The ROH Thread

[Domino_Not_Deuce]

 

 

 

Out of curiosity, does them reusing show names bug the hell out of anyone else? I remember the first time I heard Nigel vs. Danielson was going to be "Epic Encounter 2" I wanted to rip someones head off. It sounded stupid, and I didn't like the match nearly as much as I liked London/Danielson (If I recall, that was the match were Nigel did the "headbutting the ring post till he bled" spot. Made me uncomfortable then, since if I remember correctly, Benoit wasn't much before that, and low and behold, he has head issues now that forced an early retirement)

 

Like, how many of the "Manhattan Mayhem" shows are even in the ballpark of the first one?

Your timeline is a little off here. The Nigel/Danielson match you're describing was from Unified which was part of ROH's United Kingdom debut and Nigel was the hometown hero. It was a pretty big match as it was the unification match for the World and Pure Titles. Also, the match occurred a year before the Benoit stuff.

 

I remember on an ROH show in 04, maybe Nigel's first, he does the headbutting the ring post spot and it's really hard to watch. How long was that guy doing that spot on smaller indies and how often? Craziness.

 

Oh wow. I don't recall that and I was pretty into ROH by '04. I only remember the aforementioned Unified spot. It's ridiculous, especially with how much more attention is paid to head trauma nowadays.

 

 

Looking at OWW, I believe it's "The Battle Lines Are Drawn"

[Petey]

That would make sense. My first ROH show was At Our Best and I think I had only watched DVD's from 2002-2003 up until that point. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen The Battle Lines are Drawn.

[rzombie1988]

I reviewed this week's ROH here:
http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/ring-of-honor-tv-8242013-results-and.html

Overall thoughts: The show was fine as a whole. I don't have any problems with it other than Steve Corino returning. I don't know anyone who wants to see that.

Some shots from the show:

[mco543]

I'm enjoying Kongo because he seems to be the complete antithesis of what the ROH fans would want to see in an ROH wrestler.

 

I'm wondering how much turnover the ROH fan base has had since the companies heyday. This seems like the worst roster ROH has ever had and I'm curious if the ROHbots now are predominantly the same as they were when they had Joe, Danielson, Aries, etc or they've left to follow something else. I can't see the ROH fans from the companies prime years giving a shit about a lot of these guys.

[Domino_Not_Deuce]

I'm enjoying Kongo because he seems to be the complete antithesis of what the ROH fans would want to see in an ROH wrestler.

 

I'm wondering how much turnover the ROH fan base has had since the companies heyday. This seems like the worst roster ROH has ever had and I'm curious if the ROHbots now are predominantly the same as they were when they had Joe, Danielson, Aries, etc or they've left to follow something else. I can't see the ROH fans from the companies prime years giving a shit about a lot of these guys.

 

You gotta think those guys have jumped over to EVOLVE and even WWE, as much as they wouldn't want to admit it. Does the super smart, technical loving fan even exist anymore?

[Harbinger]

I have.  I thought he came off a little whiney at times, but overall it was good.

He was whining a lot. Felt extremely sorry for Eddie Edwards. Must've sucked sharing a bed with a crying grown man with no rape involved.

[Petey]

I was super into ROH from 04-08, although my interest started waning in 2008. The last show I attended was Final Battle '08 and I haven't bought a DVD or attended a show since. I haven't seen any Evolve or DGUSA shows. I started watching WWE a little more during the Summer of Punk and have watched it a bunch more this year but that's about it. Honestly, I watch Classics on Demand more than anything and it really satisfies my wrestling fix.

[A Guy Named Tracy]

So why is a guy named Kongo billed as coming from South America?

[The Natural]

 

 

 

Out of curiosity, does them reusing show names bug the hell out of anyone else? I remember the first time I heard Nigel vs. Danielson was going to be "Epic Encounter 2" I wanted to rip someones head off. It sounded stupid, and I didn't like the match nearly as much as I liked London/Danielson (If I recall, that was the match were Nigel did the "headbutting the ring post till he bled" spot. Made me uncomfortable then, since if I remember correctly, Benoit wasn't much before that, and low and behold, he has head issues now that forced an early retirement)

 

Like, how many of the "Manhattan Mayhem" shows are even in the ballpark of the first one?

