Ring Of Honor

[Heath Scumm]

The ROH vs CZW saga seems to have burned out and ROH seems to have made it big ... This is a great article I've read on rohforums and I believe it embodies the strong points of ROH in a great manner ... if you have time to read this, it is sure interesting ...

This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, and for a lot of different reasons I'm attempting to get my thoughts down into a coherent message board post. Apologies in advance for how random, utterly incoherent, and incredibly long it will probably turn out to be.

We've all heard for quite some time now how ROH is supposedly turning a profit. I say supposedly, but if they aren't they sure are doing a good job of pretending to. The number of shows in 2006 has increased, money is being put back into the product with things like the new sound system and the mysterious ROHbot arm (my guess is in line with the camera guesses, for the record), and more outside talent is being brought in than ever before. To put it in simple terms, the whole product right now feels like a product that's profitable and on the upswing, so I have no problem believing that it is.

The bigger question one must ask, though, is why? Why has ROH seemingly succeeded where so many other promotions have failed? Being an alternative to the WWE that actually makes money rather than loses it is no small accomplishment in the year 2006. TNA tried to do it on a far larger scale, and so far has failed completely. ROH also has, by far, the most ambitious touring schedule of any promotion in the United States not named WWE, so you can hardly call it a strictly regional thing, either. In August they will run their first shows in the United Kingdom, another landmark expansion for the promotion and something that, if you had told me was going to happen in 2004, I would have laughed at you. So while I don't claim to know the finances of every independant promotion out there, at the very least we can lay stake on being the only independant promotion in 2006 that runs so many different markets and turns a profit.

Four years ago, when the company started out as nothing more than another indy in an overcrowded market, few would have dared to predict such success. So asking why ROH has managed to connect with a large enough audience strongly enough to maintain and slowly expand profitably is a question worth asking. The answer is probably a mix of luck and intelligence, and without knowing how much of ROH was pre-planned vision and how much they just lucked into, you can't figure out the exact ratio there. But let's try anyway.

Most of ROH's fanbase is pretty close to my age. I'm 20 now and in 2002 I was 16, so I grew up as a wrestling fan during the Mondey Night Wars. Wrestling reached an unprecedented level of mainstream success at the time, with WWE and WCW's combined ratings nearly hitting a 10 during 1998. However, wrestling was also incredibly overexposed during this period. As many others have written, the wrestling fan in this era saw it all.

They were all wrong. We saw it all, except for one thing. We did not see a wrestling promotion that put the focus on the wrestling.

This seems like a rather ludicrious thing to say. But in my opinion, it is also true. Both WWE and WCW were more focused around the characters that drove mainstream interest, whether they were Austin, Rock, the nWo, or Goldberg. The wrestling was there, sure, and there was a lot of great wrestling. But then the mainstream stopped caring aout the characters, and suddenly all we were left with was the wrestling fans.

2002 WWE was depressing to anyone who lived through the Monday Night Wars, because suddenly we were fans of a rapidly declining industry. Our much trendier friends who liked wrestling simply because they were supposed to, suddenly found something else they were supposed to like. Slowly, the WWE's American base began to decline, and only those who cared about the wrestling to begin with would eventually remain. They'd certainly go on to lose some of them, too, but that's neither here nor there as far as this story is concerned.

ROH was reportedly born out of a Californian indy show that few people even remember today, the APW King of the Indies event. An event that was not remarkably profitable saw a bunch of great young wrestlers wrestle each other. Some fans seemed to enjoy this, so apparently Gabe and, ahem, others, looked at this and went "Hey! Some wrestling fans really seem to like wrestling!"

If all of this sounds quite obvious and stupid, it's supposed to. The initial concept behind ROH wasn't incredibly earth-shattering. The internet wrestling fans really seem to enjoy seeing the best guys in America wrestle each other, so let's make a promotion and see if it can't help our tape sales out a bit. Rather, it was the way that ROH was presented from the start that was ingenious.

As I mentioned earlier, 2002 was one of the WWE's most depressing years. It wasn't even so much that the wrestling got remarkably worse, because it didn't really. It was a combination of the WWE being the only product left on a mainstream level with WCW and ECW both gone, thus fans looking at it with a higher level of scrutiny, as well as the mainstream coolness factor of WWE being completely worn off. Quite often, the more focus you put on something, the worse it was going to look, and without the mainstream attention to the top stars, the lack of focus on the wrestling becomes even more glaringly obvious. If a wrestling fan cared enough about watching great wrestling to be on the internet in the first place, chances are they were fed up with the WWE's product.

