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Take a personal journey through the life and mind of a Ring of Honor fan returning to see a live wrestling show after an eight-month hiatus.

Ring of Honor’s Manhattan Mayhem V event at the Hammerstein Ballroom will be my first live ROH show in eight months. The last ROH show I attended in person was Final Battle 2012 back in December. Now, that may not be saying all that much, as that means I only missed one live ROH show in the New York area in 2013. However, a lot went into the decision and that I am going is actually meaningful. I sat out April’s Supercard of Honor VII willfully and was intent on not purchasing tickets to ROH shows for the rest of the year, due to several reasons which I will get to in a moment.

Ask me about my feelings about Ring of Honor over the last few years and I’ll give you back a mix of thoughts and feelings both positive and negative. It’s no secret that the promotion changed since becoming a corporate-owned commercial product under Sinclair Broadcasting Group. It was inevitable and unpreventable. There were growing pains in many areas-the overall direction of the promotion, the production of the TV show and DVDs, talent roster decisions and so on. Those growing pains led the wrestling company through a very rough 2012, both in terms of booking and its public relations, for example when it came to distribution and execution of Internet Pay Per View (iPPV) events as well as customer service debacles related to these issues. Whoever or whatever was to blame or became a scapegoat, the end result was that the purchasers were being given an inferior product and when problems presented themselves the outreach and problem solving was unsatisfactory and unacceptable.

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Then of course, there was Jim Cornette, who has become (justly and unjustly, but mostly justly) the iconic name that symbolized the troubles behind ROH’s booking from 2011-2012. I have a massive amount of respect for what Jim Cornette accomplished in the past both as a manager and as a booker for the likes of WWE, Ohio Valley Wrestling and Smokey Mountain Wrestling. While he has tried to explain and pass off the massive amount of complaints about his time in ROH in recent interviews, ultimately he is, was and will be the man most associated with being in charge during this period of time in ROH history.

Delirious (Hunter Johnston) may have been a day-to-day booker along with Cornette, but one would always hear that Cornette was really the one calling the shots, who had the power and the connection to Sinclair Broadcast officials. It was the case that Jim Cornette was behind the times when it came to booking for the fans. He had lost the plot, and the vow that he gave to those very fans when taking charge of ROH to listen to them, to respect and to honor what they wanted to see in that wrestling promotion was not being fulfilled. So while that isn’t the reason why Cornette ultimately left, it is one of the reasons why he had to go.

Now all of that had nothing to do with the wrestlers or the wrestling itself during this time, but that too was not as strong as compared to ROH of even a few years ago. 2012 did show glimpses of promise and genius. Kevin Steen becoming Ring of Honor champion was a long time in coming. ROH’s cooperation with CHIKARA could have been far more in-depth, but the crossovers that happened were fun and created some buzz among the fan base from both promotions. There were matches involving the likes of Steen, Davey Richards, Michael Elgin, Eddie Edwards and that demonstrated that the ROH style, focusing on back-and-forth action, exciting moments of drama and superior quality athletics and wrestling, was still around. Overall though, those were the exceptions and not the rule. The in-ring product had become seemingly watered down and mundane over time.

Then in the fall of 2012, Jim Cornette went all Jim Cornette, going off the rails behind the scenes in spectacular fashion at a TV taping, due to stress and everything else that attaches to being a man in his position. Soon after, Delirious was put in complete control of the booking.

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It is hard to pinpoint an exact moment that Ring of Honor began to pick up again, but the Steen versus Elgin match in October 2012 at Glory By Honor XI may very well be it. That match was a five-star classic and helped to keep the faith that there would be a return to the higher quality wrestling ROH fans had come to know and love.

So too, was the booking of El Generico, even for just one more match, to provide the conclusion of the three-year plus long storyline between him and Kevin Steen at Final Battle 2012. The feud had been epically developed, as it turns out, in spite of backstage forces that were against it ever blossoming into its full potential. If anything though, the feud was wholeheartedly appreciated by a majority of the Ring of Honor and independent wrestling fan base. The match was a sign of promise that ROH was on the rebound (though it was, as Steen referred to it in his now unavailable Hell Rising shoot interview, a two-month fight to get it done).

House shows began improving in 2013, with better pairings of wrestlers, better quality matches and some honest-to-goodness plot development. Often in 2012, house shows felt lackluster and unimportant. There would be reports of fewer quality matches and no clear storyline progression of feuds or angles. Now I hear from several people whose opinions I respect that the house show DVDs were and are improving and now more closely tie into the storylines on television.