Your timeline is a little off here. The Nigel/Danielson match you're describing was from Unified which was part of ROH's United Kingdom debut and Nigel was the hometown hero. It was a pretty big match as it was the unification match for the World and Pure Titles. Also, the match occurred a year before the Benoit stuff.

 

I remember on an ROH show in 04, maybe Nigel's first, he does the headbutting the ring post spot and it's really hard to watch. How long was that guy doing that spot on smaller indies and how often? Craziness.

 

Oh wow. I don't recall that and I was pretty into ROH by '04. I only remember the aforementioned Unified spot. It's ridiculous, especially with how much more attention is paid to head trauma nowadays.

 

 

Danielson/McGuinness at Unified 2006 is one of those well talked about matches, you don't share the same opinion on. I've never liked it at the level of other Bryan Danielson's Ring of Honor matches. The match wouldn't make my Best of RoH matches.

[Patrick B.]

Out of the guys in that four-way match, I was digging Todd Hanson the most.  Good power game.

[The Damn Yeti]

I'm curious if the ROHbots now are predominantly the same as they were when they had Joe, Danielson, Aries, etc or they've left to follow something else.

 

I went to a ton of shows (maybe 40ish) between 2003 and 2009, but followed WWE throughout.  I was into TNA for a while from 2003-2005 or so, but that burned out pretty quickly for me.  Once Joe and Danielson were gone I just didn't care as much, and I was getting older and the time and money needed to follow this niche hobby became way too much to sustain.  I followed ROH and WWE concurrently because they both gave me something I really wanted, and now WWE gives me both more often than not, and ROH, from what I've seen, gives me neither.  It would be interesting to plug the TV equation into ROH around the time Joe lost the belt to Aries.  Could they have grown into something through Summer of Punk/CZW/Best in the World Bryan Danielson?

[nate]

 

I'm curious if the ROHbots now are predominantly the same as they were when they had Joe, Danielson, Aries, etc or they've left to follow something else.

 

I went to a ton of shows (maybe 40ish) between 2003 and 2009, but followed WWE throughout.  I was into TNA for a while from 2003-2005 or so, but that burned out pretty quickly for me.  Once Joe and Danielson were gone I just didn't care as much, and I was getting older and the time and money needed to follow this niche hobby became way too much to sustain.  I followed ROH and WWE concurrently because they both gave me something I really wanted, and now WWE gives me both more often than not, and ROH, from what I've seen, gives me neither.  It would be interesting to plug the TV equation into ROH around the time Joe lost the belt to Aries.  Could they have grown into something through Summer of Punk/CZW/Best in the World Bryan Danielson?

 

 

Yes, very much so.  And then Faction Warrrz happened, and it looked EXACTLY like what an entire company built around a Nation of Domination/ Disciples of the Apocolypse/ Los Boriquas angle would look like.  Doo.  Doo.  Butter.  I think it was a misstep that ROH didn't really recover from ... I mean, yeah, all kinds of other stuff happened during that time, but that was the herald of the downward slope.

[Territorial]

Faction Warfare is where ROH lost me.  My interest in the company never really came back, after that. 

 

I don't think TV works for ROH during the Punk/Joe years any more than it worked later on.  Probably works out worse for ROH, since at that point DVD sales are good.  HDNET was something that kept me from getting back into the company, since they seemed to be running two sets of storylines independently - one for shows/PPV, the other for HDNET tapings. 

[Dewar]

Line of the week: "When did Grizzly Redwood find the Secret of the Ooze?", by Matt Taven during the four way scramble to watch the show.

 

Taven and Martini were pretty good at the commentary desk. Strange that they keep putting Nigel there, when everyone who guest announces does a better job than him.

