Ring Of Honor is learning a hard lesson that anyone with even a smidgen of wrestling knowledge saw coming quite some time ago: If youâre not on TV, you donât count.
ROH, like ECW and Smoky Mountain before it, was the niche promotion du jour. But now du jour is over. Witness the removal of Gabe Sapolsky, yesterdayâs genius, as head booker and the appointment of indie nobody Adam Pearce in his place. Pearce was chosen over Bushwhacker Luke, so his credentials are impeccable, needless to say. ROH is now going to adopt â~70s-style wrestling, whatever that means.
Sapolsky wouldnât have been canned if ROH was succeeding, so letâs watch ROH continue its decline while we prepare for the NEXT BIG THING, and then can we watch it fall apart, too.
Itâs a one-promotion nation, gang. TNA exists only because Dixie Carter is the proverbial money mark, not because itâs self-sufficient. Rick Rubin grew tired of underwriting Smoky Mountain; the same thing will happen with Carter and TNA. Either that, or sheâll move in with one of the boys.
Donât you ROH marks feel stupid now? You so enthusiastically stamped your Siskel & Ebert Tasterâs Choice Internet geek seal of approval on ROH only to see it become passé, then collapse.
Like every other promotion that appealed to dirt-sheet readers and on-line goons, ROH saw its credibility erode when WWE siphoned off its top talent, then saw its credibility erode further when said talent became jobbers in the big time (see London, Paul and Cabana, Colt). Vince McMahon knows how to tighten that noose, and he has fun doing it. Itâs a deadly combination.
A promotion like ROH will never be able to keep top talent. A promotion like ROH needs to find quality performers on the fringes of the wrestling business way more often than possible. Eventually, the well runs dry and the promotion starts coughing and gasping. You canât replenish indefinitely.
By the way, ROH fans â” if âAmerican Dragonâ Bryan Danielson is the best worker in the world, how the heck could something like this happen?
That purpose of this column isnât to gloat in âI told you soâ fashion. Well, not the ONLY purpose, anyway. Itâs also to point out how hard it is to build and maintain a pro wrestling company in America in this day and age. Guys like Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman â” guys with FAR more experience and knowledge than Sapolsky â” got their respective companies to a certain level of achievement, then stalled
You can only succeed so long as the little promotion that could. You can draw some big crowds as the little promotion that could. You can build a cult following as the little promotion that could.
But after you do all that, you have to turn the corner and become big-league or you fade away. It happened to Smoky Mountain, it happened to the original ECW, and now itâs happening to ROH.
Companies like this come with an expiration date. ROH was no exception. Itâs going to get worse before it gets any better. Except it wonât get any better. When you get right down to it, ROH was never anything more than just another slice of indie wrestling.
Itâs not a matter of changing styles, or importing top-flight Japanese workers, or relying more on storylines than 5-star matches, or even getting TV. The fact is, you just canât do what ROH is trying to do. In fact, give ROH credit, because theyâve given it a better run than most. But in the long run, it wonât be remembered any more than Hulk Hoganâs Celebrity Championship Wrestling, dude.
Thatâs because Hogan has TV.
ROHâs biggest legacy may be Matt Sydal, who has been amazing since arriving in WWE. WWE changed Sydalâs name to Evan Bourne. That way, nobody will remember who he used to be.
