Ring of Honor Discussions and News Thread - *Spoilers for Latest Shows*

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Wrestling News & Rumours 2020 Thread ***NO CHAT***.

https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1453448050467213321?t=zFJ4lh7OtfcgGwpq2VI1IQ&s=19

https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/1453442439696601090?t=z86vpqAjlRo3E27iXVif0w&s=19

WTF

Lithium93_

Just to add to the above.

https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1453449076696096773

https://twitter.com/bryanalvarez/status/1453451710056177671

That's mad!

J. Marston

Who will WWE and AEW be going after?

RollieFingers

The writing has been on the wall for a while, ROH just couldn't get any buzz whatever they did.

Bandido, Gresham, Rush and Brody King all available now!

CastorTroy

World Famous CB, of course.

Good they all had steady work through the pandemic and will have places to go now indies are opening up again.

Do MLW and NWA do contracts or are they more per appearance where people may leave at any time?

I can't see them coming back from this. Wonder would WWE or AEW buy them out? The video library for the network alone would be worth it to WWE.

Agent Coulson

TNA/Impact will out survive the apocalypse at this stage and be the last wrestling company standing.

Lithium93_

Don't ROH also have footage from All In? Given Cody, The Buck's association to ROH at the time?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082412#Comment_118082412

They own the footage to the whole show I think.

Agent Coulson

Tony Kahn and Warners to buy out the video library would add years of footage straight away to setting up an AEW streaming service with Warners.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082429#Comment_118082429

Yep, that video library is fantastic. Nearly 20 years of footage and including a lot of big names that are in WWE and AEW currently.

Lord TSC

Danhausen about to be All Elithausen.

Think they could set up a deal with WWE?

Weren't they enquiring about MLW awhile ago?

As like a NXT being developmental then ROH being like old NXT?

As if I was HHH I'd be snapping looking at Black, Andrade and Pac main eventing an AEW show.

The library also would be a huge addition if it became available.

As long as the Briscoes finally get a run on TV I'm happy!

Cherry_Cola

I've been to the last two PWG shows live and Bandido is out of this world. His match at Mystery Vortex is next level - just rewatched it on blu ray the other night. I really really hope he's picked up.

titan18

Posted this in the AEW thread but probably fits better here, as it's in relation to who I think AEW will be interested in. Was mentioned above too but the video library if it's available is a must (although WWE will bid for that too I'd say). Rights back to All In, old footage of loads of your stars (Danielson, Punk, Elite etc). That will likely have a bidding war between the two if it comes up.

Gresham is their best wrestler imo and there will be a lot of hype about him Vs Danielson if that happens. It also helps to combat one of the criticisms of AEW in the lack of black wrestlers, and Gresham is excellent. He'll slot in to the upper mid card picture in AEW imo.

Others that will be talked about cos of their relationships. RUSH and Dragon Lee can reform with Andrade and have a new LI faction and you've got an insane trios bout between them and Death Triangle. Brody King fits with Malakai and they wrestle as a tag team outside of AEW already. Think he's friends with Darby too which helps.

Then you've got Bandido and Danhausen. Bandido is excellent in ring and there is a bit of a fit there but I could see him not getting signed permanently. Danhausen should be the first priority though. He's insanely over cos of his online stuff, he's friends with loads of the roster and there's insane marketing potential with him in AEW as he already has a thing with Conan O Brien going and Conan is with Warner. To me, Danhausen is a guy who can bring casual people in to watch AEW, he's insanely entertaining.

There are others I can see getting Dark matches and maybe one off roster matches and see how things go (Dalton Castle, Deppen, Jay Lethal etc) but not sure there's room for guys like those in AEW atm.

Rok-C and Trish Adora are possible for the women's roster too, I'd expect Dark match tryouts at the very least.

Agent Coulson

A lot of the ROH roster are Impact level, MLW could pick up some of them NWA as well.

GCW which is on the rise might be the company to benefit most picking up talent now as it is the only one really touring in any real form.

However none of them have any real money behind from TV, touring etc.

