The Rise and Fall of Ring of Honor: Part 3 - Here We Are

Monday we talked about the rise of Ring of Honor, Tuesday we talked about the fall. Today in the last part I'd like to look at Ring of Honor's current position in the world of wrestling. The days of Cornette are gone and there's been a refocusing on what's important to ROH. They've also made attempts to step into the future.

During an interview with Ring of Honor star Caprice Coleman he told us "WWE is 75% story and 25% wrestling, TNA is 50/50 story and wrestling, and Ring of Honor is 25% story and 75% wrestling." He's right, the attraction to ROH has always been the wrestling. But, the stories lacked far behind. Ring of Honor suffered from slow and meticulous booking that was popular during the 80s. Stories that took years before a payoff like the rise of Kevin Steen. In an age where information is both constant and instant, that just didn't fly. ROH also focused on characters that seemed to be right of the 80s.

Today ROH has stepped into this decade and created stories and characters that are able to hold attention and provide the payoff of long running stories. Gone are the days of Jim Cornette saying the Young Bucks would never work because they were too flamboyant. Now there's Dalton Castle who may be the most flamboyant character in pro wrestling right now. Gone are the days of generic babyface Jay Lethal who simply aimed to overcome the odds. People like Lethal have been able to fully develop characters and aren't being held back by 80s standards.

ROH has also taken the time to focus on younger talents. With people like Donovan Donovan Dijak coming from the top prospect tournament. As well as men like Tommaso Ciampa who were held back during the Cornette days. No longer are men who should have taken a step back years ago attempting to recapture their glory through ROH.

The biggest change is the relationship with Sinclair. Sinclair has placed ROH on TV so long gone are the days of failed live streams. At one point Sinclair did lie at one point and state ROH was receiving over a million viewers each week. This was proven false. In reality the ratings vary greatly. Some weeks ROH will score higher than TNA in ratings. However, there will be long stretches where ROH fails to draw over 100,000 viewers for an episode. This could be contributed to the fact that ROH puts episodes on their website shortly after TV runs. Again, this is better than the days when most people couldn't even watch because of poor broadcast. The PPVs are another issue with the last one drawing just over 8000 buys.

While TNA was on hiatus due to shifting channels ROH could have made a move to become the second largest promotion in North America, but they didn't. Sinclair owns ROH but doesn't see them as profitable and refused to front the money necessary. They may be away from the days of possible bankruptcy but they aren't doing great. They've also been locked in bidding wars for wrestlers recently. They were forced to outbid TNA for Dalton Castle, only to have to outbid WWE for the Briscoe Brothers. 

Another issue do to financials is the production values. Production values for ROH vary vastly as well. They go from construction lighting in barns to small decorated arenas and back to gymnasiums in the same month. It's somewhat ridiculous and disappointing.

The biggest issue Ring of Honor is facing is it's perception. While some fans still love ROH for the wrestling, most aren't so sure. A growing number of people only know ROH for birthing talents like; Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Sami Zayn and Daniel Bryan, Kenny King, Austin Aeries etc. There are people who view ROH as nothing more than a talent farm for WWE and TNA. A place where talents can make a name for themselves only until they're able to "play with the big boys." If WWE is varsity, TNA is junior varsity and ROH is little league. Those are simply facts to some people.

Ring of Honor is in an important spot right now. They can go only one of two ways. They can fall back to their old ways until they slowly fade from existence. If they do this it'll prove people who say Ring of Honor isn't as important as we thought to be correct. Ring of Honor will be a blip on the history of professional wrestling. The other way ROH can go is up. The chance for ROH to dethrone TNA as #2 is long gone, and WWE is pretty much untouchable to most. However, they can stop promotions like Dragon Gate, PWG, Lucha Underground and Chikara from dethroning them. Only time will truly tell what's next for Ring of Honor. 

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He's also playing Pokemon Liquid Crystal on YouTube
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