So commentaters talked about how ROH wasn't sports-entertainment, one of the most rightfully abused, meaningless taglines in history. No, they said, this is a professional wrestling company. If you want sports-entertainment, go watch the E instead. This is fundemental marketing 101 on how to build a cult product and breed a niche audience. Rather than focusing on the weaknesses (the far smaller budget and production values), it instead yelled at you that anyone who cares about those weaknesses shouldn't be watching anyway. ECW did the same thing in the mid-90s on a much larger scale. And speaking of ECW, they also immediatley stood out to the fans who already considered themselves part of the local indy "scene", because they stood in stark contrast to the glut of poor ECW imitators that it was largely made up of at the time. The infamous "we don't imitate, we innovate" tagline has been retconned to be obnoxious and elitist, which of course it was. But at the time the upsides to it were worth the downsides. Appealing to an incredibly small amount of people and making them fanatically follow your product was far more important than the large majority the tagline turned off. Once the product was established, thanks to that fanbase, it was okay to turn down the more abrasive qualities of the product in favor of more mass appeal.

So here was ROH, a promotion that had some great wrestlers and some great wrestling. Slowly it built a following. But as many people have noted, great wrestling for the sake of great wrestling has a very limited scope, and even to those fans, eventually it gets old. That's why, starting with Joe's title win in 2003 and peaking with the Joe-Punk series in 2004, ROH was going to pull off the greatest stunt any wrestling promotion has pulled off in the 21st century.

It was going to make wrestling fans care about the winners and losers of wrestling matches.

I know, again it sounds stupid stated so simply. But it was yet another thing that the Monday Night Wars instilled upon an entire generation of fans. Winners and losers don't matter. Kevin Nash was too busy winking at us on-camera to care if he lost a match or not. Title belts became utterly meaningless when WWE had roughly sixty billion of them running around during the Invasion angle in 2001, and they had already lost most of their meaning to the general audience much earlier before that. The masses were watching wrestling not because they cared to any great degree who won or who lost, but because the nWo/Austin/Rock/Goldberg were cool. Once they stopped being cool, they stopped watching. And yet wins and losses continued to matter very little. Making all of us wonder why we were watching too. So we became cynical as a result.

If ROH died tomorrow, it'd still be remembered as an enormous creative success, because it carved out a niche among the most cynical of the cynical wrestling fans. And then it did something even more amazing. It made those same fans who had seen Nash's limo get hit by a hummer and David Arquette win the WCW World Title care who wins a wrestling match. By the time over a thousand people were packed into the Rexplex in December of 2004, drawn by nothing more than who would win the main event and who would be ROH World Champion at the end of the night, ROH had already carved out its place in wrestling history.

No one went to the show that night because they thought Samoa Joe was a funny guy. No one went to the show that night because of what t-shirt a certain stable of wrestlers happened to be wearing. They went because they wanted to see if CM Punk could finally end Samoa Joe's historic ROH World Title reign. They went because they cared about both men and their rivalry, and they cared about a belt. Final Battle later that month would see 600-700 fans come out the day after Christmas, and by the end of the night they were jumping around in celebration. Not just because Austin Aries had beaten Samoa Joe, but because they got to see it happen. They were so happy to be in attendance to see Samoa Joe finally lose the ROH World Title, because they considered it to be important. Whether it is or it isn't, on that night they all believed it was.

That's why ROH has succeeded. They took a bunch of the most cynical wrestling fans, and made them believe in professional wrestling again. Because they realized that, at the center of every cynic, is someone who really does want to care about what they're watching for reasons beyond that of why someone watches a ten car pile-up as they pass it on a highway.

In reality ROH is little more than a niche of a niche, a cult of a cult. You'll be quite unlikely to ever meet someone on the street who recognizes the ROH logo on your shirt. But thanks to a mixture of luck and intelligence, and perhaps we'll never know how much of each, ROH is proftiable and has succeeded where virtually everyone else has failed. One of the two men who built this foundation more than anyone else has long since moved on, and the other constantly shows signs of moving on, but the foundation they built has managed to hold steady still. For however longer it manages to stay up, and no matter how much higher they're ultimatley able to build it, the fact that they've even gotten this far is stunning in and of itself.

And that's as far as my tired, 3:30 in the morning brain is willing to stretch this. I hope no one actually reads all that. :p

IN CONCLUSION, THIS IS THE PLACE TO TALK ABOUT ROH, ITS EVENTS AND ITS WRESTLERS!

[vitamin]

I initially scrolled down to the end to see how long this was, and groaned. Then, begrudgingly, I decided to read it in it's entirety. This article seamlessly goes back and forth between what is good about ROH and everything that WWE has done wrong. This really shows how painfully simple and obvious ROH's formula is, and how incredibly successful it's been.

[Heath Scumm]

Yeah ... once you get to read this it seems pretty short!

But I couldn't think of a better way to get people to know about ROH ...

As said in the Recommendation topic, you're no wrestling fan if you haven't seen at least one ROH show in your life because you obviously missed out on some of the best pro-wrestling on the planet and your oppinions about how should wrestling be like would be obviously screwed up!

