I think this the most overrated wrestling company ever. I have always heard how great it was then I have gave it a chance and was bored to tears. Every time I have watched it has been incredibly boring and a complete chore to watch. There is zero energy or excitement to it and just feels completely bush league. They have been around for nearly 20 years and have created zero buzz or have really gotten anywhere yet it still somehow exists and people pretend to care about it.
I don’t understand what they offer that you can’t get from other promotions but done better and with greater production. TNA/Impact has always been way better.
Does anybody really like this company or pay any attention to it?
They’ve been home to incredible talent who has wrestle there but thinking about it those talents wrestled in so many places it’s hard to say anything in ROH made them the names they are.
Even this current hot stretch has been behind the Bullet Club brand. I’d argue PWG for has been the real Indy promotion that propels talent.
Outside of the Summer of Punk, I can’t say I’m familiar with a single big ROH storyline. I can’t consider anything with the Bullet Club to be ROH - while the Omega Cody story into Supercard was strong this year, it was a BTE storyline.
ROH is way past their glory days. They were great years ago. I use to buy some dvds but that was before the sinclair purchase I believe.
If you go back and look at a ROH card before 2011 you will be impressed. I watched Glory by Honor 2009 the other day.
It had
Nigel vs Danielson
Kevin Owens and Samy Zayn vs The American Wolves Ladder War
The Bucks vs The Briscoes
Cesaro vs Kenny Omega
Aries vs Petey Williams
Chris Hero vs Eddie Kingston
Rhett Titus Vs Cabana
Strong vs Sonjay vs Delerious vs Redwood
Cheech and Cloudy VS Dark City
What shows come close to looking that interesting these days?
The shows mostly seem interesting when they bring in Japanese and Mexican talent these days.
ROH used to be the best promotion in North America to watch good wrestling. PWG had too many comedy matches before. PWG wrestlers had better matches when they wrestled in ROH.
RoH is a company that I keep an ear to, and when I heard there was a great match, I go out of my way to watch. I find that most of their home grown talent right now is mediocre at best. They have a handful of fantastic talent like Dalton Castle, SCU, all of the New Japan cross over talent, but so far I haven’t connected with most of their exclusive talent.
ROH is the type of company I would like to keep up on the news, but wouldn’t watch the weekly TV shows. They have fantastic matches and talent, but to me lacks the production values and storylines that would keep me captivated on a regular basis.
I was a much bigger fan of ROH years ago, between 2003 (the year of shows I first gravitated towards) and 2008, up until Gabe Sapolsky was ousted as the booker. He didn’t always give the best attention to everyone and was admittedly in a bubble during his time booking it, but a lot of his booking combined with the talent he had led to some great stuff, be it stories or matchmaking.
In addition to Summer of Punk in 2005, I recall the Punk-Raven feud, the formation of Generation Next (a Hail Mary play after the company lost some talent following a pedo scandal with former owner Rob Feinstein), the Punk-Joe trilogy, Daniel Bryan Danielson’s World Title run and his matches with Nigel McGuinness, ROH vs. CZW, The Briscoes vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico, Jimmy Jacobs loves Lacey, Age of the Fall, and tons of great matches. They started as indy supercards, but it became a cohesive promotion.
Since then, I have continued to follow it, attend some more shows, and order a few live PPVs as more great talent came and went, but it’s not nearly as interesting to me as it once was. I seriously fell off buying DVDs in 2012, as they just weren’t worth it. The TV show is hit and miss for me, and the biggest plus for it now is that it’s the American partner of New Japan, which has kind of lost its luster and may not last with the possible formation of All Elite Wrestling next year.
ROH was revolutionary at one point, unfortunately talent raids from TNA (and ultimately NXT) removed a lot of top-level stars from the company. Without those stars, the persistent problems with ROH (production values, lackluster storylines) have become more visible.
That being said, they’re still one of the top promotions in North America (if not the world), & the NJPW partnership has breathed new life into the company. Are they as important now as they were before NXT arrived? No…But they’re still an integral part of the modern wrestling business.
ROH to me has always been a great company to help guys grow and it’s still worth following in my view. However, if I was to sum up ROH in a sentence it would be “pulling the trigger to late”. If you look at the history of the world title its a list of guys who should have been champ way before they should and that’s still true today when you look at Marty Scurll. In my opinion, he should have ended Dalton’s reign, instead they’ve delayed it and in all likelihood he won’t get his title shot until way after Final Battle (likely at MSG). And this has happened before with Tyler Black, Roderick Strong, Michael Elgin, Davey Richards and Kyle O’Reily. By the time they got it the crowd had turned on the idea of them as champ or they were ready to move on from ROH.
With Cody, The Young Bucks, and Adam Page all departed from ROH earlier this month, ROH has signed four new people recently. PCO, Brody King, Bandido, and just recently Mark Haskins, an English wrestler who has been part of their recent UK tours. The first two will be on TV within the next month, whereas Haskins and Bandido are scheduled to start in earnest with them at the next two shows next month (a streaming live event and a TV taping). In addition, from attending the TV taping on the 15th where King and PCO debuted, it seems Juice Robinson will be appearing in ROH more regularly, plus they’re also booking PJ Black and Luchasaurus more.
I like a good percentage of these guys, and I feel it’s a more eclectic mix of talent. Curious to see how they can move forward without the Bullet Club to hang on.
I actually think the departure of the ROH Bullet Club / Elite will lead to a more free roster to work with in terms of pushes and matchups. With Cody out of the main event scene and Bucks (and SCU) out of the tag and 6 man division that opens spots up. Now that isn’t to say they won’t struggle drawing the same but they should have a quality roster to mix and match. If anyone can break out beyond where they are today remains to be seen.
Looking ahead to the ROH/NJPW show it will be interesting how the card gets divided. One would assume the IWGP title match would dominate with star power over anything ROH can put together. Ditto the Intercontinental and potentially even US title. Juice vs anyone for the latter feels more of a draw than any combination of ROH title contenders. If ROH can’t stack any matches on equal footing with the New Japan offering it’s going to highlight how much NJPW carries their drawing power in the US.
