Ring of Honor in 2020 (and beyond?): 18 Years Old and Barely Stable!

[King Kamala]

Seems like time for a new thread with the first PPV of the Marty Scurll era coming up.

ROH celebrate its 18th Birthday this weekend with back to back nights of shows in Las Vegas. On Friday night, its their 18th Anniversary PPV featuring Rush defending the ROH World Title against Mark Haskins, Dragon Lee defending the ROH Television Title against Bandido, and Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham defending the ROH Tag Team Titles against Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll and Flip Gordon).

On Saturday Night, it's the much hyped Past Vs Present show where current ROH stars do battle with the great ROH stars of the '00s and early '10s.

Next month, ROH will have a two night tournament for the newly revived ROH Pure Title at their shows in Columbus and Pittsburgh.

Participants announced so far, include a few interesting names;
Doug Williams
Jonathan Gresham
Alex Shelley
Rocky Romero
Mark Haskins
Slex
Tracy Williams
Marty Scurll
Fred Yehi
Yuji Nagata
Joe Hendry
Dalton Castle
Ren Narita
Josh Woods
Tony Deppen

New Japan Dad Yuji Nagata is totally going to win the ROH Pure Title.

Indy superstar Tony Deppen doing dates for ROH is super interesting. He's strongly emphasizing on his Twitter that he is NOT signing a contract with them lol. I think he could be an asset to any company but ROH seems like a weird ass fit and while he's a pretty solid worker, this tournament seems like an especially odd fit for him.

 

[Baby Shoes]

I think it is an easy conclusion that Rush retains but I did feel like they put together a nice little vignette for Haskins going into this match that was aired last week.

 

[King Kamala]

KENTA and Ishii are first names announced for ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds tour.

Seems like ROH-NJPW relationship might almost be back to normal?

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

ROH has cancelled their 18th Anniversary show as well as Past vs Present.

 

[Baby Shoes]

My DVR usually records ROH twice every week due to the channel airing it putting all showings as “first run”. This week it has been recorded four times. Likely airing more due to Coronavirus canceling everything else but I like to think they wanted to make sure people saw this episode with Blue Meanie.

 

[King Kamala]

I'm like four episodes behind on ROH TV so maybe this is God's way of telling me I should spend more time watching Brisco Brothers matches.

https://twitter.com/mikeVSphilly/status/1239279621780262918

 

[King Kamala]

ROH is canceling all of their shows until June.

 

[King Kamala]

signature Kamala in ROH thread triple post.

https://twitter.com/rohcary/status/1247152656226955265?

Can you believe this was ONLY one year ago? Sooooooo much has happened in the last 365 days. Just in ROH alone but with *waves arms* all of this bullshit too.

https://youtu.be/tnjcUTJpJqc
ROH actually uploaded the full show to YouTube this weekend if anyone needs a NJPW fix.

 

[BUTT]

Really disappointed nobody made the obvious Feinstein joke ITT

 

[909]

The PCO powerbomb spot is one of the greatest moments in wrestling history.

 

[King Kamala]

Really disappointed nobody made the obvious Feinstein joke ITT

I felt like I was throwing a floater down the middle of the plate with that thread title too.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/BulletClubIta/status/1251185534208225283
Wow. ROH has wrestling industry face turn of 2020? They're paying everybody. Not just contracted talent but also guys they were bringing in for guest shots, camera guys, ring crew, what they would have been paid for their shows in April and May.

Sinclair is horrible and has a lot more money than WWE but I will give props to bad people when they do good things. It seems like ROH has really gone above and beyond for their talent during this crisis. Especially compared to WWE and AEW.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

I'm not sure about April, but I know Impact did the same for March.

Good on both of them, but yeah, really good on ROH for going above everyone else.

 

[Baby Shoes]

I think I posted in the old ROH thread last time but I do appreciate ROH using this time to focus each episode on a talent. Curious who picks the profile because I was surprised Flip was the choice this week after profiling Briscoes, Lethal and Taven.

Great time for a new or lapsed fan to get to know the talent

 

[King Kamala]

I agree that it's interesting that Flip Gordon gets one of the first Best Of specials.

He's a guy that I think casual/non fans of ROH see as a bigger star than he actually is in ROH. He's been midcard at best for most of his run.

 

[King Kamala]

ROH canceled all of their June events including their Best in the World PPV. Continuing their bizarre streak of actually being the most moral North American promotion.

Granted ROH's parent company has deeper pockets even than WWE and they can afford to do the right thing but still good on them. When Impact Wrestling started doing empty arena shows a few weeks back, I was concerned ROH would think "Fuck. Now we're the only ones not running" and follow suit.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Trying to figure out if the bigger surprise this week was a Mark Hastings episode or that the best way they figure to advertise Honor Club is a spot starring Matt Taven stealing jokes from Super Troopers

 

[Baby Shoes]

Had been waiting for the Marty episode, as I am sure he waited since he is probably the one picking who gets featured.

I was not expecting his to be the All In Okada match, a segment of him building an egg chair and a Bandido match.

Can’t wait to see what household chores are featured in the Shane Taylor episode. Hopefully laundry.

 

[Baby Shoes]

https://youtu.be/43ZnW4KiDao

 

[Baby Shoes]

https://twitter.com/ringofhonor/status/1264969354095087617

Makes sense for a guy like Flip tbh as this is the largest company that gives him a chance to be a top guy. The Big Two, or even Impact, he’s probably be lost in the shuffle but he can be a main event level guy for ROH.

 

[geniusMoment]

Marty actually appeared on BTE this week. I don't see why AEW would do any type of deal with ROH, especially with the released WWE talent now out there, but I guess something could be worked out.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/fayejackson419/status/1269354335638560771

 

[Baby Shoes]

Since Marty’s rise to power it seems like ROH is doing better if treating people. Tasha’s complaint is very valid and seemed like it fit the narrative of the company this time last year but in recent months it seems like ROH is trying to treat the talent like human beings.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

https://twitter.com/fayejackson419/status/1269354335638560771

Lady Frost said that she spoke with Faye before working for ROH, and she wishes she would have listened to her. Faye said that she doesn't discourage anyone from taking a chance there, but her time there was not good at all.

 

[King Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1279215630244122624

 

[Baby Shoes]

It sounds like Bully Ray’s contact ended and ROH has no plans to be offering new contracts to anyone at the moment

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

It sounds like Bully Ray’s contact ended and ROH has no plans to be offering new contracts to anyone at the moment

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1279117403880935424

 

[Baby Shoes]

I knew ROH was stepping up and paying people better. So maybe what I read was Bully’s spin on not bringing him back.

 

[King Kamala]

Recommend catching ROH this weekend. It is a Hana Kimura tribute show. Never realizer she did so much with them.

(also how is ROH’s TV cycle two months behind!? They were never that behind before the pandemic)

 

[Epic Springs]

Mike Bennett and Maria appeared on the ROH podcast. Does this mean they're returning? Also, Brody King quit Villain Enterprises in a taped promo on ROH's YouTube page. I expect VE to be going away while they continue to "investigate" Marty Scurll.