I try to keep to current events in this column, and we did just see the third and fourth Adam Pearce-booked shows in Ring of Honor. Yet the fan response has been a bigger event than anything Mr. Pearce has written.
I have seen this community of strangers from the U.S., Canada and England donate used DVD’s and cash for new ones to build a collection for a disabled fan that none of them would ever meet. There is good in this community, even on the ROH board. But for the last two weeks I have dreaded even looking at it. The condescending people defending the company, the spiteful people attacking it – both sides have made physically ill. The arguments are insipid.
Below, submitted for your approval, is every argument I can remember seeing in the last two weeks, and some thoughtful responses.
-You just support anything Ring of Honor does.
I don’t think I’ve ever met an ROH fan that liked everything. Between campaigning for Mike Quackenbush and Eddie Kingston to be regulars, to complaining that Samoa Joe was coasting in his last year, to Danielson and Morishima’s blow off being delayed so long, to it being too hot in a certain building, to there not being no beer in another, I don’t think anyone has ever been enthusiastic for everything ROH does.
I know I haven’t been. It’s my favorite promotion for what it does well, but it’s healthy to think critically and be honest with flaws. The overwhelming enthusiasm of some fans can be refreshing and has carried many of my favorite conversations with them, but it can also go cancerous. Several of the arguments below are examples, because if there’s one huge negative to enthusiasts in this (and every) hobby, it’s that someone’s love for the subject can so readily turn to hate for those who disagree.
And didn’t everyone hate Azrieal by the end?
-It all looks like it sucks.
Even the suggestion that ROH is 1 out of 4 on these two doubleshots is misleading. People may be so worried and so bogged down in negativity that they’re forgetting the first Canada show got very positive reviews. The major gripe was whether count-outs belonged at all, but most of the matches went over well.
It wasn’t until the second show with the run-in DQ ending to the World Title Match and the underwhelming Tag Team Title Match that crap hit the fan. It’s almost like the anxiety over the second show colored both, leaving people to think only the PPV taping in Chicago delivered. But by everyone I’ve talked to from the four shows, it looks like ROH is running 2-2.
That all goes without us having seen the shows. It may be wise for some fans to enjoy the final “Gabe era†DVD’s until the next ROH PPV when it lands at for $10-15, and use that as their first taste of what Pearce-booked ROH can be.
-You have to see it to judge it.
If we could implement this tomorrow in all things, be they fiction, film, politics, religion, life styles, sports and my grandma’s snickerdoodles, war might just end.
But it won’t be. And in an ROH where the majority of the audience has to wait over a month to see what happened, people form opinions. By reading results, reviews and live reports from those in attendance, they attempt to form educated opinions. These can still mislead (I really liked A New Level on DVD despite it being roasted initially), but are still so natural as to be unavoidable unless you decide to follow the company without talking to any other fans. ROH hermitage will not do for most people.
For most people, reading that the Briscoes Vs. Steen & Generico went six minutes with the title on the line is going to trigger something. These two teams have struggled with each other for over a year, and their shortest match was a twenty-minute war. The match wasn’t advertised for the PPV and didn’t have to happen, and on top of that, it sounds like Mark Briscoe was injured beforehand. Why let him wrestle? Why make the match at all? Let him rest and do a brawl that sets up a big match on a later show. That’s all in theory, but for a company that’s model requires you wait, theory is all you have for a while.
Me? You’re darned right I’m going to wait to actually see some of it before I hang up this column.
-Titles don’t matter.
One of the worst features of the post-Russo world is this idea that since professional wrestling is predetermined, none of it matters.
If nobody cared then nobody would watch. If titles didn’t matter then Aries dethroning Joe at Final Battle 2004 wouldn’t be one of the eternal ROH highlights. ROH has spent almost seven years selling DVD’s to “smark†fans who know not only knew it was predetermined but called the writer by his first name. They ought to mind what parts of the kayfabe world those fans will invest in. Often crowds will cheer heels and criticize booking seconds after seeing something, but people still care about title matches.
They matter a curious amount, really. Look at Friday’s Dayton show, with McGuinness Vs. Black Vs. Aries. This is actually a more interesting match without the title because it’s less predictable; otherwise you expected McGuinness to retain. But people were still upset because they’d paid for a title match. They wanted it, even if it might make the match theoretically less exciting. The title has a perceived importance that all the supposed “heel heat†the heels so seldomly draw can’t match. Baiting and switching like that is dangerous because no one goes to the parking lot blaming Nigel McGuinness for doing it. Many aspects of supposed heel psychology are dubious at best on the current demographic.
-Heels should cheat.
And wrestling companies should try to stop them. Refs shouldn’t be deaf and blind. Faces shouldn’t be so dumb that they almost always fall for it. Security ought to be competent enough to catch anyone trying to run in. Managers should be banned from ringside if they ever interfere, and other wrestlers have no business there in the first place. But apparently it’s only heels that should get the benefit of kayfabe intelligence.
