During the April 17th newswire, Ring of Honor posted, “There will be a big announcement on the main page of www.ROHwrestling.com this Sunday.” Lips murmured about what could possibly be the big announcement on 4/20. RVD at Hammerstein? A TV deal? A new PPV announcement? Day after day the anticipation grew and word traveled across the internet that something big was going to go down on 4/20. As it turns out, the announcement was nothing more than the news that Ring of Honor was having a 33% sale on everything they have in stock.
WELL WHOOP-DE-DOO!
It’s clear to me that Booker Gabe Sapolsky is a smart man and knew ahead of time that this small little statement was going to be picked up by people and take on a life of its own. God knows people have been waiting forever for some sort of special news to be announced for Hammerstein. Now instead of stepping up and telling people to calm down and keep their expectations in check, he stayed quiet and let word about the ‘big’ announcement spread across the internet.
Now a number of Ring of Honor aficionados will claim that since Gabe Sapolsky never said anything in the first place, it’s not his fault that things got so out of hand. Well you know what? That’s right. It isn’t his fault that things got so out of hand.
However, Gabe Sapolsky is smart enough to know that people were going to be let down by the fact that this ‘big’ announcement wasn’t going to deliver for any number of people. He knew that people were going to be upset about it and feel toyed with. However, instead of stepping up and responsibly putting expectations in check, he decided to remain silent so that word about the announcement could get out and the company could make an extra buck when the sale was revealed.
The fact is that pulling stunts like this cause resentment and alienation in the fanbase. Yeah you may have a few guys around your message board laughing at everyone else who thought the announcement was actually going to be something important (and I’d even go as far as to bet that you cracked a joke or two about them as well), but the only reason they did that is so they didn’t feel like idiots themselves.
The bottom line is that Ring of Honor should have shown more maturity, intelligence, and class in handling the situation and quelling the expectations of its fanbase. It doesn’t even matter if you make a huge blockbuster announcement today, tomorrow, or later in the week. Yesterday you allowed your fans’ TRUST in your company to be abused for your own gain.
And the thing is that I can’t understand why you would do that. Why would you allow this resentment to be built up? Why would you allow this resentment to happen? It makes no sense to me. For a company that builds it reputation on ‘Honor’, I can’t understand why they would take the road they did. Wouldn’t it have been classier to make a simple post on their messageboard that simply said, “Don’t blow it out of proportion.”, to help their fans to avoid a letdown?
Well as they say, any publicity is good publicity right? Well Paris Hilton feels the same way so I guess we know you’re in good company.
Congrats.
You’ve got your publicity.
To redeem your 33% Off Coupon on all orders just follow these 2 simple steps:
1) Place an order for merchandise at www.rohwrestling.com
2) Enter the coupon code: spring into the box marked Discount/Promotional Code when you are going thru the checkout process. The system will automatically generate the discount.
Please be aware that is you are ordering any preorder DVD’s that your entire order will not ship until ALL items are in stock. If the order contains multiple preorder DVD’s then the order will not ship until the last preorder item has arrived. Scheduled release dates for all preorder items are listed under their description.
*Sale ends Wednesday, April 23rd at 9am EST. Shipping costs are not discountable. Gift certificates are not included in the sale. No dealers. No adjustments to prior purchases. Offer valid only on orders placed online at www.rohwrestling.com. Offer is good while supplies last. Orders will only be discounted if you follow the steps listed above and enter the code in the appropriate section.
