By now, everyone who cares already knows that Ring of Honor owner Cary Silken and former booker Gabe Sapolsky have parted ways, and former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam “Scrap Iron†Pearce was brought in to take over all creative responsibilities for the beloved indy promotion. While some devoted ROHbots are calling this a death knell, I’d rather sit back and see what happens before pronouncing Ring of Honor DOA.
TODAY’S ISSUE: Is Ring of Honor a goner?
According to pro wrestling insider extraordinaire Dave Meltzer, ROH’s new vision with Pearce at the helm will be a more 1970’s style with pure faces and heels (no ‘shades-of-gray’ tweeners) and no highspots. However, I’ve also read that Pearce is known as a prankster, and he might have intentionally leaked this nugget to throw people off the trail of whatever his real intentions are. Although the way most ROH fans have reacted to the news of Gabe’s departure, I can’t see why ROH would want to work this sort of a swerve. Some dedicated fans are already under the impression that it’s all over, and that Pearce at the helm spells the end for Ring of Honor. If I were them I’d be more interested in assuring my fan base that things are going to be great than fooling them into thinking the product will no longer resemble the ROH we all know and love.
But to be fair, it’s a bit premature to assume anything yet. The least we can do is allow Pearce several weeks of his own storylines (not just finishing out Gabe’s angles, which he’ll have to do first) to see what he comes up with. First we need to find out if ROH’s style will in fact change, and if so, decide as fans if those changes are for better or worse. I truly enjoy the ROH product but sometimes there are too many highspots, and if slowing things down a little bit helps emphasize the bigger moments in matches and extends the careers of these amazing daredevils, that wouldn’t be bad. Additionally, as long as the characters are compelling and well developed, there’s nothing wrong with pure heels and faces, so that doesn’t bother me either. Change is inevitable, and isn’t always negative. I’m sure if you think about it you can recall at least three significant changes in the modern era which positively impacted US-based professional wrestling. In fact, the dawn of ROH was just such a change, but since it came on the heels of the loss of beloved hardcore renegade promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling, most indy fans felt that was all bad at the time as well.
Ring of Honor rose like a Phoenix from the ashes of ECW and that fact gives me hope for the future, come what may. If ROH does close their doors for good, another high quality independent promotion may take their place and once again provide that much needed balance in the pro wrestling universe for workrate fans who prefer mature themes and disapprove of the sportz entertainment booking style.
In a very special edition of Cult of ROH, John Wiswell analyzed Ring of Honor’s very first post-Gabe Newswire, and he agrees it’s way too early to declare ROH dead and their immediate future shows very little in the way of change. For being the first one to put my mind a bit at ease, I say thank you to Mr. Wiswell.
Still, considering the unpredictable nature of this dilemma, I took advantage of the latest Big Ten sale at ROHwrestling.com by purchasing about 20 shows, just in case. Sure, if ROH were to fold their tent in the next six months they’d probably offer up their remaining inventory of DVDs at fantastic discount prices, but what about the ones on my “must-have†list that have already sold out? If they do shut down permanently they’re not about to press any new copies of older shows, so I went shopping. When that delivery arrives it will help ease my concerns about ROH’s future and allow me to remember the good times without worrying too much about the next chapter in Ring of Honor’s saga, at least while I’m watching.
So what is next for Ring of Honor? They’ve had a phenomenal run and produced loads of great wrestling cards which are available at VERY affordable prices online and at the merch table at all live shows (so if you love ROH too and want to see them keep afloat, take advantage of their next big sale, which is always right around the corner, and order the Driven pay-per-view, premiering on November 14th – two hours of hot, exciting action for only $10-$15 can not be beat). With a legacy like that, the only thing worse than ROH folding right now would be what I worry was the real cause of Gabe’s departure: that Silken wants to morph the product into something more “TV-friendly†in an attempt to break into the mainstream market. Why would that be bad, you ask? Because experience tells me that more “TV-friendly†would mean less ROH-ish and too WWE/TNA-ish.
ROH fans love athletic, mostly believable characters engaging in serious feuds revolving around simple storyline motivations and focused on outstanding, longer matches, displaying hard-hitting, exciting action. WWE and TNA couldn’t be more polar opposites from this style, with their excessive and bizarre gimmicks, long talk segments, short, unsatisfying matches and homogenized style for most of their rosters. What’s worse for a workrate freak than not seeing his favorite wrestler at all? Seeing his favorite wrestler forced to incorporate a goofy gimmick into his persona and being stylistically handcuffed into shorter matches which can’t tell good stories and not being able to shine like the fan knows he can.
For reference, check out the last couple of years in TNA and observe guys like AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Christopher Daniels who were once the highlight of the promotion and kings of the formerly magnificent X Division in an amazing three-way feud that stole every show. But then these three became shells of their former selves (both in the ring and from a character perspective) thanks to changes in TNA’s business model. Meanwhile in McMahonland, such great performers as James “Jamie Noble†Gibson, Paul London, Shelton Benjamin, Shane Helms, and Colt Cabana are unable to show what they can really do and it’s painful for a fan who knows what they’re about to see them so severely neutered. Like the fable of the Lady or the Tiger, I love ROH enough to prefer it dead than Russo-fied. There’s already plenty of garbage pro wrestling on television as it is…
So if this change is to be Ring of Honor’s final bow, I will scoop up as many DVDs as I can get my hands on and continue to enjoy them as I have since the moment I realized how special they are. ROH is the promotion that literally kept me from giving up on pro wrestling after 25 years of fandom when I simply couldn’t take anymore mainstream sportz entertainment, and even if they go away, I’ll always be grateful to ROH and will remember them shining in their prime, delivering amazing matches within sound storylines. Regardless, I’ll be the first one to give Adam Pearce a chance and wait to see if he can keep the spirit of Ring of Honor alive while following Silken’s new marching orders, whatever they may be. Best of luck to all the talented performers who tear it up night after night in ROH rings; I truly hope to see more of you, performing in Ring of Honor the way pro wrestling was meant to be.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled reality.
p.s. – “Death? Why this fuss about death? Use your imagination, try to visualize a world without death! Death is the essential condition of life, not an evil.†– Charlotte Perkins Gilman
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Elsewhere on Pulse Wrestling this week…
It’s no surprise that in this week’s Ring of Honor Weekly, resident ROH “Ace†Pulse Glazer discusses Gabe’s departure – Ace is the man who introduced me to the product, and has a much longer history with Ring of Honor as a proponent and fan.
Speaking of ROH, Il Professore Big Andy Mac brings yet another strong DVD review. His look at Tag Wars 2008 makes me stoked that this one is sitting in my stack of not-yet-watched DVDs. I can’t wait to get to it!
Danny Cox reviews SummerSlam 2008 for The DVD Lounge, a member of the Inside Pulse family.
Brad Curran analyses the Friday night mainstay in his 10 Thoughts on SmackDown! piece.
But you’ve got to know what went down on a show before reading 10 Thoughts, so check out the Halloween edition of Pulse Wrestling’s Real-Time SmackDown! Report by Norine Stice.
More WWE analysis comes your way as Andy Wheeler breaks down the recent Cyber Sunday ppv in the long-awaited return of For Your Consideration.
PK provides the official Pulse Wrestling WWE Rankings effective 1 November 2008.
Finally, IWC icon Scott Keith once again goes with blasts from the past in The SmarK 24/7 Rant for Monday Night RAW – October 20, 1997, and his look at The Essential Starrcade: Part One.