Certainly the television shows, especially the last few months, have been some of the best episodes of that series. The focus on high quality main-events, like the Steel Cage Warfare finale between ROH and SCUM or the recent tag title match between the Forever Hooligans and reDRagon exemplify the increase in care and attention and if not, then the improved production and graphics array point towards it. ROH TV audio and video production is not nearly perfect-but let’s face it, it never will be. It’s good enough right now for a long time follower who has seen the video quality at the worst of times.

A lot of the younger prospects are also starting to come into their own and generally there seems to be an intangible chemistry that is happening with the wrestlers on the roster.

Regardless of the improvement in booking, talent usage and production, ROH still has some problems. Much of it goes back to customer outreach and customer satisfaction. Frustrations with the promotion were never isolated to Jim Cornette’s booking philosophy or biases against certain wrestlers or the quality of the in-ring action on display on television and DVD. No, what it all comes down to is the basic fundamentals of providing a service for money-keeping your customers happy.

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Unfortunately, ROH under a corporate structure has allowed for a seeping influence of disrespect towards customers. Most of the time this has happened with their live iPPV presentations, such that they have shifted away from live and more towards on-demand presentation (a move with which I wholeheartedly agree). Most of the time, ROH has been able to rebound in the weeks following these customer service failures by making fan-pleasing choices for booking talents, match and show announcements which create a swell of excitement that helps move the fan base past the fiascos. Those problems aren’t forgiven, but they do tend to be forgotten, at least for a time.

One of the reasons why I “fell out” of ROH, at least for a time, is that I experienced personally the kind of unsatisfactory treatment that I would have never expected to happen under previous ownership. It has to be said that this experience affected my ability to enjoy ROH for much of the first half of 2013.

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Back in June 2012, at the Best in the World event, I asked for what I thought were front row seats in the first balcony for the Final Battle 2012 event. Instead, I was given first row on the Hammerstein Ballroom’s famed side balcony. That didn’t seem to be a problem at the time of purchase, because those seats are just as good as the first row balcony, if not closer to the ring, and they were at the same price point. However, as my friends and I would come to find out, the seats were actually for the second row of the side box (the section only holds two rows). This second row made had obstructed views and would have forced my friends and me to stand up for the entire show (which is pretty much what we did). There were also some rather large and tall people sitting in the row in front of us, and that combined with the low ceilings did not make for an optimal viewing experience on that evening.

Being misled about what seats I was buying was one thing, but then having to deal with the runaround by ROH and Hammerstein Ballroom representatives made the whole situation unbearable and ultimately disappointing. Also, I know we weren’t the only ones to go through this problem on that night. To further worsen matters, the very same issue happened again to us, as my friends were sold tickets for Supercard of Honor VII under the same assumption that they were first row in the side box.

Ultimately, after much hemming and hawing and thinly-veiled attempts at placating us, we did receive some compensation-we were discounted $20 a ticket (about ¼ of the first row price), free iPPV coupons and my friends were refunded the money for the Supercard of Honor VII tickets. Sure, we were given compensation for our troubles, but for me the more important point was how we all felt at the end of this experience-like ROH and its officials didn’t care about us. Keep in mind that at no point during my time dealing with ROH staff did I mention who I was or what I did in terms of writing a column about ROH (at least once upon a time). Quite frankly, that didn’t even matter. I have always wanted to be treated like any other fan, except for the fact that my friends and I had attended ROH shows since 2004 and such longstanding customer loyalty should have been appreciated and respected. Since the promotion was essentially “under new management” such history wouldn’t have been known by the newer employees or by SBG executive Joe Koff, who blatantly lied when he told my friend that the balcony seats at Supercard of Honor VII were the best in the house.

So, if this was how every other fan was being treated, what did that say about the kind of respect and customer appreciation they had for their customers? Not much.

To be fair, I have not heard much in the way of mistreatment or dissatisfied experiences either at the Hammerstein or elsewhere around North America for ROH tour stops in 2013. Also, it is promising to see on the ticket event page on the rohwrestling.com website that the promotion is clearly advertising first and second row tickets on these side boxes as separate entities-and the price level reflects that difference. Hopefully at Manhattan Mayhem V there will now be no such problems with ticket-purchasers. However, that live experience made me angry to think that ROH had changed-to go from Cary Silkin, who would shake your hand after the show and sincerely ask you for your thoughts about the show, to this vaguely larger, more complex structure of a corporatized wrestling promotion.

I stepped away from watching Ring of Honor during the first half of 2013 after that debacle of a live show experience. Was it residual resentment from a dissatisfied customer? Was it burnout from watching ROH for too many years? Was it too much Maria Kanellis in my life? Maybe a combination of all three? Okay, maybe it was not that last one.

