more out of Ring of Honor.  With Cary basically opening himself to it with his twitter and new feature article that will be a reoccuring theme on the website it’s time for us to let it be known what we want out of Ring of Honor’s Rebirth.
Cheap plugs, we have just now re-debuted the site and I surely do appreciate all the support.  Check out the new podcasts and do subscribe to us on iTunes which you can do by clicking the links on the right hand side.  As always if you have any questions or comments let us know on the official ProWrestlingPonderings Facebook page which you can find up top or by emailing us at prowrestlingponderings@gmail.com
Until next time let us know what you think Ring of Honor can do for you the fan and check out our DVD and ROH on HDNet reviews coming every week.
~ Chris