AEW has a big midcard and jobber roster to rotate in and out and they aren't on great money so Tony lets them work on the indies.

WWE might look at one or two of the roster but I'd say it's back to Mexico for the Mexican talent and the indies for most of the roster.

ROH 2.0 coming 2022.

CastorTroy

How is Danhausen in the ring? He may be entertaining but where would he fit. AEW doesn't really have anyone like him in comedic characters. We do have comedic characters but not as comedic.

Agent Coulson

Got to feel for Session Moth she turned down WWE and signs with ROH then has her first match for them in February 2020 then pandemic hits and she never really gets her chance State side.

Who knows where she would be now if she signed with the WWE.

Pentecost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118083013#Comment_118083013

Stuck spinning her wheels on NXT UK most likely. I don't see her ever making it in a big promotion to be honest though I do sympathise with how unfortunate the timing was for her.

Headshot

Sinclair must be looking to sell

This is devastating news for all involved.

Lithium93_

A case of history repeating itself?

https://twitter.com/Casshooole/status/1453482372721221637?t=uh-WTwkUf6f5gdHZtioQFQ&s=19

Agent Coulson

GCW have ROH World Champion Bandido now signed up for shows in December.

GCW might now be close to being the 3rd company in North America ahead of Impact

titan18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118082971#Comment_118082971

I think he's decent enough. He'll be a bit out of depth in AEW with it as there's a lot of good in ring workers there but he'll get by cos of his gimmick. It's like Orange Cassidy, his character work is what got him over, he isn't rivaling the likes of PAC, Omega, Danielson as ring workers but his character is excellent. That will be Danhausen. You can just have him work with Dark Order and it'll be magic

B.A._Baracus

A restructure is probably for the best as ROH has been a hard watch the last while. Of course, does restructure really mean gone for good. We shall see.

Problem with ROH I found is that it's roster always got raided every few years. But thats to be expected I guess due to the size of ROH - a top indy for guys to make a name but a stepping stone to bigger places.

RollieFingers

It sucks that this seems to be the end of ROH but as said it has been coming for a while if you've kept an eye on the company recently, ticket sales for Final Battle were not good and the buzz was non-existent.

The video library is of course a great pickup for someone. For me ROH 2004-2008 is up there with WCW 96-97 and NWA/JCP in the mid to late 80's as the peaks of pro-wrestling in North America. Joe vs Kobashi and DO Fixer vs Blood Generation are two of the best wrestling matches of all time.

It's also mad when you think about how much that tweet from WWE Guy to Meltzer asking could ROH sell out a 10,000 seat arena changed wrestling, which obviously snowballed into the formation of AEW etc. ROH would probably still be going if that tweet wasn't sent!

Lithium93_

MLW now have an open door policy for free/released talent.

https://mlw.com/2021/11/22/mlw-institutes-open-door-policy-for-free-agents/

Agent Coulson

Supercard of Honor PPV announced for April fools day Friday April 1st 2022 live from Texas.

https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/1480555922858643463?s=20

Agent Coulson

Gresham vs. Bandido will headline Supercard of Honor. 

Agent Coulson

ROH have announced that they will be starting a Hall of Fame to coinside with the companies 20th  anniversary.

Punk, Joe, Danielson all free to be inducted now they aren't connected to the WWE.

https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/1486350577823109122?s=20

Agent Coulson

Well deserved and true ROH Legends.

https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/1488167902339645441?s=20&t=mBZvG8-apWIhlGIFNA1ezw

Agent Coulson

The next inductee in the ROH Hall of Fame.

The American Dragon Bryan Danielson.

BRYAN DANIELSON INDUCTED INTO INAUGURAL ROH HALL OF FAME CLASS

Ring of Honor is proud to welcome Bryan Danielson, the embodiment of fighting spirit and technical wrestling excellence, into the inaugural class of the ROH Hall of Fame.

“The American Dragon” played a major role in establishing ROH as the Best Wrestling on the Planet, beginning with his performance in the main event on ROH’s debut show, The Era of Honor Begins, in 2002.