The decades-old standard that heels can routinely cheat successfully and go almost entirely unchecked by the rest of the kayfabe world is among the laziest clichés in North American wrestling. Be original, be creative, or you deserve the complaints you get on this one, especially in ROH. Don’t forget that this is the company that marketed to “smarks†for nearly seven years. No one thinks Chris Hero really did something immoral and holds a grudge against him. This is the demographic that buys the 4-disc “shoot†where Ric Flair exposes every aspect of his career, so don’t yell at them for something the independent wrestling industry has marketed to heck and back. They know the booking philosophy behind many of these moves, the cheap way of escaping not having to “put a guy over†and hurt the other. They know they saw something deliberately inconclusive. Many ROH fans instantly skip from blaming a heel to blaming a booker, and if you want to blame anyone for that dynamic, blame the company’s business model. You’ve got to walk this line carefully.
-A Run-In, Disqualification or No Contest is still a finish.
They are the ends of matches. They are not necessarily satisfactory conclusions, and generally set up an actual conclusion for another show. They are utility endings that very few fans want to see and should be balanced, mostly on the undercard and in matches fewer people paid to see, so that the audience is still satisfied with the show a whole. Too many, or those happening in highly anticipated matches on a show, can break the fictional sense that this is a sport and outcomes are to be taken seriously. The ending is what wrestlers wrestle towards for the whole match, and a bad one or a crooked one can invalidate a fan’s enjoyment of the whole. Execution is key when they are booked, but smart booking is essential in the first place. “Reconditioning†fans to accept many screwy and inconclusive finishes may be harder for ROH, where they’re paying by the episode. Speaking of general conditioning, we’ve got seven hours of WWE and TNA on free TV that do all the screwy and stupid build up for free.
When they don’t click, these are a fascinating mutation of the way hardcore wrestling fans have come to see wrestling. There was a time when crowds would assault the villain for pulling this kind of stunt. Fans still hate it, but now they blame who they know is in charge.
That’s not to say they can’t rock. Homicide throwing a fireball into Samoa Joe’s face was memorable. Danielson stomping in Morishima’s testicles was crazy. That was all in the execution, though, and for every one “dirty†or finish that got a free pass, there are a hundred that don’t.
-If you don’t like count-outs, you don’t like wrestling.
ROH didn’t have regular count-outs for six years and I sure liked it. Was I in a trance?
While never institutionalized in ROH, Nigel McGuinness (with the Pure Title) and Roderick Strong (with the FIP Title) had several quality count-outs in their respective title reigns. Heck, I just saw Shawn Michaels use the count out in clever fashion against JBL at Sunday’s Survivor Series. These can be done well and have been done well. Now that they are a regular staple wrestlers just have to do them well. Smart wrestlers should build these as legitimate threats to the end of contests, and slowly building it might be the best way to “condition†fans. But if they’re used as cop-outs, I probably won’t like them. And I like wrestling.
-You all demanded change and now that there is change you complain.
I don’t know anyone who demanded these changes, and it’s not like a Satanic genie showed up and granted us this version of change. This is a deliberate oversimplification of what people were fatigued of before.
-Shorter matches are better.
Sometimes they are. Steen Vs. McGuinness from Northern Navigation could have been a lot shorter and more explosive instead of having McGuinness drag Steen all over the place for plodding minute after plodding minute. A great fifteen-minute match is better than a drawn-out twenty-five match. But it remains true that a great hour-long match can do more than a shorter one, and it’s what will make me want to buy a show. Nobody wants to see a twenty-minute match that feels like it should have been twenty-five (a common complaint against the Markham main event). A lot of these problems boil down to leaving the fans wanting more rather than making them feel they should have seen more.
-You’re stupid Vs. You’re picky.
These two arguments go together like sleeping pills and cyanide.
On the one hand you have fans that say they don’t like a change (count-outs being regular, interference swaying title matches) without saying why. They just state it. These folks have been shouted at as stupid for putting no thought into it.
On the other hand you have fans that meticulously articulated why they didn’t like a change. Some of them even went to these events and posted long write-ups around the internet to explain what bothered them. These folks have been shouted down as nitpicking and needing to “sit back and enjoy it.â€
They can’t win. You can’t dislike ROH for no reason or for reasons. While it’s different defensive groups that make the accusations, it’s ridiculous to see a situation where neither off-the-cuff nor meticulously reasoned responses are criticisms.
-Samoa Joe shouldn’t have beaten Tyler Black.
Black has lost a lot of high-profile matches and another loss isn’t what he needs, but I honestly don’t know what you thought was going to happen. Joe is a main-eventer in TNA and we all know they restrain how their guys are booked elsewhere. Joe was also almost darned near unbeatable back when he was an ROH regular. Not to bust out my “kayfabe apologist†routine, but Joe should have rolled him, and Black putting up even a decent fight would be good in my eyes.
The outcome was obvious and not so negative simply because it was a minor dream match (a day dream match, maybe), and ROH regulars losing in these things don’t tend to hurt them. Generico wasn’t hurt losing to Ibushi, Daniels and Maff weren’t hurt losing to Muta, and Joe himself wasn’t hurt losing to Kobashi. While I agree that Black should start winning high-profile singles soon, this wasn’t where it needed to begin nor where it realistically would. What happens in his next match against Aries is more pressing.
