This past week I had the opportunity to watch both the Ring of Honor 12th Anniversary Show and the 11th Anniversary Show through ROH’s On-Demand service on the Pro Wrestling Pondering’s account. This was the first time I had seen the latter in full and just sneaked in under the wire of the one-year license to watch. There are some comparisons to be made when looking back at both shows, in terms of presentation, booking and in-ring quality.
First, the presentation of Ring of Honor in terms of audio and video were definitely improved year-over-year. The 11th Anniversary footage was grainy and presented in standard definition. A year later, one can definitely tell that ROH upgraded their video cameras to at least the basic standards of High-Definition (though as far as I know ROH in HD is available only through their website and not on their syndicated television platforms). The camera work and producing of the show had also improved as there were some shots on the 11th Anniversary which were mind boggling-camera switches showing nothing, footage of the fans or managers which missed key moments in the ring and so on. By the 12th Anniversary, much of those follies seem to be smoothed out or fixed.
While both the 11th and 12th Anniversary Show boasted title matches, there were no title changes this year as compared to last year when two of the three major ROH titles changed hands. Adam Cole seems to be in high gear with his ROH World Title run right now, so there is no real reason to change the belt yet, especially with all sorts of challengers nipping at his heels. Adrenaline Rush could have used a major title win to break through, but reDRagon has been holding the tag division steady for the last year and there seems to be a more important booking for them in terms of matching up with The Young Bucks (and down the line perhaps facing some New Japan talent). Tomasso Ciampa just won the TV Title in December in very strong fashion and again, there is no reason to change horses right now with him.
Looking back to a year ago, Matt Taven clearly rose to the occasion of the TV title match he was involved in with Adam Cole. Although his title run did not have much else of note in-between when he won the title and when he lost it to Ciampa, his effort during the title win gives some hindsight into why ROH decided to pull the trigger on him then.
This year Ciampa and Hanson had a slobberknocker brawl match for the TV Title that was a spectacle to see. There was nothing wrong with seeing those two big guys battling it out-and a rematch in the future wouldn’t be too bad, either.
The tag team title situation demonstrates an interesting full circle. Last year, reDRagon of Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish wound up winning the tag team titles from The Briscoes. A year later, they had dropped and regained the belts and had made it back to an anniversary show to defend the straps.
Of course the two title changes at 11th Anniversary were done both for the idea of pushing the new champions up the card, but also to tease the possibility that all the titles would change on that night. Jay Lethal challenged Kevin Steen for the ROH World Title in what wasn’t the most popular or desirable title bout on an anniversary show. However, this was light years better to some compared to the decision not to have a ROH World Title bout and instead highlight the “Young Wolves Rising” tag team match at the 10th Anniversary Show. To be fair, Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards were still important to ROH for much of 2012 and both Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly have clearly gone onto bigger and better things in their ROH and independent wrestling careers. However, even Kevin Steen wondered in media interviews after this event why there wasn’t a title match in the main event of that card.
One year later, Jay Lethal was featured in a competitive match against AJ Styles and seemed to be teasing frustration and a possible turn to the dark side after losing.
At the 11th Anniversary, Lethal was a victim to the expansion of SCUM, as Steve Corino brought in a cavalcade of villainy to kill “Honor”. The end of the show featured an nWo style beat down of the ROH locker room while Kevin Steen looked on not so much indifferently but mildly upset that his match had been spoiled by all of these shenanigans. The SCUM angle actually would be over a few months later. One year later, Steen was the hero in an unsanctioned main event against a former SCUM member in Cliff Compton that featured street fighting and violence and was more of an ode to ECW than Ring of Honor, although ROH did have plenty of hardcore and violent matches in its twelve-year history.
Finally, and this might be more of an objective opinion, but I found the quality of In-ring wrestling action was far better this year than last year, as was just a cursory comparison of the cards from top-to-bottom.
AJ Styles and Chris Hero, as mentioned in a previous column, very much helped add to the depth of the cards and in-ring quality this year. Their use on the card was better than The Forever Hooligans who had an okay (but not great) “dream” match against The American Wolves last year (they would do better in other shows throughout the year). As well, most of the roster was either in a better position with booking (ACH and Tadarius Thomas going from a six-man match into a title bout; Cole being presented as “The Man” instead of a third-horse to Taven and Matt Hardy at ringside; The Decade being a better vehicle for Whitmer and Jacobs compared to what they did the year before), or more over with the crowd (Ciampa and Alexander, for example).
Looking backwards, the 10th Anniversary Show had left some people wanting more. The 11th Anniversary was incredibly newsworthy with title changes and angle formations but didn’t really have the “feel” or crowd reaction of an anniversary celebration. Instead, it felt somewhat static and almost lifeless, leaving me somewhat cold after viewing it. This year, while there were no truly earth-shattering moments, the anniversary show did feel like more of a call-back to what worked in Ring of Honor-focusing on the wrestling itself and going for the best match-ups possible. The show felt like a celebration and joyous tribute to the best of Ring of Honor. It should be more like that on every show.