ROH - We Don't Immitate, We Innovate :great:

[Heath Scumm]

From ROHwrestling.com:
8/4 Long Island
Quote:
Main Event
Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles

Tag Team Challenge Match
KENTA & Davey Richards vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe

Non Title Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Jack Evans

ROH World Tag Team Title Ultimate Endurance Match
ROH Tag Team Champions Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. The Embassy vs. BJ Whitmer & Adam Pearce vs. The Rottweilers
The first fall with all four teams is Tap Out rules only. The second fall with the three remaining teams will be under Tag Team Scramble rules. The final fall with the remaining two teams will be for the Tag Titles.

Pure Title Match
Nigel McGuinness vs. Delirious

Challenge Match
Colt Cabana vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Tag Team Action
Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal vs. Irish Airborne



8/5 Edison, New Jersey, aka. Fight of the Century
Quote:
ROH World Title Match
Bryan Danielson defends against Samoa Joe

First Time Ever Match
KENTA vs. Davey Richards

ROH World Tag Team Title Ultimate Endurance Match
ROH Tag Team Champions Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Matt Sydal & Jack Evans vs. Irish Airborne
The first fall with all four teams is Tap Out rules only. The second fall with the three remaining teams will be under Tag Team Scramble rules. The final fall with the remaining two teams will be for the Tag Titles.

Grudge Match
Homicide vs. Adam Pearce

Four Corner Survival
ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness vs. Christopher Daniels vs. Jay Lethal vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Special Attraction
Colt Cabana vs. Sal Rinauro



Well, I guess Dragon will do another great Stretch Fest on Evans, how cool is that? Actually, I do consider the match Dragon had against Evans the most entertaining match of Danielson's career.

Some other remarks a ROH fan made seem pretty good so you can all understand what is gonna happen here ...

AJ Styles' last match in ROH for four months, so you know he's bringing his A game, and Joe is Joe, so I don't think that'll be too shabby.
Not to mention KENTA vs. Richards on Night 2, sure to be a stiff fest.
And I actually think the Rinauro vs. Colt match will be a little better than people will probably give it credit for.
Oh yeah, there's this little match on night 2, some guy named Samoa something or other is fighting some pale white guy named Bryan, I've heard they're both pretty good...

[Heath Scumm]

http://f5.putfile.com/6/16612002391.gif

Curryman, and The Fallen Angel could they be the same?...nah! :rolleyes:

[deadprezuk]

From the ROH board:


1) Davey Richards over Jack Evans...Fun, athletic opener. Mainly Jack on offense. Tons of bumps. Davey wins with the horselock.

- Bruno is out now, much of the roster is outside the ring watching. Big pop for Bruno. He put over ROH.

- Samoa Joe and Morishima have a huge brawl setting up one of the biggest dream matches in ROH history. Joe and Morishima bumped into each leaving ringside after Bruno. All hell broke loose.

2) Adam Pearce defeats Delirious after a brass knux shot by Pearce's new "personal manservant" Shane Hagadorn. Another fun match, crowd is hot.

- Final Battle 2006 is on Dec. 23rd right here at the Manhattan Center.

3) Jimmy Jacobs defeated Colt Cabanna & Christopher Daniels...Daniels was a prop. Story was that Lacey forbid Jimmy from hitting Colt, building up to Jimmy lowblowing him during a Colt 45 attempt on Daniels. Lacey isn't happy he won.

Jim Cornette was out before the next match and he declared that for Homicide to get his World Title shot at Final Battle, he needed to win the next match. Beatty says the Manhattan Center and overall atmosphere is something like he's never seen before for ROH and he's been to over 50% of the live shows....I could hear the crowd muffling the sound over the phone.

4) Homicide & Samoa Joe over Jay & Mark Briscoe when Homicide pinned Jay following the Cop Killa...Cornette was out and promised Homicide would face "HELL" before he got to Final Battle 2006 and his title shot.

ROH is selling NOAH merch to benefit Kenta Kobashi...

5) The Kings of Wrestling: Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli won the ROH World Tag Team Titles over Austin Aries & Roderick Strong when Claudio pinned Aries following a briefcase shot and double-team body press michinoku driver finish. NEW ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS!!!

6) Naomichi Marufuji over Nigel McGuinness..Said to be the "Match of the Night" at this point.

7) Bryan Danielson over KENTA via cattle mutilation. According to someone at the show, "Words cannot describe [this match]..."

I actually read that KENTA tapped out which surprised me even more than the fact that Dragon didn't drop it. Glad he didn't, I want him to surpass Joe's reign but it looks like he may be dropping it to Homicide at Final Battle.

Hero/Castognoli as tag champs was a big surprise, but maybe this means that Aries is gonna focus more on his TNA gig, who knows.

Marufuji/McGuiness, must have been great, I love these two workers.

But favourite moment has to be Joe/Morishima brawl. Man that match will be so awesome I can't wait. Morishima to me is like a young version of Misawa and Kobashi combined, and Joe, well, we all know Joe.

Basically in a nutshell:

Joe vs Morishima = 5 Star Match/MOTY in the making.

