The Preview:
Ring of Honor is replaying matches and highlights from Best in the World 2012; I’ve already given my thoughts on the show so there’s no need to repeat that here. Instead, we’ll have a look at Kenny King’s situation, having recently jumped ship to TNA and seemingly burned the bridge home to ROH in the process.
The Action:
On Impact, the week before Destination X, Kenny King shows up live for an Ultimate X tournament qualifying match. He wrestles well, hits The Coronation and wins his match. He even gets a short vignette with Austin Aries in the back; a reunion of sorts for the two. The vignette may have spoke the most volume here, as there’s no way that TNA would spend that screen time on a guy that wasn’t committed to them. King would ultimately compete in Ultimate X but lose to Zima Ion. Ring of Honor has since stated that they will not be doing business with King moving forward.
The Reaction:
My gut reaction? “Holy $#!T Kenny King is on Impact!” Then it slowly hit me that something might be amiss over in ROH. Of course I was happy to see King on one of the “big two”; I’m a big fan of his. But as the news unfolded that this was a touch underhanded – He had agreed to meet with, but not wrestle for, other companies with ROH – it became clear that he had done a bit of “going into business for himself”. Now, that’s not an express criticism; if a bigger company that wants to pay you more wants you on their roster, you’d be a fool not to look into it. ROH’s knee jerk reaction seems to have been to cut ties with King; they’ve since stripped ANX of the tag team titles and set up a tag team tournament to determine the new Tag Team Champions.
The Rant:
It’s not ROH who took the biggest hit in all of this; it’s King’s (now former) tag partner, Rhett Titus. As a singles wrestler, even while associated with Austin Aries, Titus was a goof at best, mostly due to his gimmick. As half of the All Night Express, Titus really came into his own and began to shine as a tag wrestler. With King’s jump to TNA, that leaves Titus in a bit of an odd position – ROH is likely a bit salty with him, since it was his partner that jumped ship. There was nothing stopping ROH from letting Titus go it alone and at least actually LOSE the titles. Instead, they immediately stripped him of them and set up the aforementioned tournament. Now as a newly singles wrestler again, it’s going to be on Titus to make sure that he continues to prove his worth on the roster. ROH needs to be weary; what’s stopping Titus from doing the same thing King did when his contract runs out and he’s only “in talks” with ROH?
Admittedly, Ring of Honor made a terrible call putting a title on someone who was still in contract negotiations AND free to talk to other companies; that one is entirely their fault. I feel like as King made this decision, he didn’t really take into account the potential ramifications from the ROH side; neither the business or for his partner. Ring of Honor has stated that they won’t be doing business with King moving forward, but if he ends up contracted with TNA, that might not matter much to him. At the moment though, King’s old partner is left in limbo – Does he find a new partner and enter the tag title tournament? Does he roll into the fold and compete for singles titles? Or is he going to peter out and ultimately suffer for his partner’s decision? Maybe if he’s lucky, ANX can reunite in TNA…
Let us know what you think – Do you stand by King’s decision? Do you think he shouldn’t have “abandoned” his partner? Do you flat out not care?
The Preview:
Next week on ROH TV, Eddie Edwards and Adam Cole team up to take on Mike Bennett and “Brutal” Bob Evans. Yes. Bob Evans in a tag match.
The Shilling:
You’ve read the previews, the reviews and the reactions to Money in the Bank here at Pulse Wrestling – See my thoughts over at my homebase at The Geek Asylum if you like what you see here at Pulse and always feel free to comment @sbfantom on Twitter.