Whenever “The Final Countdown” blared throughout the building as Danielson made his entrance to the ring, fans knew they were about to witness a true master of his craft at work.

A superior technician, striker and submission specialist, Danielson cemented his status as the best wrestler in the sport when he won the ROH World Title in 2005. His 462-day reign as ROH World Champion is the third-longest, and he made a record 38 successful title defenses.

Danielson made history in 2006 when he defeated arch rival and ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness in Liverpool, England to merge the titles. He also won the inaugural Survival of the Fittest in 2004 and main-evented ROH’s first pay-per-view in 2007.

Danielson had many impressive victories in ROH, but one of his most memorable performances came in defeat. Just over four minutes into his match against then-ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima in 2007, Danielson suffered a detached retina as a result of the Japanese powerhouse’s clubbing blows.

Morishima targeted Danielson’s injured left eye throughout the match, but Danielson showed incredible toughness and heart and came within a fraction of a second of winning before Morishima ultimately prevailed after more than 20 dramatic minutes.

After leaving ROH in 2009, Danielson would gain world-wide fame in WWE, where he main-evented WrestleMania in 2014 before more than 75,000 fans at the Superdome in New Orleans. Danielson is currently one of the top stars in AEW.

Danielson joins the Briscoes in the inaugural ROH Hall of Fame class. More inductees will be announced in the coming weeks.

A career retrospective on Danielson will be featured on this weekend’s episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling television, and a YouTube special on Danielson drops Monday, Feb. 14 at 9 a.m. ET on ROH’s YouTube channel.

https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/bryan-danielson-inducted-inaugural-roh-hall-fame-class

Agent Coulson

Samoa Joe the next inductee in the ROH Hall of Fame.

https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/1493276022699089923?s=20&t=BHZyeqWGmYB8ge-uNSha1g

The White Wolf

It's a serious inaugural HOF they're putting together, has to be rounded off with Punk.

Doesn't matter what happens after that, even if it's just one inductee a year.

Agent Coulson

Kevin Eck part of ROH creative

Kevin Eck on the official ROH website notes that ROH fans will have a “huge say” in booking Supercard of Honor, and that this “unprecedented level of fan engagement will be a key component of the new era of ROH.

Agent Coulson

And of course the final inductee in the inaugural class  is CM Punk

https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/1495783970038063106?s=20&t=FBpO7Sbt5xerxgp7wHEkCw

Lithium93_

That is a seriously loaded inaugural class.

Agent Coulson

So then that restructure eh.

Agent Coulson

If Tony was able to keep the Sinclair syndication TV deal to air an ROH show that would be a good move as well.

Lithium93_

I wonder if Tony will bring back the key people who were involved in the day to day operations of Ring Of Honor before it announced its hiatus?

Lord TSC

PWInsider:

As the dust settles on Tony Khan's acquisition of Ring of Honor, there are a lot of people asking a lot of questions. At this juncture, we have no foresight into if and when he will run additional ROH shows, whether the announced PPV and TV taping in Dallas and Philadelphia will still happen and even whether the existing ROH TV will continue to air where it currently exists weekly. These are all things to be ironed out in the days ahead, so while we have gotten a number of emails asking for clarification, while I could be wrong, I honestly don't believe those finer points have had a chance to be worked out yet.

What we are hearing is the following:

*Yesterday, the Ring of Honor side was still working on production for the TV show and the forthcoming events and the word making the rounds in that circle was that there were discussions but the deal wasn't done. That changed very late in the day. How late we don't know, but one person believed it could have been as late as 6 PM EST. So, while the two sides had been negotiating for at least a few weeks, the official deal was indeed closed yesterday, as Tony Khan said in the ring on Dynamite. Prior to that point, there was a small circle in AEW who were aware of the discussions and believed it to be a done deal well before that.

*The ROH announcements for Supercard of Honor and the TV taping in Philly were made independent of the AEW side and were put into motion before the sale was announced. That was all pre-Tony Khan, so whether any of that takes place as originally envisioned remains to be seen.