Truthfully, the time away did me good-it allowed me to get some separation from the “diehard” fan sentimentality I had felt as a fan and also as a columnist covering ROH over the last decade. It was that feeling which kept me plugged in even as some of the more frustrating issues came to light about ROH in recent years. Now, I was free from intensely scrutinizing the details of every angle or the psychology of moves in a match.

That freedom felt damned good. You may have heard some of that relief in my tone of voice and behavior on the Podcast of Honor audio shows I have done for Pro Wrestling Ponderings over the last few months. Some have remarked to me that I had come to a point of acceptance about ROH and what it is as a promotion in 2013-and maybe that’s true to an extent.

In caring “less” about the minutiae and the details of the product, I was able to enjoy the show more. That’s probably not the most original conclusion or revelation to offer, but it worked well enough for me. The reduction of fan “ownership” gave me room to recover from being mistreated at the live show and from the frustrations of seeing many others experience iPPV troubles. Don’t get me wrong, ROH refusing to recognize that issue on their most recent Best in the World event upsets me to a degree, but not as much as it did last year when I wrote a column expressing my lack of faith in the ROH iPPV product.

There is a cost to being too hyper-critical about anything, much less entertainment media. In the words from a famous movie-I’m getting too old for that shit. I’m not angry anymore and I don’t want to be angry about professional wrestling if I can help it. I’d rather have fun.

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A major part of this revelation happened when I attended the WrestleCon shows back in April. Seeing SHIMMER, CHIKARA and DGUSA all in one day helped me to experience again the fun and kind of entertainment that independent wrestling can provide-what I’ve come to love and enjoy over the past ten years of exposure to that scene. The DGUSA show in late July further gave proof that I was just fine with sitting back and taking it all in without questioning the booking. Playing catch-up with watching CHIKARA and PWG DVDs have helped to put the “wow-factor” back into my wrestling fandom. That’s the way I want to feel about my wrestling viewing and my fandom in general about any entertainment medium. Now it’s time to see if I can do the same with Ring of Honor, a promotion I have very passionately followed for eleven years now.

In the past few months I have resumed watching Ring of Honor wrestling. I haven’t purchased the house show DVDs (I may pick-and-choose a few at the merchandise stand this Saturday), but I do watch the TV show and the occasional on-demand show thanks to my friends at PWP. It was a slow process to get back into the product, but the relatively good quality of recent shows and the build-up to the end of the SCUM faction, combined with the intrigue of the ROH Title Tournament have done enough to restore my interest in ROH, and dare I say even some excitement about what is happening during this summer season and what is to come afterwards.

There are certainly a number of roster decisions that have been made which have made me happier and more willing to become invested in the promotion. ROH’s newfound willingness to book wrestlers who are not signed long-term to the promotion as guest-stars and featured attractions (like The Young Bucks, Forever Hooligans, Paul London, Brian Kendrick and Karl Anderson) helps to punch up the ROH roster. It also allows for significantly more breadth in offering great wrestling matches featuring talent that can pull off the ROH style.

Signing and featuring young talent like ACH, Tadarius Thomas and Adam Page are moves that are paying dividends for them and for fans in both the short and long-term. Heck, even long-time pre-show and undercard worker Mike Sydal has found his place with Zizou Middoux and their Party Boys tag team. Finally, focusing on the likes of Kevin Steen, Michael Elgin, Tomasso Ciampa and Adam Cole in the upper card and main event is working and shows that they are now recognizing who are some of the current top talents on the independent scene. Those roster choices are all coming together for them and it’s worked to regain my interest in seeing ROH shows with these wrestlers on the roster.

Honestly though, I wouldn’t be going to the August 17th, 2013 event if it wasn’t for my cousin, who wanted to hang out and see some wrestling shows over this summer. We went to the Dragon Gate USA show at the Highline Ballroom a few weeks ago and he enjoyed himself so much that he wanted to see another wrestling show. It just happened that he would be in town on the weekend of the ROH Manhattan Mayhem V show.

However, I am going to the Hammerstein Ballroom with a general admission ticket and an open mind. In the meantime, I am doing my best as always to live with the Ring of Honor that exists now, instead of the Ring of Honor that used to be. What happens after Manhattan Mayhem V and if I decide to continue going to live ROH shows after this one ultimately hasn’t been decided, but at this point is irrelevant compared to the importance of just being in the moment of enjoying the show.

Thanks for reading the column. I’ll see you all out there at the wrestling shows.

BROOKLYN!
–Ari–

You can leave a comment or tweet at Ari Berenstein at https://twitter.com/AriBerenstein

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