-This is a house show. It’s okay that it’s weaker.
Then it won’t be sold on rohwrestling.com? Or maybe it’ll be half price?
-It’s alright that this ending was inconclusive because it’s building to something later.
That can be okay for the DVD audience. It doesn’t work so well for the live audience that paid to see this now. Will Dayton see Strong and Hero have a decisive end to their rivalry? Because if not, then it just stinks for them.
Further, did the booking of Butcher Vs. McGuinness in Markham convince anyone that Butcher’s going to pull it out next time? If it doesn’t raise the excitement then the model you’re using may be flawed. It’s bad if they don’t get the re-match; worse if they don’t even want to see it.
-This market (perhaps Dayton) doesn’t draw well, so they don’t deserve a good show.
And with that attitude, it will never draw well. Terry Funk used to tell the ECW locker room that if a building was half full they should work twice as hard so that it would be full next time. Deliberately delivering sub-par shows and counting on diehards to come anyway is a bad idea.
But more important to a fan is this: I paid. I was sad to see so many empty seats in GA for Boston’s Driven 2008 because those people who stayed home missed a heck of a show. But I was happy I went, and happy I brought a friend. It is sad to judge the worthiness of the market by the sheer numbers it draws because it discounts the passion, time, effort and money spent from budgets of those who fans who do come. Those people always deserve a satisfying show. While the economics behind the opposite opinion are essential to business, it’s disheartening to think that a fan in New York deserves a great show better than a fan in New Jersey just because more people were there.
-ROH has a new model of throwaway shows that build to bigger ones.
This sounds like a terrible business move for a company currently selling each show on DVD. It would be their own fault if this business model cost them sales. Now if it’s because they have a new distribution or TV deal in the works, the change might make a little more sense. Right now, I can only hope this isn’t a real strategy, but a result of the new booker figuring out the job.
-ROH’s fans need to be reconditioned to not expect longer, better matches and appreciate those they get.
It’s twenty bucks a shot for ROH on DVD, and more for a live show. If this even factors into management’s thinking it could be disastrous. You are not going condition people to pay by the episode when you’re intentionally making the episodes less entertaining. A much smarter model would be to let only one or two matches be true blow-aways on any given show, while being more conservative with the rest of the card. Alternate who gets to excel per show, reallocate feuds so that one market gets to see a specific story mature – in essence, tone it down, but don’t choke it. Straight-up, I have no intention of buying the Markham and Dayton shows when they hit DVD. I don’t need to be conditioned. I’ve got seven hours of pro wrestling on free TV, plus the AWA on ESPN Classics. I have to feel every show is special if I’m going to pay for it. This is another fine line that needs to be walked.
A corollary to my response here is that we don’t actually know that ROH is choking back the talent. These two shows could easily have been the new management getting its legs.
-ROH has done mediocre shows before.
However, this is a new chapter in ROH where fans need to be calmed of their fears. They could have allayed a lot of fears by blowing the doors off their first few doubleshots, or just toning it down less than they did to start. They did what they could, and they got this reaction. Now it needs to be dealt with.
If Era of Honor Begins and the string of shows that followed were not remarkable the company might not have grown into anything. If Homicide, Samoa Joe and CM Punk had not stepped up dramatically after the Feinstein scandal, many fans would have abandoned the brand. While ROH has done lower quality shows before, this is an important time not to have done them. Fans shouldn’t be rushing to make-or-break decisions this quickly, but a decent person could at least sympathize with the worries.
And ROH has not necessarily done all of this before. In four shows we’ve seen the establishment of the count-out with what sound like very unsatisfactory uses, a bait-and-switch with a World Title match, run-ins protecting challengers in a tag title match, and the first straight-up run-in DQ in ROH history. A lot of things fans do not like (at least, do not like in theory) showed up really quickly in the first four shows of a new booker. This was his first impression period. Fears of what’s in store are valid.
-Four shows are enough to judge the future of Ring of Honor.
Almost everything so far has been closing up existing storylines. The McGuinness/Danielson issue, Aries/Age of the Fall, Titus/Delirious and Sweet & Sour taking on the world are all things Adam Pearce was left to finish. We do not know how he will write the company when he is defining the characters and creating the stories. For all we know the lows of the Markham and Dayton shows were testing the waters for how short the matches could get and how disappointing the endings could be for the new booker, who hasn’t run an organization on this level before. Aside from the typical argument that we ought to see these shows before condemning them, there is the simple point that Pearce hasn’t started what would truly be his ROH yet.
-Finally that stupid flippy company will die.
Please go away.
There you go. I don’t hate you, I don’t hate the way you watch wrestling, and I’m still hopeful for the best. Now for God’s sake, go hug someone or something. And to my U.S. readers, have a good Thanksgiving.
If you’re still here you can check a few other articles around the internet:
Vinny Truncellito gets his first taste of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
Pulse Glazer analyzes the huge Marufuji Vs. KENTA hour draw.
David Ditch observes the world of Japanese wrestling and interviews Steve Corino.
And for something entirely different, hit up my daily blog at www.johnwiswell.blogspot.com. Particularly check it out Thanksgiving if you’re in need of a holiday catharsis.