Thoughts?

[Dragon-sin]

There have been rumors that Joe will face Morishima at Final Battle this year.I dont see a 5 star match in this one but its really a dream match for me and pretty much every indy/puro fan.Morishima had a great year so far,im thinking about the match he had at Budokan against Misawa and the tag match at Summer Navigation Budokan Show,but i hope Joe will win this one since he lost last year to Kobashi.


''7) Bryan Danielson over KENTA via cattle mutilation. According to someone at the show, "Words cannot describe [this match]..."''

This just proves again that Danielson is really a God among men.I read another report and KENTA was working Danielson's sholder but the really interesting thing is that KENTA used the Go 2 Sleep twice! on Danielson but he got back up and made KENTA submit to retain.

[deadprezuk]

I'm just glad KENTA finally did the job and for Danielson too, it only makes Danielson that much stronger than he already is in ROH. William Regal must be so proud:D

[Heath Scumm]

Morishima vs Joe is a sure thing for Final Battle ... I really don't think it is going to be that big as to get 2 a 5 Star Match but should be entertaining nevertheless ... you know we're gonna get a true stiff-fest on our hands!

Chris Hero and Claudio may be working fulltime for ROH in the future as CZW looks to be in real trouble not seeming to get its ass back on its feet ... I really don't know what happened, it's truly tragic what is going on with the company right now ...

I wasn't expecting Danielson to drop it to KENTA one bit ... And maybe I'm the only one who's thinking it but this title reign is getting boring ... I was starting to resent Samoa Joe during his title reign in ROH for holding on to the title for so long, now the same thing happens with American Dragon ... but hopefully it's all gonna get back to normal after Homicide becomes World Champ (if he ever does :( ) ...

As I've stated on another ROH forum, I believe American Dragon is going to get a lot of resentment if he doesn't drop the ROH Title to Homicide at Final Battle because there's only so many ROH Old-school fans to take this ... no matter how great his matches are, he is going to have to drop it soon before single handedly destroying all contendership and competition spirit in the ROH World Division ...

We all got the idea ... American Dragon = The Greatest ROH champion EVER, even greater than Samoa Joe ... what else is there to prove ... just drop the damn belt already

[deadprezuk]

Why would he get resented? He is more respected than Homicide in ROH. He was in the main-event for the first ever show and is considered one of the founding fathers of the company. Since Danielson has had the title they have set record attendances, broken new territories, been able to run shows overseas, exchange more talent with different companies, improve the wrestling school and put on a great feud with CZW. I'm not saying he is responsible for all of this, but he has helped out in a huge way, much like CM Punk did when ROH was down in the dumps.

That aside, Homicide would make a good champion, not as good as Danielson or Joe, but it would be good. My only problem would be him defending in stupid gimmick matches like the street fight or no rope barbwire. As much as he rocks in these the World Title should be a title that should be wrestled for, nothing more, nothing less. We know he can wrestle but in my opinion I just see it going the way of CZW where its just violent crap for the sake of violent crap.

Kinda sucks for CZW though if Hero & Castognoli are done with them, Hero was probably the only reason I gave CZW any attention, not saying that there isn't talent, but I think by now you know me and what I like so you could understand why I would say that. But I hope they don't go under just because they can get some good stuff going when John Zandig pulls his head out of his ass.

[Heath Scumm]

Why would he get resented?

Well, as far as I know some of the ROH fans started resenting Samoa Joe during his title reign and although people didn't show it, the Austin Arie win came just in time ... nobody really expected him to win and that just made him even larger than he already was ...

I really cannot explain why Dragon isn't getting resented by the fans ... I know he has great matches and that he's taking ROH to new heights but IMO he's held the title for long enough plus he can help the company a great deal without necessarily being the champion ... Homicide would be a good champion and he could take the title and defend it in other circumstances than pure wrestling matches, a thing I must say I'm quite hyped about although you think it shoudn't happen!

[deadprezuk]

Well I just read the PWTorch live report and the reactions after the Danielson/KENTA match certainly showed that they're not resenting Danielson at all. They ranged from "Match of the Year" & "Best in the World", as well as the usually ROH chants. To me that says it all, Danielson isn't getting resented one bit, he's the man, and ROH fans know it. The guy came into this with a separated shoulder injury and gave it his all. How could any wrestling fan resent that, if someone did then their an ass****.
Sure Homicide could defend it outside the realms of pure wrestling but that would just shit on the title and what it stands for. I wouldn't mind a few defences like that but if they overdo it then the title would become worthless.

Plus on a side note the McGuinness/Marufuji match was a GHC Title match, which means that the GHC Title is officially a World Title. Finally, it was the most prestigious title in wrestling that wasn't recognised as a world title and now it has that status. And what better way to make it happen than in an ROH ring.

