Most who read this will have heard the news by now regarding the uncharacteristic angle run by indy sensation Ring of Honor at their highly anticipated Sixth Anniversary Show last week. Heel stable leader Larry Sweeney pushed the envelope much further than ROH has ever pushed it before via a vile, distasteful, unnecessary “suggested rape†scenario during a talk show segment.
TODAY’S ISSUE: R(ape)OH angle at the Sixth Anniversary Show
In the midst of verbally abusing former ROH female wrestler Allison Danger (including comments like “slut†and “whoreâ€), the Chairman of Sweet N Sour Incorporated knocked out Danger from behind with a microphone blow to the back of the head. I am far from proud to mention that as deplorable as Sweeney’s actions were, neither dressing-down a woman nor male-on-female violence is outside the norm for professional wrestling. That’s an indictment on the pseudo-sport in and of itself, but once Danger was unconscious, this controversial angle was just getting started.
Sweeney propped Danger’s limp body in the corner and urged his stable’s whipping boy, the overweight Bobby Dempsey, to make a man of himself by taking advantage of Danger’s unconscious state and have his way with her. As if that wasn’t bad enough, some dirt bags in the live crowd chanted such reprehensible encouragement as “man up!†and “suck her tits!†That makes me absolutely sick, and I hope any “fan†that participated in these crass chants winds up jobless and with a nasty case of gonorrhea. Clearly no man willing to chant such obscenities has ever known the pleasures of being intimate with a woman.
Sweeney then knocked out Dempsey who, as you might have guessed, fell forward atop Danger, landing face-to-face with her, both victims unaware of their predicament and unable to protest. To top if all off, Sweeney stepped down onto Dempsey to grind his groin into Danger’s. What a lovely way for those two to spend an evening – was this a wrestling show or PornCon 08’s S & M fetish wing?
Based on pressure from an outraged fan base who overloaded the Ring of Honor Internet chat board, head booker Gabe Sapolsky issued an apology and promised that nothing like this would ever happen again. But what concerns me most is that ROH management even felt the need to attempt something that extreme and in poor taste in the first place. For years their formula of reasonable feuds with somewhat normal characters tearing it up between the ropes has been their hallmark, and that formula is the reason smart fans enjoy their product.
Ring of Honor is the refuge of the wrestling fan who appreciates hard-hitting, exciting matches, doesn’t care for hokey, over-the-top gimmick characters, and likes matches to average more than seven minutes of in-ring action. ROH is not for the sportz-entertainment fan, especially when there are seven original hours of that junk on free television every week.
Remember, ROH fans are willing to pay for the product, either by purchasing DVDs and pay-per-view events, or attending live shows. There are no casual Ring of Honor viewers. Every fan pays good money to see the product, and I feel it’s safe for me to speak on behalf of most ROH lovers when I say, we like the product the way it was!
This Sweeney/Danger angle is exactly the type of nonsense ROH fans are sick of seeing on WWE and TNA, which is why many prefer ROH to begin with. Actually, encouraged rape is far worse than the typical garbage the Twin Vinces of Evil have dumped on wrestling fans in the past decade-plus; it’s down at the bottom of the questionable-concept barrel. But if Ring of Honor felt it necessary to explore the dark and murky waters of that disgusting, sensationalistic garbage, my question to them is: Why? What do you think lies beyond that line you crossed? More viewership? Increased ppv and merchandise sales? Higher attendance at live events? I honestly don’t think so.
I believe that if this kind of booking were to continue, the small amount of attention ROH might get from wrestling consumers who have yet to give their product a try would be far outweighed by the loyal fans who would quickly turn their backs on ROH. If I could, I’d urge ROH owner Cary Silkin to keep in mind that these same rabidly dedicated fans are the people who have kept his company afloat for over six years now. Please, Mr. Silkin, don’t turn your back on those who have been so very loyal to you all this time.
This angle is not the worst in pro wrestling history (or even recent history, for that matter), although it is pretty close, and it’s not out of line for a heel character to behave badly. I said before that when Bobby Dempsey finally turns face, he’ll light up the card for six months based on how badly he’s been abused by SNS since they brought him in. But there are two things about this angle, other than my obvious distaste for the concept itself, which I oppose. First, abusing Allison Danger is not necessary to get Sweeney over as a heel. His pompous-yet-cowardly shtick is already making him a human heat-magnet and crowds love to hate the guy, so the shortcut wasn’t required. Cheating when you have the ability to win honestly is a stupid choice.
Secondly, the only reason to do something this heinous is so that a valiant hero can come to the rescue of the victim and save the day. From all accounts I read, nobody stepped up and did anything to intercede, so what was the point, anyway? There was no feud created by this monstrosity of an angle whatsoever. If ROH only wanted to stick their toe into the foul end of the pool to feel around and see what it’s like to book despicable abominations, I hope they’ve decided by now that it isn’t worth jumping in. They’ll lose everything that makes them what they are if they choose to go off the deep end.
Ring of Honor has, quite frankly, earned their dedicated fan base by offering a more traditional, old-school professional wrestling product with quality matches at the forefront, and very little in the way of flotsam a modern fan normally has to navigate to get to the good stuff. ROH is simply not the place for the kind of crap they pulled last week, and I hope nothing of the sort ever surfaces again. If Ring of Honor turns into the next wanna-be version of WWE on the market, I’ll have nowhere left to turn for pro wrestling. Please, let this be a one-time mistake that Silkin and Sapolsky learn from and never repeat.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
p.s. – “You have to sow before you can reap. You have to give before you can get.†– Robert Collier
