Things Are Looking Up In Ring Of Honor
Many months ago I pondered the potential doom of ROH. I never really dreamed that it would fix itself so quickly, or possibly at all. Ironically, it only took one move to make it all happen.
Jim Cornette was fired, and the booking was left entirely in the hands of Delirious. Now I would like to state that I am a fan of Cornette as a personality. I find him to be quite hilarious, and his rants on YouTube are a personal favorite of mine. However, if you look at ROH from Best in the World '11 to his firing, the show is so anti-ROH it's crazy. Boring roster, the same matches week after week, stupid hirings (The Headbangers? Really?!?), and basically just left ROH as a shell of a shell of its former innovative self.
Glory By Honor last year was Delirious' first big show Post-Cornette. It delivered in spades. It had a cliff-hanger finish with Kevin Steen receiving El Generico's mask to end the show. Absolutely awesome. That basically confirmed that Cornette didn't like Generico, and one of Delirious' first moves was to bring him back (albeit for one match only, but still).
The online streams were good, new matches were taking place, the American Wolves reunited, what more could we ask for? How about some talent from other promotions?
Alex Koslov, Rocky Romero, and the recently announced Karl Anderson, Taiji Ishimori, and Naomichi Marufuji are making their way back. What excellent news this is. The Japanese talent always made ROH seem so much more important, (KENTA?) and having them back is a shot in the arm that will hopefully keep the momentum rolling.
Another cool thing that has been happening is the influx of ROH regulars from the past (that are by no means washed up) back onto the regular roster. Over the last year we saw the return of Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer, and now Jimmy Rave. These guys were always solid mid-carders in the old ROH regime, that the new ROH sorely needed.
I remember when ROH first came on Sinclair, the show would consist of some combination of Eddie Edwards/Roderick Strong/Davey Richards match/angle, something involving the Briscoe Bros. and/or WGTT, and possibly a Jay Lethal match against a lesser-known. Quite frankly it was boring. I know you can only do so much with a one hour show, but this was not the right combination of guys to make your first impression with.
Now, I haven't seen the show for a while because it's only on late Sunday nights (in my area), and not on Saturday mornings anymore. So, I can't say if the TV show has gotten better, but the fact that the iPPV's and house shows have improved tenfold is what matters. There's not as much limitations on those as there is TV. I guess my point is, with some familiar faces back on the main roster, combined with excellent "attraction" guys sprinkled throughout, ROH seems to be back on track to where it used to be (if it's not there already). So all is right with the world. For now....
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| The savior of ROH? |
Glory By Honor last year was Delirious' first big show Post-Cornette. It delivered in spades. It had a cliff-hanger finish with Kevin Steen receiving El Generico's mask to end the show. Absolutely awesome. That basically confirmed that Cornette didn't like Generico, and one of Delirious' first moves was to bring him back (albeit for one match only, but still).
The online streams were good, new matches were taking place, the American Wolves reunited, what more could we ask for? How about some talent from other promotions?
Alex Koslov, Rocky Romero, and the recently announced Karl Anderson, Taiji Ishimori, and Naomichi Marufuji are making their way back. What excellent news this is. The Japanese talent always made ROH seem so much more important, (KENTA?) and having them back is a shot in the arm that will hopefully keep the momentum rolling.
Another cool thing that has been happening is the influx of ROH regulars from the past (that are by no means washed up) back onto the regular roster. Over the last year we saw the return of Jimmy Jacobs, BJ Whitmer, and now Jimmy Rave. These guys were always solid mid-carders in the old ROH regime, that the new ROH sorely needed.
I remember when ROH first came on Sinclair, the show would consist of some combination of Eddie Edwards/Roderick Strong/Davey Richards match/angle, something involving the Briscoe Bros. and/or WGTT, and possibly a Jay Lethal match against a lesser-known. Quite frankly it was boring. I know you can only do so much with a one hour show, but this was not the right combination of guys to make your first impression with.
Now, I haven't seen the show for a while because it's only on late Sunday nights (in my area), and not on Saturday mornings anymore. So, I can't say if the TV show has gotten better, but the fact that the iPPV's and house shows have improved tenfold is what matters. There's not as much limitations on those as there is TV. I guess my point is, with some familiar faces back on the main roster, combined with excellent "attraction" guys sprinkled throughout, ROH seems to be back on track to where it used to be (if it's not there already). So all is right with the world. For now....
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