Heres the report in full. Sounds like a DVD I will certainly picking up:

ROH live event/DVD taping
September 17, 2006
New York
Report by Matt Feuerstein, PWTorch.com correspondent

ROH made its debut at the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center tonight, and the show has to be seen as a huge success. The was a line outside that stretched down the block and around two corners, to the point that pedestrians were coming over and asking what was going on. That alone was good pub for the company.

The place was either sold out or close to it, with at least 1050-1100 in the building.

(1) Davey Richards defeated Jack Evans via submission. Really hot 8 minute opener with Evans hitting numerous highspots. Richards won with his leg over the neck submission (a la Brock Lesnar in late 03).

(2) Several members of the ROH roster, along with Morishima, Sugiura and Yone from NOAH surrounded the ring to welcome Bruno Sammartino. Bruno got a great reaction, including a "welcome home" chant. Bruno said he hadn't been pleased by what he'd seen in wrestling since his retirement, but he was sent some ROH DVDs and was very impressed. He praised the wrestlers and the fans.

After Bruno left, Takeshi Morishima and Samoa Joe got into a shoving match in the aisleway. Joe got into the ring and challenged Morishima to come after him, and the two had a pull-apart brawl in the ring to a huge reaction.

(3) Adam Pearce defeated Delirious after Shane Hagadorn interfered. This was a pretty basic, but enjoyable match. The highspot was Delirious hitting 60 consecutive clotheslines in the corner. After the match Pearce (the ROH Lt. Commissioner) named Hagadorn his new assistant, or "man servant".

(4) Jimmy Jacobs defeated Colt Cabana and Christopher Daniels by pinning Cabana after the Contra Code. The story here is that Jacobs is in love with his manager, Lacey, but she's in a relationship with Cabana, so he's heartbroken and desponded. Lacey instructed Jacobs to work together with Cabana and not attack him, so he kept attempting to do double team moves on Daniels. Cabana would always do something to cause the double-teams to backfire on Jacobs. This definitely wasn't the action-packed match that the 3 could have, but it was a fun angle-based match. The end came was Jacobs finally had enough, kicked Cabana low, and hit the contra code. Lacey scolded Jacobs after the match.

Jim Cornette and the Briscoes came out for a promo. Cornette started the promo diplomatically, saying that he loved ROH and the fans, and his only problem was with Homicide. Then, when the majority of the crowd sided with Homicide, Cornette went off on a tirade about New York City, and started making derogatory comments (borderline racist) towards immigrants and NYC dwellers, and said that he only liked people who were born in the Southern US (as the Briscoes held up their confederate flag bandanas). Cornette then announced that he had promised Homicide a title shot, so he'll get one in December when ROH returns to NYC. The only condition is that Homicide has to win his tag match against the Briscoes tonight. At this point, Joe and Homicide's music interrupted Cornette.

(5) Homicide and Samoa Joe defeated Jay and Mark Briscoe when Homicide hit Jay with the Cop Killa. They started out the match hot as Cide and Joe both hit dives on the Briscoes. They exchanged big spots and hot tags, with neither team getting the advantage for too long. After a big finishing sequence, Cide finally hit the cop killa on Jay and won, to a huge reaction. Very good match.

Intermission

(6) The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) defeated Austin Aries & Roderick Strong to win the ROH Tag Team Titles, ending Aries and Strong's 9 month reign. Hero and Claudio spent much of the match playing to the crowd and heeling it up, but there was a large section of the crowd that were in their corner. Hero and Claudio dominated the match a lot more than I would've expected, working over Aries' injured ribs. The end came when Claudio hit Aries in the ribs with his briefcase. They then hit a double-team Hero's welcome onto Strong, knocking him out of the ring, and pinned Aries after a double team slam. This got a big reaction, as Aries and Strong have been champs for a long time. Another very good match.

(7) Naomichi Marufuji defeated Nigel McGuinness after a top rope shiranui to retain the GHC World Championship. This was the first ever defense of the GHC title in the United States, and Marufuji's first-ever defense, and he made it count. This match was out of this world. They started out exchanging mat holds, with Marufuji working over McGuinness' leg. About halfway through, they really picked up the intensity, hitting one big move after another. Marufuji at one point hit a Shiranui from the apron to the floor. McGuinness draped Marufuji on the top rope and hit a huge lariat for a big nearfall. McGuinness hit a Tower of London for another big nearfall. Marufuji hit Nigel with a Shiranui. Nigel then hit his pendulum lariat for a nearfall. Nigel hit a Tower of London from the top rope onto the ring apron, and the two were out of the ring for the count. Nigel made it in first, and Marufuji made it in right before the 20 count. Marufuji hit Nigel with his corner to corner dropkick, and then the top rope Shiranui for the pin. Both guys got a huge ovation. This was one of the best GHC title matches of the year. Honestly, it was one of the best matches of the year period.

