This is in response to John Wiswell’s Cult of ROH: Lynn the Champion, so read that and the comments below before hitting this.
Many people have problem with Lynn as ROH World Champion, while, naturally, some are just as vehemently defending the decision. I’m against the move for several reasons. The main problem at the end of the day is that in the past several years ROH has had zero success elevating new stars. Nigel really became a top guy at the second half of 06 and could have won the World Title at any point thereafter, but besides that, ROH has had no one really be elevated to World Title Status. There have been 2-3 guys fans would buy were they pushed that way, but there were significant mistakes made that prevented that elevation each time.
The main one everyone is discussing is Tyler Black. Black was Gabe’s golden boy, the guy he was surely going to elevate and make a star out of. He was giving great performances in tags and singles matches, while fans were dying to see him dethrone Nigel, even though he was part of a heel faction, the Age of the Fall. This is the new regime’s big miss- not in having Black lose so many more times, but instead in transitioning him from an edgy, fan-made face, to a full fledged good guy. As a straight good guy, the edge was gone and his losses made him a choker, not a young rebel who was rising, but just another dull, good challenger who wasn’t up to the task. Black, as a member of Age of the Fall, could let Jacobs handle the promo intensity, while his slightly different message kept the fans on his side. The heat was off the charts for this dichotomy and switching it to go to a more traditional role for Black ruined what made him feel special and different. He was no longer the rebel, freak athlete who just might be right doing things the wrong way. He instead became just another good guy, freak athlete wrestler, a status of wrestler which ROH has had no lack of. Can they reclaim his magic? Maybe, but even if he’s a star soon, he won’t be the breakaway success that was predicted.
The next guy ROH has had lined up for the title is easily their most successful push of the past several years: Jimmy Jacobs. Jacobs has main evented as many shows as anyone, but in a company where the World Title is of supreme importance and titles mean power, why hasn’t the power mad villain had a World Title program yet? He’s in the periphery of the title picture perennially, yet never a serious threat for the belt. This, unfortunately, makes him seem generally a step behind the Nigel/Danielson/Aries trio no matter how much heat he gets or how high his stock is. Even a short reign would do it for Jacobs and, ideally, he’s the one to take the belt from Lynn and finally become a full-fledged top draw. For his massive heat alone, he’s earned it, but if the trigger was pulled for him chasing the World Title sooner, even if he was denied because of the AOTF’s actions, his character would have an added layer and he’d be considered a top star by even the casual ROH fan already.
Finally, the last guy ROH has really dropped the ball with is Roderick Strong. Roderick is bought as a top worker by the fanbase and, when pushed, gets massive pops that only grow as the match goes on. This is a guy who was put over by Danielson, Gibson, and Punk both in matches and in interviews as a definite top guy. Fans buy it as witnessed by his reactions whenever he’s placed near the top of the card and hit fits the ROH ring general mold… so why is he regularly opening shows, an afterthought in his programs, and not treated like a top talent? In 2006 he would have been a star for beating Danielson, in 2007 for beating either Morishima or Nigel, and now… he can beat Lynn, but who cares? He could have been made a top guy for three years, he’s probably an even better worker than Nigel or Aries, and now he doesn’t even make every card.
Beating the champion after continual great matches was the tried and true way of becoming a ROH star. For this to work the champion needs a certain swagger and the title has to be perceived as a huge deal. With the title less and less the focus of shows, Nigel having fewer and fewer great matches as the reign went on, the belt had to be transitioned to someone new who could make fans care. Jerry Lynn is not that someone. The ROH Title is just another belt on his list. This isn’t career-long under-rated James Gibson taking the title after a load of great matches, elevating several wrestlers in a well-developed storyline coming at the end of the hottest angle in company history (The Summer of Punk). Gibson, through booking and circumstance, had it in him to take someone to the next level… and he did in Danielson. Since then the ROH World Title hasn’t been used to elevate anyone. Danielson transitioned to Homicide, already a top star, who lost it to Morishima an international star in the making… and this was the point where the belt had to make a new star with ROH becoming overly reliant on their Nigel/Danielson/Aries 3 and other wrestlers getting from Morishima great, star-making matches. Had he lost the belt to anyone from Stevens to Strong to Tyler to Davey, they’d immediately be stars and seen as top guys because of how well booked Morishima was.
Of course, ROH didn’t do that. They put the belt on Nigel for a year plus reign. While the reign was good and matches great mostly, Nigel simply didn’t need the boost as much as many others on the card did. He wasn’t made by the belt, he was made by the Pure Title over a year prior. The belt cemented him on top, but a short reign, Aries level 5-6 months, would have been more than enough. Instead we got a year plus of him mowing down challengers, leaving nothing but Black capable of stopping him as a new star… and we saw how that was blown above. No one could be made a star by beating Nigel because he kept the belt so long but Black and when they lost that, they were left in a scramble for who could feasibly take the title.
This is a situation for which Lynn works… if there’s a story behind it enough that when Lynn losing the belt, whoever takes it is a star. That’s the real question. Is Jerry Lynn, at this point, important enough that beating him for the ROH title makes a new star? With rumors of Danielson going to MMA and Nigel out for a long while, ROH had better hope so. They desperately need a new top wrestler. Unless a top draw suddenly deigns to work for ROH (RVD being the one that most immediately pops to mind), mid-level guys don’t really draw much by way of new fans. People tune in to ROH and get excited when they hear a buzz around a new wrestler like Danielson. It’s not a coincidence wresting booms and growth occur when new guys are elevated. People are generally curious to see what the big deal is and so give it a try. That’s why Danielson and the CZW War were such huge draws (relatively, for new fans) and Morishima was able to maintain a high level of business – fans wanted to see what the hype was about and so stuck around. Nigel as a know commodity was elevated, but everyone knew what he was capable of, so no one new came along to check it out. If that’s the case for Nigel, it’s doubly so with Lynn. Unless someone beating him is made a star, there is a dearth of legitimate main eventers in ROH currently, something I predicted at the early part of Morishima’s reign. Someone new like Generico or Cabana has to really step up in tune with the booking, otherwise we’re left with Aries as a top guy, a man considered by the fan-base to be a lame duck as champion, rightly or wrongly, and two guys on the verge who might not get the rub needed from Lynn to bust out. Unless Lynn can deliver some early classics then transition the belt to a new top guy, the outlook for ROH, HDNet or no, looks quite grim.
