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RING OF HONOR in 2021


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It's almost ironic that as soon as they're sold to a company with tons of cash their product goes downhill.  Steadily at first then a really sharp one once AEW started up.  I still have fond memories of pre-Sinclair ROH (and even some during) so this really sucks seeing how things played out.  I was always hoping somebody would buy them and make an actual effort but if that's it then hopefully the talent end up on their feet.

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22 minutes ago, Kropotkin's Beard said:

Well, that sucks. This was the first time I'd really got back into ROH since the Adam Pearce days & there's a lot of really exciting stuff on their roster.

New Japan should probably throw money at a bunch of their Mexican guys to get them to move to Japan full-time because boy does their Junior division need the help. And their undercard in general.

 

I'm most interested in seeing what happens to Josh Woods and Bandido.  Those two are the best they got in terms of long-term prospects.

 

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I was wondering why this weeks ROH TV was a best of Jay Lethal from 2020

  Basically now every promotion that was good to great in 2002 on the indies is either dead or life support. Except IWA Mid South amazingly and maybe PWG

Edited by hammerva
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  • RIPPA pinned this topic

Call me a homer, but I'm not giving up on ROH. They have conducted themselves with "honor" by focusing on safety. Their biggest mistake was setting the table for AEW's creation instead of grabbing that spot for themselves.

If ROH wants to stick around, its best bet is to focus on pure wrestling, factions, and the women's division. Find some kind of decent and timely TV exposure and get back on the road again. Spend some money, be different, and shoot for the goal of becoming the strong No. 3 company that we know and love. 

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RoH was never going to grab AEW's spot.  Just who their owners are and their lack of desire to fund RoH to any heights was always going to keep it where it was.  Hell, it had 75% of AEW's roster at the start and it didn't draw.  

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ROH announced on Wednesday afternoon that the company would take a hiatus from live events for the first quarter of 2022 with hopes to return in April for the Super Card of Honor. According to PWInsider, ROH does have a venue in place for the event

This makes it seem like they're just going to basically try and reboot the promotion doesn't it? Maybe take a stab at some of those big name FA's out there and try to bring the name value back up again.

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6 minutes ago, Krone Meltzer said:

This makes it seem like they're just going to basically try and reboot the promotion doesn't it? Maybe take a stab at some of those big name FA's out there and try to bring the name value back up again.

Feels like they could be doing the opposite.  I think their budget might be getting slashed so it's easier to cut everyone now and sign cheaper wrestlers with the re-boot.

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A little more clarity regarding the contract stuff

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Contracted talent signed to Ring of Honor won’t have their contracts renewed as the company looks to go on hiatus and re-evaluate in the first quarter of 2022.

Bryan Alvarez is reporting that contracted talent will not have their contracts renewed and are allowed to work anywhere they want immediately. They will also be paid through the end of the year. However, they will finish out remaining ROH dates for 2021. ROH will continue with a November television taping followed by their Final Battle pay-per-view, which will take place on December 11 at the Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Final Battle will be the first card to have fans in attendance since the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view in September. Recent television tapings have been held without fans.

Rumors that Sinclair Broadcasting, the parent company of Ring of Honor, has canceled ROH’s television show are not true.

 

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At least Sinclair's RSN is inspiring confidence

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The idea that Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group is about to head into bankruptcy, which presumably would allow local team rights to revert back to the leagues, was described as unlikely by several of the group’s creditors.

In interviews with several executives who own some of Diamond’s debt, all of them said they believe multiple options exist that would fund the declining regional sports network business before it would head into bankruptcy.

 

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27 minutes ago, RunningFromAmerica said:

Tony Khan must be feeling buyer's remorse about Tony Nese right about now.

Do you feel buyer's remorse when you have Tony Khan money? If I were TK, the ROH alum I'd be helping out right now is Jimmy Rave. There has to be a behind the scenes job Rave can do.

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so, is ROH close to being in the same book as WCW in regards to "it's not great for wrestling companies when their parent company does a huge financial thing"? (AOL Time-Warner for WCW, Sinclair buying the Fox RSNs from Disney for ROH)

Obviously, COVID is a big factor if Sinclair is having to cut some costs to keep their bigger fish afloat. But they're the ones who had to find a way to purchase a bunch of networks for $10 billion total and like a lot of giant media companies, they're close to bankruptcy (that'll force them to restructure since bankruptcy is a strategic thing for business)

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Wasn't ROH supposedly trying to rebrand itself with more of an emphasis on the "pure rules" business?

I've been a fan of ROH since day one and getting the weekly show helped get me back into wrestling after being a lapsed fan for about a year and half back in 2011. I want them to keep being a thing but the promotion has been a shell of it's former self for a while now. While I've tried to give them a watch since covid, the empty arena just totally drained the enthusiasm in all the events.

Edit: GCW just announced Bandido for three shows in December.

Edited by HumanChessgame
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If you ask me, ROH's downward spiral started with Gabe's firing and being replaced by Adam Pearce. I remember wanting to give the Pearce-era a chance, but it was just so bad. It was basically the complete opposite of Gabe's run.

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
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It is easy to blame Adam Pearce for the downward spiral but they recovered well once he left.   What killed the current version of Ring of Honor was the birth of AEW.   They built their entire product on the backs of Cody, Omega, Young Bucks, and Marty Scurill and when 4 of them left to start AEW that product was a wasteland of unproven stars not ready for the main events and veterans that never left and got stale.    2019 Ring of Honor might be their worst year ever in terms of product and opinion by the fans.  We remember seeing those live events that held around 5,000 people barely having 400.      Then the pandemic happened and they barely ran in 2020 to rebuilt themselves.    

 

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I know we all have our favourite eras, but I think at this point it is a bit ridiculous to bring up guys like Pearce or Gabe.

6 hours ago, HumanChessgame said:

Wasn't ROH supposedly trying to rebrand itself with more of an emphasis on the "pure rules" business?

It is just a one division. "Normal" matches far outnumber pure rules matches.

As for the news, it looks like it could go either way. If Final Battle flops and they can't figure out hot new direction then that might be that for RoH. On the other hand if FB is a hot show and they manage to sustain interest then the reboot might work out. But looking at RoH's track record I'd bet on this being the beginning of the end.

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It would be a huge score if Tony Khan can get his hands on ROH's video library. Think of the content AEW could put out featuring the ROH matches of CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, Cody, the Young Bucks, Adam Page, Adam Cole, etc. I think it'd be a great way to introduce lapsed fans into the earlier work of some of your top stars. Not to mention being able to use ROH footage to introduce possible incoming stars, like say Kevin Steen. 

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Saddening news of Ring of Honor's plight. 2002-2006 was a great period with the Samoa Joe/CM Punk '04 trilogy, seeing Bryan Danielson's rise, the Summer of Punk and Danielson having the best ROH World Championship reign ever. Thoughts go out to those affected xxx.

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Even if ROH hadn't been built around Bullet Club....look AEW throw out 3 hours of Cable TV and another 1-3 hours of Dark content - some of which is good. The ROH dream has long been dead, but now it's been buried 50ft in the ground in a lead coffin. GCW and PWG can somewhat access the AEW roster, NJPW can provide a slightly more technical product, NWA can provide a nostalgia product. Is there room for something a little more BattlArts? Maybe. But you do probably need a different roster for that. Whether Sinclair are the ones to run such a promotion I'm not sure - but where else do you go?

I will admit, in recent years I watched some of the Pure stuff, a bit of PCO and a bit of Danhausen and that's about it. I wasn't particularly motivated to watch more.

 

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