The Reality of Wrestling: ROH on Pay-Per-View

The Reality of Wrestling: ROH on Pay-Per-View
By Phil Clark

Plus my thoughts on the MMA v. Boxing feud

Ring of Honor making the move to pay-per-view is definitely not characteristic of any Indy fed. However, ROH has become more than just another Indy fed over its five plus years as a company, it has become in many people’s minds THE place for quality pro wrestling in North America and has produced many stars that have appeared in TNA and The E since its inception. It is interesting to note that ECW finally got a PPV five years after it was founded.

P.C. Says: PPV as an experiment is a no-lose for ROH

ROH’s “Respect Is Earned” show on May 12 has been described as another in a long line of great shows from ROH as of late. Here’s the line-up for the PPV broadcast:

The Main Event
ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima & Bryan Danielson
vs.
Nigel McGuinness & KENTA

ROH World Tag Team Title Match
Jay & Mark Briscoe defend vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Matt Sydal

Special Challenge Match
Roderick Strong vs. Delirious

Special Attraction Match
Rocky Romero vs. Naomichi Marufuji

ROH World Title Match
Takeshi Morishima vs. BJ Whitmer

It may only be five matches, but hell Canadian Stampede had only four back in ’97 and it still is one of the better all-time PPV’s that The E ever ran. While the Morishima title match is just a squash to put over Morishima and the belt, that is made up for by a near half-hour tag main-event featuring my wrestler of the year from last year making his return, the best light heavyweight in the world, one of the best technical wrestlers in the world, and one of the best brawlers in the world. All of that makes for quite the contrast in styles and plenty of hatred as all of the men involved have met in some combination multiple times over the last year (Danielson/KENTA was my MOTY for ’06, Morishima/KENTA main-evented Budokan in April, and Danielson/McGuinness unified the Pure and ROH belts last August). If all of this is known in the pre-match video package or however ROH plans to do it, that will add a whole new dimension to a match that is not just another dream tag. ROH will also be making the most of their time as the title match squash is the only match on the card that goes under 15 minutes with the main clocking in at just under 27 minutes, the tag title match at 20 minutes and the two other singles matches are sixteen and twenty-one minutes. In other words, between five matches, ROH will be providing almost 90 minutes of wrestling—about the same as The E does every month with eight matches. The likelihood is that these 90 minutes will be more worth a person’s time and money than TNA or The E as of late.

TNA is overreacting about ROH’s entrance to the pay-per-view market. Almost the moment after the announcement was made, TNA pulled their talent completely from ROH cards. This was not necessary in the least, while it does in fact work out for both promotions tactically as ROH is now forced to build their promotion around their own people for the greater audience without aid of already established TNA stars, and TNA doesn’t have to worry about their people showing up on another promotion’s pay-per-view. I don’t believe that pulling TNA wrestlers from ROH was a good move because not every ROH show is a PPV taping. These TNA talents (Joe, Homicide, Aries/Starr) could still participate on ROH shows that aren’t PPV tapings and still help that promotion out without hurting their new home promotion. Another reason TNA is overreacting is because of why they pulled their talent from ROH; in a manner of speaking, they showed their hand. By pulling their talent, TNA now has moved into a realm similar to The E where their talent aren’t allowed participation in any other promotions than their own. While either TNA or The E doesn’t see this as a bad thing, it is bad for morale within TNA (something that has been going down as of late) because it is a company enforced rule that most of the talent within the company probably don’t want. Of those that don’t, the bigger names who are still big on the Indy circuit, and the smaller names within TNA who can still make money in the Indy world. ROH has already been involved with TNA before as TNA’s pulling of talent a few years back and the snowstorm incident last February have created a stable yet somewhat volatile relationship between the two companies, but none of this took place during the reign of Vinnie Roo.

I am not as familiar as others are with the financial aspects of putting a wrestling show on PPV. However, I will say that an Indy promotion doing it is always a risk. It’s a risk because as an Indy fed, you only play to audiences that usually never rise above 2,000 paid if even that. For ROH this fact is as true as it would be for any other Indy fed in the U.S. (PWG, JAPW, IWA Mid-South, etc.); why ROH is able to stay afloat lies more with their spectacular merchandise service than their ability to pack arenas on a level significantly larger than any other Indy fed. The plus is that a potentially larger audience gets to experience this new company. The downside is that they are still an Indy fed at the end of the day.

TNA forgot this fact the moment they stopped running weekly PPV’s: they were still a glorified Indy fed. Since then, TNA has been in a seemingly never-ending battle to stay afloat financially with house shows, non-Impact Zone PPV’s, buyrates that won’t go up, etc. I’d like to think that ROH won’t make these same mistakes once they officially enter the PPV market. Considering that Gabe Sapolsky went through ECW’s collapse, hopefully he knows the old saying “He who forgets history is doomed to repeat it.”