(8) Bryan Danielson defeated KENTA to retain the ROH World Title. This was another phenomenal match. Danielson came into the match with a shoulder injury, and they played into that throughout the match. It was a really a remarkable performance by the injured Danielson. Both guys went completely all out, hitting pretty much everything. KENTA used his stiff kicks to Danielsons shoulders, and should submissions early to counter Danielson's mat wrestling. Danielson did a huge dive from the top rope into the crowd onto KENTA. Danielson got the crossface chickenwing on KENTA but KENTA made the ropes. Danielson went for his top rope headbutt, but KENTA got his feet up. KENTA then went for his springboard dropkick, but Danielson counted with a dropkick of his own. Danielson got on the cattle mutilation but KENTA made the ropes. They had a huge exchange mid-ring where KENTA hit big boots and Danielson countered with headbutts. KENTA got on another cross armbreaker to a big pop, but Danielson made the ropes. Danielson went up for another headbutt, but KENTA leaped to the top rope. Danielson blocked KENTA's top rope falcon arrow and knocked him off the ropes. Danielson then dove off, but KENTA actually caught him on his shoulders and hit the Go 2 Sleep. Danielson actually kicked out. KENTA then hit busaiku knee on Danielson, and then hit it again to the back of Danielson's head. KENTA charged again, but Danielson moved and rolled up KENTA for a big nearfall. Danielson got the cattle mutilation on KENTA, but KENTA rolled over him for a cover, which got another big nearfall. Danielson then went for his elbows to the head which had one him several matches. KENTA escaped, and got Danielson up for another Go 2 Sleep, but Danielson fought out. Danielson hit a tiger suplex for a nearfall. He got on the cattle mutilation again, and KENTA kept fighting out. Finally, Danielson got the hold on mid ring and KENTA tapped. Both guys got another huge ovation, as this may have been Danielson's best title defense and another Match of the Year contended. "Best in the World", "Thank You Kenta" "Match of the Year" and "ROH" were among the chants after the match. Danielson has now hit the 1 year mark in his title reign, as he defeated James Gibson on September 17, 2005.

This was one of the best ROH shows ever. There were no bad matches, and the last four matches (especially the last two) were off the charts. They really made the most of their big Manhattan Center debut. Everything just clicked perfectly.

[Heath Scumm]

- ROH has announced that with the departure of it's leader Prince Nana The Embassy is no more.

- The first 4 first round matches for Survival of the Fittest 2006 have been announced: Christopher Daniels vs. Austin Aries, Matt Sydal vs. Davey Richards, Jimmy Rave vs. Delirious, and Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe.

- Homicide and a partner of his choice will take on Steve Corino and Adam Pearce on 10/27 when ROH returns to Dayton, Ohio.

- BJ Whitmer will be making a special appearance on all the October ROH events.

- ROH will debut a new feature called "The ROH Video Wire" soon. Colt Cabana will host the first edition.

- 11/3 and 11/4 will be KENTA's last ROH shows for quite a while.

Credit Source - Gerweck.net



Well, Prince Nana left ROH, also, in the near future KENTA will leave ROH as well ... ROH is trying to re-bring Senshi back but Senshi has some other personall issues with ROH so I doubt he'll be back anytime soon ... untill then, it's more likely they will push Davey Richards like crazy!

[Heath Scumm]

I didn't think I would see the day American Dragon gets beaten in a ROH ring by a WWE has-been ... yet, this day has come ... American Dragon has been defeated by Kamala ...

It was by disqualification when Prince Nana threw the match out after it got out of hand spilling into the crowd and the whitest man in Bridgeport dared to put his hands on the official.

Bryan Danielson retains the title, but Prince Nana vowed to bring Kamala and a MYSTERY PARTNER! to somewhere in New Jersey sometime in the future to take on The American Dragon and his own MYSTERY PARTNER!

That is probably one of the worst booked matches in ROH and pro-wrestling in general ... to put kamala over one of the most prestigious and virtually unbeateble wrestlers in the world is a weak decision ..

[Dragon-sin]

Nope....you are wrong...that match wasnt in an ROH ring...and it wasnt booked by Gabe .

The match took place in LSW ( http://www.lswwrestling.com/ ) ,and he won by DQ so if anything...Danielson got over because of his heel heat :) .

[Heath Scumm]

Well, I read this on the ROH forums on OWW so I assumed it was in a ROH ring ... but it makes sense it wasn't since Prince Nana was envolved in the action! Either way, it sucks to make Dragon loose to Kamala, regardless of the way he did it!

Do you know the real reasons why Nana left ROH and the Embassy split? They were a pretty strong stable and I don't know what they are going to do with Jimmy Rave or Alex Shelley from now on!

[Dragon-sin]

I think its because back home in Ghana ,the Ashanti tribe has some sort of civil war,well maybe not that bad ,but there are some problems in Ghana and Prince Nana had to go .

Jimmy Rave is just out of place right now,he needs a gimmick change! No way is the Embassy going 2 last with him and Sal. Alex Shelley left ROH for quite some time now..

