The decision to switch the ROH Title to Takeshi Morishima was actually made by Gabe Sapolsky and NOAH officials in September last year. The original plan was for Homicide to hold the belt until March and drop it back to Bryan Danielson, although the severity of Danielson’s shoulder injury altered things.
Homicide was never intended to be a long-term champion, which had little if anything to do with his TNA contract. The opinion was that even though he was over as a big local star in the New York area he just didn’t come across as a champion in other cities. The idea is for Morishima to be a Stan Hansen styled, aggressive, fast-paced, brawling champion, taking things in a different direction from the great technical matches of Danielson’s reign. There was some negativity about the move, especially from Homicide as Morishima was told to run over him similar to how Hansen and Bruiser Brody would run over everybody in the ’80s. There were even spots set up for him to no-sell Homicide’s offense.
NOAH’s plan is for Morishima to become a singles champion outside of Japan at first. NOAH is going old-school, feeling it’s better to have their stars established outside the domestic market to gain credibility as international stars within the promotion. The best recent example was when NJPW sent Keiji Muto to the USA for several years, so that when he returned home the former prelim guy was accepted as a top star. Last year’s NOAH project was KENTA and this year they are working on Morishima and Naomichi Marufuji via ROH.
Also, ROH is planning to build their tag team ranks around three groups. There will be the No Remorse Corps of Roderick Strong and Davey Richards, while Austin Aries and Jack Evans will also lead groups. The Aries group will included people getting their first major push. The booking is based on doing lots of tags, trios and three-ways, taking a cue from Dragon Gate.
The decision to pull Samoa Joe was made in early December, with Sapolsky giving him four months to finish up. Christopher Daniels will also be finishing with ROH soon. It was partially a money issue, which is why A.J. Styles is no longer being used, as Daniels and Joe, due to their long relationship with ROH, were working their for cheaper prices than TNA usually charges for their appearances. People in TNA management were also unhappy about Joe not getting permanent main event spots in ROH, not understanding the rotation system used and just seeing it as diminishing Joe’s value. There are no concrete plans for Homicide and Austin Aries to finish as of yet.
Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)