[TimWresPowr]

Watched the latest ROH TV and man they are on a roll lately.  I skipped the opening match which was 4 locals in a match to determine who will fight Matt Taven next week.  I like that idea (mainly since guys in VA deserve a look and Baltimore is close) but the formula may get pretty predictable after a while unless they use it to bring a guy in & have him beat Taven to get noticed.  Tag with C&C vs. Party Boyz had a few rough spots but was a fun match.  Party Boyz most likely work cheap since they are ROH trainees so I wouldn't mind seeing them work other indies to get experience.  Alexander is going to be the bomb in a year or so, they really should work on moving him to singles & dump the annoying Coleman.  Inside ROH was largely a waste & rehash aside from the clip of Wolves winning tag belts & acknowledgement that they had lost them already.  Proof that they can go back & edit something into a show even though the audio wasn't levelated very well.  Main event was SHOCKINGLY good.  Lethal has been on a roll in the past few months and this was the best I've seen of Dutt in years.  He was actually motivated for once & did a lot of cool, innovative stuff without looking like he was just trying to be cute or adding pointless fruity embellishments to stuff.  Real good match with lots of nearfalls and both looked like a million bucks. *** match, the 3rd straight episode from that taping with a match this good.

 

One annoying thing on this show was the camera work.  Granted some of it may be that I was watching it on the SD feed, but they had several times where the camera zoomed in for unnecessary closeups & times where moves were missed by the camera crew.

[JRGoldman]

I agree with the faction war stuff being the beginning of the end for Gabe. He clearly booked himself in to a corner with it. The clear angle was the Age of the Fall as an unstoppable invading force (which Gabe was actually really good at booking and getting over), but we basically had been given that angle or some variation thereof for the past three years or so. The fan base was growing tired of it, and the World title was probably too much of a work-rate reward for the fans to accept Jimmy Jacobs or Necro holding it. Instead of the logical angle, we got Dragon Gate fantasy booking with even worse faction names. Also, the Hangmen 3. Just the absolute worst. I cannot stress enough how truly bad they were. It was mystifying. 

[The Damn Yeti]

Also, the Hangmen 3

 

I had completely burned this from my memory.  Jesus, it was bad.

[Big Fresh]

I still like Brent Albright though. Whatever happened to him?

[cool arrow]

I still like Brent Albright though. Whatever happened to him?

 

According to his Facebook page, he works as a "LST at Atlantic Aviation at KTUL."

 

I know, helpful, huh?

[HumanChessgame]

Michael Elgin is there now and he's more or less the same guy as Albright and Erick Stevens.

[JRGoldman]

Michael Elgin is there now and he's more or less the same guy as Albright and Erick Stevens.

I think it's pretty damning for current ROH that a dude who is essentially the same as Brent Albright is often referred to as one of the lone bright spots on shows.

[Newb82]

Michael Elgin is way better than Albright was in RoH.

I've done a 180 on Elgin. The first couple times I saw him I hated him because to me he looked an wrestled like a No Mercy CAW.

[Petey]

I agree with the faction war stuff being the beginning of the end for Gabe. He clearly booked himself in to a corner with it. The clear angle was the Age of the Fall as an unstoppable invading force (which Gabe was actually really good at booking and getting over), but we basically had been given that angle or some variation thereof for the past three years or so. The fan base was growing tired of it, and the World title was probably too much of a work-rate reward for the fans to accept Jimmy Jacobs or Necro holding it. Instead of the logical angle, we got Dragon Gate fantasy booking with even worse faction names. Also, the Hangmen 3. Just the absolute worst. I cannot stress enough how truly bad they were. It was mystifying. 

Necro Butcher: ROH World Champion... would have been awesome.

[mco543]

Yeah, the faction shit with the No Remorse Corps, Vulture Squad, etc was probably the point where I stopped following ROH entirely. The name "Vulture Squad" was likely the tipping point from reading results and following the goings on without buying dvds to not even bothering to do that anymore.

 

I haven't seen Elgin in a while since I don't watch the ROH tv regularly but he was the only wrestler I've ever seen get a haircut that purposely accentuated his bald spot.

[Clayton Jones]

Everything I've seen from Elgin is in a different league than Albright. Brent was the epitome of a waste of roster space. There were so many guys out there at that time that could have contributed something to ROH and I'm sure at a fraction of the cost he was getting paid.