[Heath Scumm]

Well, as far as I know Alex Shelley gets a lot of money from TNA weekly appearences and trying to further develop his Paparazzi gimmick as TNA are trying to sign him exclusively but he's not out of ROH for good ... he was never on bad terms with ROH nor Gabe so a possibility of him returning is really a valid one ...

Sal is probably the most talented one of the Rinauros but he just doesn't have a proper gimmick to pull some heat, any type of heat ...

Jimmy Rave has the charisma and the skills to make it big, he doesn't need a gimmick, just enhance the angry ego-maniac "a la Chris jericho" Gimmick that screams "I need some recognition but can't get it from this crowd that constantly throws Toilet paper @ me!" ... I say enhance the gimmick and push him into the world title picture ... I really believe he has what it takes ...

As far as Nana goes, how can he have left ROH for Ghana when he still appears at US Indy Events? That's why I asked for "the real reason" ...

[Heath Scumm]

Delirious won Survival Of The Fittest Tournament ... he is now the No1 Ctdr. and is scheduled to face American Dragon in the near future ... A rematch between the two should be awesome ...

Ring of Honor - Survival of the Fittest
October 6, 2006 - Cleveland, Ohio

DARK MATCH: Bobby Dempsey defeated Mitch Franklin and Eddie Osiris in a Triple Threat match..


DARK MATCH: Shane Haggadorn defeated Pelle Primeau to retain the Top of Class Trophy..


SOTF QUALIFIER: Matt Sydal defeated Davey Richards after an Implant Driver..


SOTF QUALIFIER: Delirious defeated Jimmy Rave w/Daizee Haze by Submission with the Cobra Clutch..
After the match, Jimmy Rave and Daizee Haze did not look pleased with each other and Rave walked out alone..


SOTF QUALIFIER: Austin Aries defeated Christopher Daniels after a 450 Splash..


IN THE RING: Jim Cornette & The Briscoe Brothers (Cornette ordered the Briscoes to hurt Homicide tonight)..


SOTF QUALIFIER: The Briscoe Brothers w/Jim Cornette defeated Roderick Strong & Homicide....


SOTF QUALIFIER: American Dragon vs Samoa Joe ended in a 20 minute time limit draw..'
After the match, the fans wanted "5 more minutes" but instead Dragon knocked Joe out with the ROH title belt!


TAG MATCH: Irish Airborn (David & Jake Crist) defeated Rhett Titus & Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne..


TAG TITLE MATCH: Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) defeated Colt Cabana & Jimmy Jacobs w/Lacey..
The jealous Jimmy Jacobs accidentally speared Colt Cabana, resulting in Cabana getting pinned to lose the match..
After the match, BJ Whitmer brawled with Jimmy Jacobs and ended up leaving with Colt Cabana AND Lacey!


SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST FINALS: Delirious defeated Austin Aries and Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe and Matt Sydal..
Jay Briscoe eliminated Austin Aries. Matt Sydal eliminated Jay Briscoe. Matt Sydal eliminated Mark Briscoe.
Delirious made Matt Sydal tap out to the Cobra Stretch to win the prestigeous Survival of the Fittest '06!!

Ring of Honor -
October 7, 2006 - Detroit, Michigan

MATCH: Delirious defeated Zach Gowen (booed heavily) by Submission with the Cobra Clutch..


SHIMMER TAG MATCH: Daizee Haze & MsChif defeated Allison Danger & Lovely Lacey..


MATCH: Claudio Castagnoli defeated Davey Richards after repeated interference from Chris Hero..


TAG MATCH: Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal defeated Colt Cabana & Jimmy Jacobs w/Lacey..
Chris Hero showed up after the match, and Christopher Daniels challenged the Kings to a Tag title match..
Chris Hero refused the tag match but accepted a singles match with Matt Sydal instead.....


MATCH: Matt Sydal w/Christopher Daniels defeated Chris Hero w/Claudio Castagnoli..


SIX MAN MAYHEM: Pelle Primeau beat Jimmy Rave and Jake Crist and Dave Crist and Shane Hagadorn and ?????;


ROH TITLE MATCH: American Dragon defeated Austin Aries with a small package to retain the ROH World Title!


ANYTHING GOES/FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: The Briscoe Brothers defeated Homicide & Samoa Joe...
One of the Briscoe Brothers did an insane Shooting Star Press off the top of the Ryder truck down to the concrete..
The Briscoe Brothers destroyed Homicide with a dangerous Spike-Jay-Driller and pinned him 1-2-3 to win the match...
The Briscoes: "F#&% Samoa Joe! F#&% Homicide! F#&% Detroit! The Briscoes are the GREATEST Tag Team in the World!"

[Heath Scumm]

Major ROH News :

ROH just signed three huge names that have been added to 10/27 in Dayton : M-Dogg 20/20, Tank Toland and Brent Albright.

