Yesterday afternoon Ring of Honor revealed their much anticipated announcement. What started out as a report from PWInsider, hyped and promoted by Court Bauer, turned into a discussion among ROH’s faithful of what it could be. Many felt that with the announcement being labeled as, “a major step forward for the company”, it would be related to television. National television perhaps? Maybe Spike TV finally realized they had wasted too many two-hour time slots on a Thursday night and needed it filled once TNA’s deal expires later this year?
Instead, what we got, was ROH’s return to the pay-per-view business, only this time it will be live. Starting with Best in the World 2014, from the Nashville State Fairgrounds, Nashville, Tennessee, ROH will come straight into your homes with stars such as ROH World Champion Adam Cole, “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin, “Mr. Wrestling” Kevin Steen, “Mr. ROH” Roderick Strong, Maria Kanellis, The Briscoes, redDRagon, Michael Bennett and of course who can forget, “The Icon” Matt Hardy. (Go on, boo your laptop or computer monitor, just make sure nobody is around, you’ll look weird.)
This announcement has received a generally positive response. Most fans understand that for a company like ROH this was the necessary step forward, and with Jeff Jarrett’s weather channel-esq logoed promotion Global Force Wrestling to start later this year and presumably take a similar direction, this is ROH taking yet another step in the right one, something they’re growing a rather satisfactory habit of doing this year.
Of course where there is optimism and satisfaction, there are those who must try to turn this into a negative; cause screw wrestling, right? Hell as long as I got my WWE Network and can watch Survivor Series 2002 over-and-over again I’m fine, don’t need nothing else, am I right?
Some responded by saying that the PPV model is dead. If you think the pay-per-view business is dead I’m pretty sure that Dana White and the gentlemen at HBO would love to sit down and chat about how their businesses highest grossing department is “failing” and “dying” solely because WWE seem to be more content giving away their PPV’s for $10.00 a month. Oh, but then why is the estimate for domestic PPV buys for WrestleMania XXX 400,000?
The pay-per-view business isn’t the future, but it is still a big part of the present. To say this deal is “eleven years too late” as I saw one surly poster put it, is quite idiotic if not ignorant. And the other negative response floating around is, “well they did this before and it didn’t work”, which we know is wrong. ROH taped PPV’s between 2007 and 2009, however some of these wouldn’t go to air until three months after they had been recorded, and when they did it chronologically made little sense to the viewer who kept up with the product.
This is live. Straight into your living room via television screen. You can order it in less then two minutes. You can sit back, relax and watch events unfold as they happen without the threat of the feed freezing or the stream buffering – although Court Bauer has said he takes no responsibility if lightning strikes the satellite dish, but surely ROH aren’t that unlucky.
The shows will also be simulcasts which means while you can watch via television screen from any of your PPV providers, you and more specifically international viewers such as yours truly can still tune in via uStream, on the condition that everything goes well next month with Global Wars and War of the Worlds. So whether it’s relaxing on your couch or chilling in your bedroom, ROH’s big shows are now available to you as they happen; its never been so accessible.
Moving from the viewer for a moment, this decision will also impact the company and its limitations. What PPV does is add a whole other aspect to the company. It raises its stature just that bit more so that prospective talent may be more willing to join knowing that their talents will be viewed by thousands on PPV. Who knows, maybe they’ll even pick up a pay-per-view cheque out of the deal, could be another incentive to join the company if an offer came their way. (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, I’m looking at you.)
And it applies just that little bit more pressure on the bosses to deliver for say, Best In The World, because it will be something that garners more then your casual viewer. A lot of people will tune in for Best In The World to see what ROH is about. Hell, a lot of people will be tuning in to Global Wars and War of the Worlds to see what the buzz around those shows are for, so to get those eyes on BITW in Nashville would be a plus.
It’s what I spoke about in my most recent post here on PWPonderings, momentum. ROH will be going from two big events to maybe an even bigger one now with the introduction of PPV to Best In The World. Momentum creates buzz, buzz grabs attention, attention peaks curiosity and curiosity makes viewers. And what does viewers make the company? Cash.
So don’t be surprised if a couple of top talents do get booked for these shows. Who knows, I’ve not seen anybody mention a Motor City Machine Guns reunion just yet, and with Alex Shelley back in the States and Chris Sabin now apparently free from his TNA contract, maybe MCMG could be sticking around Nashville a little longer, just not for a party in Dixieland. As aforementioned, would anybody frown at the sight of Bad Influence in ROH? Another duo who are reportedly close to the threshold of TNA. And lets face is, could you book a more sophisticated match then Bad Influence vs. redDRagon? Maybe if Jervis Cottonbelly is the special guest referee you could.
And through all this news, Court Bauer also revealed a couple tidbits on F4WOnline with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer earlier today that could see what many fans have asked for change. One being production values, Court says that people within the company have told him purchases have and are being made to boost the production of the shows. Better lighting, microphone placements, acoustics, all small things which if bolstered could make the overall product much better.
So if ROH is now in the pay-per-view business, what’s the next possible step? What’s the next goal to aim for?
To many, the next step forward is plain and simply, national television. On the face of it, sounds simple enough. But once you take some variables into context such as the fact ROH is owned by America’s largest television broadcast company, Sinclair Broadcasting Group. They bought ROH because they wanted a wrestling show on their channels, they knew a company like ROH wouldn’t be the most expensive project and that it would (hopefully) garner good ratings. If what Joe Koff says is anything to go by business is going swimmingly.
So what would their reason be for allowing ROH to leave their stations? Hopefully if the right offer came along, they’d do it for business, for the fans and for the company. A national TV deal would put ROH on a level playing field with the likes of WWE and TNA – maybe not so much WWE as they have developed into a multimedia empire with the launch of the Network – but certainly TNA. And if Jarrett’s promotion is to get the CMT deal many are speculating about, ROH would really need to keep up. Being third in-terms of size isn’t so bad, but being fourth would be a knock down the totem pole.
And another aspect of the business that needs changing is the online content. As someone who studies journalism you do not know how many times I am told, “without content, you might as well be a ghost”, or something along those lines each and every week. As much as I hate it, it’s true. Without content you’re not even there. ROH’s ringside membership should have much more content then it does. I’d love to see the numbers of who subscribes for the membership compared to those who don’t but are signed-up to the website. It’d be interesting.
Why not offer more old events? A discount on the iPPV’s? There is so much potential in the ringside membership package and they don’t seem to be able to grasp exactly how to hit the nail on the head. The entire website could do with an overhaul while we’re at it. Only today a promo of Adam Cole’s was posted with “your” being used where it should have said “you’re” in the title of the video – is Patrick Edwards still employed? I’d do it for a few bucks and a reference for jobs to tell you the truth, and a much better job on top of that.
Time will tell if ROH will continue taking the necessary steps forward to make its footprint in the annals of mainstream wrestling. Its influence may be seen at the top of the WWE in the likes of Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins and Cesaro, but guys like Kevin Steen, Adam Cole, Michael Elgin and The Briscoes should be given the opportunity to carve their own mark in wrestling history without the need of a WWE contract.
This PPV deal is another step towards that, so lets just hope that on June 22, Nashville, Tennessee, ROH does its best to live up to the moniker “Best In The World”.