The Reality is I’ll be getting it. Are you kidding me? You look at this card, and my love for ROH and wonder if I’m going to get it or not. Early reviews have indicated that four of the five matches with be MOTYC’s, something that no other promotion on the planet can provide as of this moment. What this means for ROH will be a mix of what a full barrage of reviews will say after its premiere(s) and the final buy numbers. My guess is that it will rival if not pass TNA’s buyrates as those have been going down a bit as of late and that ROH has enough of an underground fanbase that the majority of them will be obligated to get the show if they haven’t made plans to get it already. Whether or not they stay on pay-per-view past the parameters of this current deal is another story for another time, but one thing is for sure: it should be one hell of a show.

PLUGS

If you haven’t read The Russo Article then do it.

Read Pulse Glazer’s review of the taping

Also read Big Andy Mac’s review

This week’s “FUCK YOU!” goes to:

JIM LAMPLEY, FLOYD MAYWEATHER, & UFC
This MMA v. Boxing bullshit has to stop. First off let me just say that I don’t particularly hate any of the three named above; Jim Lampley has been the voice of HBO boxing since I started watching back when I was nine, Floyd Mayweather may be the best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet, and who gives MMA more love in a wrestling column than me? What irritates me is that boxing is so in need of a revival and MMA is so in need for expansion that they’ve turned to feuding with each other. Is this what sports has come to? When have two sports (and that’s what BOTH are) feuded? If a football player suddenly started bashing basketball for no apparent reason, wouldn’t he be ridiculed for making stupid comments? How is this any different? This feud came from Floyd Mayweather letting it get under his skin (apparently) that MMA is on the rise. Of course an MMA fighter would suck in the boxing ring the same way you would suck in their ring Floyd. They are two different sports, period. You stick ten boxers into MMA and ten fighters into the boxing ring and 9 of 10 would lose in both areas. Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT SPORTS! Joe Rogan was right when he said that MMA utilizes all types of fighting and boxing involves one. Boxing is called the sweet science because being able to move your feet and punch a guy for over a half-hour (used to be an hour) maximum could be considered a science. However, MMA is a science as well considering the different types of fighting—wrestling, Brazilian jujitsu, kickboxing, Muy Thai kickboxing to name a few—and different styles the fighters create using the many different types of fighting mentioned. In its press release for UFC 73, UFC opened with the following: “Tired of paying your hard-earned cash for events packed with hype and little else? Sick of sitting down for a pay-per-view event and finding out that you’re paying over $50 for just three fights that include a showcase and a mismatch?” This was UFC’s short review of the Mayweather-De La Hoya event the night before. On that event, Jim Lampley was quoted as saying something to the regard of, “What these two fighters did tonight is light years ahead of what happens in other sports such as mixed martial arts.” Why? Why did these two companies make these two statements? Lampley, an announcer who I like, had to turn what should have been a proud day for boxing—one of the few they’ve gotten in recent years—into another chapter of a useless feud that ultimately benefits nobody involved. And UFC by retaliating so quickly looked almost whiny in their deliberateness to bash the fight one night after it took place. So yes, UFC has gotten mainstream sports coverage as of late because of their rising popularity, but at what price? From what I’ve seen and heard, I don’t think these people know anything about MMA. Even people involved with boxing don’t seem to know even the basics of MMA or its history. MMA is only fourteen years old as a sport, so why does boxing or people involved with boxing feel the need to quash its validity because it’s a different type of fighting sport? Boxing is not nor ever will be dead as so many have put it. Just because it’s in a down period or holding pattern in the U.S., suddenly it’s dead. No, boxing does have problems—ones and their reasons I could go much more in-depth with—that have nothing to do with MMA’s rise over the last few years. Boxing will always be able to draw abroad at any point that it can’t in the U.S.; history has proven this fact and continues to as Wladimir Klitschko has drawn at least decently abroad during his title reign. MMA became the worldwide phenomenon it is today mostly in Japan. Almost the moment UFC went into a downward phase in the mid-90’s, Pride (along with Pancrase and Rings) provided MMA fans with what they wanted. For the last ten years, MMA in Japan has become events in themselves drawing almost monstrous attendances at Tokyo Dome or Saitama Super Arena or Osaka Dome. So, now that MMA in America is making a comeback, suddenly they have to be challenging boxing for the “top spot” of sport in which people beat the shit out of each other? I don’t remember any declaration from the MMA community that they were coming after boxing, but Floyd Mayweather may have lit off more than just a little fire between him and Chuck Liddell with his $1 million challenge. Honestly, I think these sports need to break it up, push it down, and get on with their separate doings. Because in the long run, what the people within these sports do for their sports is what will count.