The first one is a very gifted highflyer, one of the best in the Indyz that really made quite an impact in CZW Best Of The Best 2 ... considered by ROH fans "nothing more than a spotmonkey", you'll get some great high-flying out of this guy, very similar to what you got from Jason Cross in the early TNA days or some good Jack Evans gymnastics' like moves ...

The second one is a power wrestler, I've seen him on the OVW roster and I was very impressed ... he was one of the two Dicks (namely James Dick) on SmackDown, and if you remember, those guys were pretty well built yet they could keep it well in ring with the cruiserweights ...

The third one could be ROH's greates aquisition, he's the former Gunner Scott from SmackDown but his real work comes from OVW where him and CM Punk put on some great matches with unbelieveble chemistry!

[Dragon-sin]

Mad Dogg can do some crazy things in the ring ,i belive he was some kind of champion in gimnastics ( i know the spelling was bad ) ,and the match he had with Sonjay at Cage of Death 6 was really one of his best.

''The third one could be ROH's greates aquisition'' - I will never agree on that one. Gunner Scott could pull off some awesome matches with The Dragon so thats a really good news :D

[Heath Scumm]

''The third one could be ROH's greates aquisition''

I was reffering to merely out of these 3 new aquisitions!

[Heath Scumm]

Anybody seen Brent Albright in ROH so far? Is he any good? And how about Tank Toland?

Also, what did M-Dogg 20 do? Is he a regular part of the ROH roster now?

[snotsnit]

Matt Cross A.K.A. M-Dogg 20 is now a part of the ROH roster. I haven't seen Brent Albright but I've read that his "gimmick" is that of a mercenary. I don't know anything about how Tank Toland is doing.

[Heath Scumm]

When did this happen??? :o:

http://myspace-784.vo.llnwd.net/01485/48/75/1485115784_l.jpg

http://a536.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/10/l_ff07cde0dfaa48aa0849013ba5c4400f.jpg

[snotsnit]

first one, a while ago, last one, last week of december.

[Heath Scumm]

I know now ... I gotta start re-watching Ring Of Honor recent shows ... I've been so concentrated on TNA lately, I missed important stuff!

[snotsnit]

you see, that's what happens when you watch TNA.

[Heath Scumm]

Yeah! I always wanted to ask you ... how come you enjoy WWE (which between me and you is a complete disgrace nowadays) yet you can't appreciate TNA ... I'm intrigued!

[snotsnit]

I just don't find the product interesting. I don't like some of their wrestlers. If I wanted to watch just wrestling, I would watch an indy show. If I wanted storylines I'd watch WWE. TNA tries to do both, but I think that they fail in some sort. They are just trying to beat WWE, while WWE is just doing what they normally do. The indy feds are also just doing what they normally do. I guess another reason would be that TNA tries to hard. One last reason would be because I just don't like it a lot.

I'm glad someone actually cares and values a 16 year old's opinion on wrestling. Amazing. Of course, I act mature for my age (most of the time). I forgot to add to my last post, that I think Dragon Gate has a great product. They have amazing wrestlers. Also, another reason why I don't like TNA as much as other products, they bring in all these wrestlers from WWE or someplace else and put the focus on them instead of their own home brew talent (and this happened before Russo came in, and now it's almost as bad).

[Heath Scumm]

Yeah, but they have some amazing matches, way over anything WWE would put on ... and sometimes even better matches (overall) than most of the Indyz mentioned by you

[Dragon-sin]

Hitscum , you are going to find out that TNA is plain wrestling crap :)

[Heath Scumm]

For now I'm somehow satisfied with the overall product ... hope they ain't gonna dissapoint me ...

[snotsnit]

Echipa favorita: F@#$ WWE!

Hypocrite.

[Heath Scumm]

And why would you say something like that? :D ... They almost made me feel ashamed to be a pro-wrestling fan, I can't watch this crap ...

[snotsnit]

Then say CZf@#$W

[Heath Scumm]

No thank you ... they're not what they used to be anymore ... I would say ROH but they're really not 100% on my liking ... right now, CZW would be my favourite but they're not nearly as good as they used to be ...

Pro-wrestling nowadays has fallen into a creative slump, rarely I get to see a full show I like ... and it's all WWE's fault as far as I'm concerned ... they should set the standard and encourage innovation, not kill pro-wrestling ... cuz that's what they're doing ... they killed my ECW, my favourite federation and concept ... I hate this sh*t!

[snotsnit]

that's why we have chikara, iwa-ms, iws, pwg, and my favorite japanese promotion, DRAGON GATE! Maybe you should switch to puroresu (japanese wrestling). You got some pro wrestling issues Scummy.

[Heath Scumm]

I sure do ... the wrestling world is in a mess nowadays, I don't know, that's how I see it!

[Heath Scumm]

http://www.onlinesport.ro/forum/showthread.php?t=78599

[ROH_Matt]

These stable wars and an international star as ROH World champion are making the ROH scene very interesting after a slump towards the end of last year. Looking forward to the next string of shows, the storylines and matches are off the charts.