*The announcement that AEW would be returning to Baltimore and running The UMBC Event Center instead of the Royal Farms Arena has zero to do with the ROH acquisition. AEW is running UMBC because the Royal Farms Arena is in the process of undergoing extensive renovations.

*There had been WWE interest in purchasing Ring of Honor when the company's hiatus was announced last year. PWInsider.com can confirm the two sides had entered into discussions in December but for some reason, the talks ended without an official deal being made. This would not have been the first time the two sides had some sort of communication about the idea of WWE buying the promotion and library, as there had been previous talks when Paul Levesque was in power. In the end, Khan stepped in and was able to strike a deal. I can confirm there were some in WWE who were legitimately shocked when the announcement happened, as they believed the announcement was going to be that AEW had come to terms with HBO Max for a streaming deal.

*On the ROH side, the sale was described as "bittersweet" as it felt this was the right thing for the long-term viability of Ring of Honor itself but there were a lot of people who truly loved working on the promotion.

Agent Coulson

Alos reports WWE also thought the announcement was going to be Tony had bought the NOAH or Dragon Gate tape Library.

The WWE seems to have been totally caught off guard by AEW buying ROH.

Itssoeasy

Well hopefully ROH doesn’t become like the UWF under JCP, and WCW under WWF but history suggests it will. ROH in whatever form it takes now will never be presented as an equal to AEW, which is a shame as I’d hoped that ROH would’ve not been bought by either AEW or WWE, because it would’ve been one more place for wrestlers to go.

Lithium93_

Just because history suggests, doesn't mean it'll necessarily happen.

Agent Coulson

Cary Silkin will be inducted and rightfullly so.

CARY SILKIN NAMED FIRST ROH HALL OF FAME LEGACY AWARD WINNER

The inaugural ROH Hall of Fame class wouldn’t be complete without the inclusion of Cary Silkin.

The former ROH owner and current ambassador has taken his rightful place in the ROH Hall of Fame as the first winner of the Legacy Award, which honors those who have made a significant contribution to ROH outside the ring.

Silkin was presented the award by ROH commentator Ian Riccaboni as a surprise at the end of the special Hall of Fame episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling that aired over the weekend.

Silkin joins Jay and Mark Briscoe, Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, and CM Punk as the first inductees into the ROH Hall of Fame.

To say that Silkin has made a significant contribution to ROH is a massive understatement. Quite simply, there would be no ROH today if not for him.

Silkin, who became a partner in ROH not long after its inception in 2002, bought the company outright in 2004. ROH experienced significant growth under Silkin’s ownership.

After starting out as a DVD-based promotion that held shows primarily in Philadelphia, ROH expanded its reach by holding live events throughout the U.S. as well as the U.K. and Japan.

In addition, the company began producing pay-­per­-view events, entered into the TV realm via HDNet Fights, and innovated the field of iPPV as it pertained to pro wrestling.

Although ROH had a rabid fan base and produced an in-ring product that was unparalleled in the U.S., the company was losing money. Silkin kept ROH alive even though it was a financial drain on him for several years.

Silkin ensured that ROH would continue by selling it to Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2011.

He has remained with the company as an ambassador. Whenever the ROH World Title has changed hands, Silkin has presented the belt to the new champion in the ring.

B.A._Baracus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118727327#Comment_118727327

Get what you are saying. The more promotions out there, the better. More jobs and even from a fans point of view more promotions (especially top indies) more great wrestlers coming through.

I like to think of the positives tho. I don't think roh would have been about for much longer. They were doing a restructure (which could have been masking aew's purchase) but let's say they indeed were restructuring. They sold it without much thought. I don't think roh would have been around in 3 years. Better aew have it and use it as a feeder than wwe just gutting it for the type library.

Agent Coulson

Tony Khan will be handling the creative for Supercard of Honor.

I am wondering are the title holders actually still under contract to ROH since they have been carrying and defending the belts over the last few month with one belt actually changing hands.

Lithium93_

It's happening.

https://twitter.com/TonyKhan/status/1504914894210146316

I was looking up supercard of honour on Fite. 32.99??? Is that a mistake or is that the actual price of the PPV?