In a way, they made the opposite journey from WWE. They started with indy prodigies (CM Punk, Bryan, AJ, Samoa Joe) and they ended up with cookie cutter dull-ass 00's "name".

Cody Rhodes as RoH Champion is just absolutely rock bottom for the company.

 

 

I get Cody's not the most exciting guy in the world, but....really?

Yes. They're wasting their most popular guy in six mans while they're letting Cody cosplay as a workrate guy.

Obviously you didn't watch the Jerry Lynn as champion period of Ring of Honor. That was rock bottom

So I suppose Cody vs Okada next month will be the rock bottom point for NJPW then he said sarcastically.

Cody vs Okada is one week from now, not in a month

Okada gonna go to tha pay window baby.

According to Dave, the match was made because Gedo thinks a world champ vs world champ main event would be huge for the first US based show.

 

Seems odd they'd consider the ROH champ to be on that level since it doesn't seem that the ROH guys get much of a reaction on NJ shows I've watched other than maybe War Machine.

Obviously you didn't watch the Jerry Lynn as champion period of Ring of Honor. That was rock bottom

 

His reign was slightly better than the Tyler Black run IMO.

Yes. They're wasting their most popular guy in six mans while they're letting Cody cosplay as a workrate guy.

 

If you mean Bully Ray, he's absolutely awful now and has been for a while. Cody doesn't particularly excite me either, but given the choice between him and the stale Bully Ray, I'd pick Cody every time.

Dalton Castle and the Boys won the six mans on the show.

So... they think people want to pay probably $35 for Christopher Daniels vs. Cody Rhodes?

 

Okay...

They're probably thinking Danielson vs Rhodes once Bryan is out of his contract this fall.

I hope they aren't that shitty of a company to let him wrestle.

I hope they aren't that shitty of a company to let him wrestle.

Judging by Bryan's tweets, you never know.

I think Bryan still has well over a year left on his contract

Yeah Bryan said in the tweet something like if you can beat the record for the longest reigning title run then he would be glad to take the title from him. Assuming that ROH will still be New Japan's bitch in the middle of 2018, we know that Bryan wants to work in New Japan so him working in New Japan means he will be working for Ring of Honor.

 

Given how Ring of Honor is right now, the only people I can see beating Cody for the title is a Bullet Club guy who turns babyface, Adam Cole if he doesn't end up going to the WWE (which is stupid for him), or a New Japan regular

Cody as ROH champ will be fine. He's not going to have match of the year contenders in the main event or anything, but when was the last time an ROH champion did? He'll be a good working main event heel world champion, and he might get a few new eyeballs on the product. Cody has actually been a fairly decent draw across the indies and has been part of some truly impressive independent wrestling houses, so unless ROH's promotions department is TNA level bad, I think he'll be a pretty good house show draw for the company. He's not the most exciting choice, but he might honestly be their best choice.

 

And for me, rock bottom for ROH will always be the era where Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards traded the ROH title. Those dudes suck, and I'm glad they're wrestling midcard for a company that has never been less relevant. That era of ROH pretty much drove me away from supporting the company, after I had gone to almost all of the Philly/NY/NJ area ROH shows for years.

Cody as ROH champ will be fine. He's not going to have match of the year contenders in the main event or anything, but when was the last time an ROH champion did? He'll be a good working main event heel world champion, and he might get a few new eyeballs on the product. Cody has actually been a fairly decent draw across the indies and has been part of some truly impressive independent wrestling houses, so unless ROH's promotions department is TNA level bad, I think he'll be a pretty good house show draw for the company. He's not the most exciting choice, but he might honestly be their best choice.

 

 

Also, they were going nowhere with Daniels on top - that story was done when he won the belt. In a company that struggles to create real heels, Cody has fairly decent heat, so they can get mileage out of babyfaces challenging him for at least six months I'd wager.

Well given the crowd reaction when Cody won the title, he is doing a terrible job at getting heat. Although the company has booked the Bullet Club as the coolest heels in the business so hard to blame him for not getting any heat

The Bullet Club is the worst in RoH. I went to a show last year and they're supposed to be heels but then pander to the crowd. It really fucked up the whole dynamic of the promotion.

I don't watch ROH so no clue how the Bullet Club have affected things there, but considering they are an NWO tribute act, being cool heels is kinda the whole point, no?

Yeah but think about having your whole promotion built a really watered down version of an nWo tribute group.

ROH used to be the benchmark promotion whose main eventers basically dictated the US indy scene. Starting around 2009 though they fell behind the curve REALLY bad while companies like PWG were more than willing to pull the triggers they were waiting on.

 

Now, it feels almost like ROH is playing a poor game of catch up especially with this Cody title reign. Just sad really.

I never compare the RF and Silken ROH years to the SBGI era . There are 2 totally different companies. Pre- SBGI ROH was the major indy . ROH was the Noah's Ark of indy wrestling. They assembled all of the top indies workers into a Super indy and provide one classic match after another for wrestling fans..

 

SBGI is a publicly trade broadcasting company. ROH 's main focus is producing a weekly TV show that feeds into quarterly PPV 's . Tours of with NJPW and now the UK shows are used to generate additional revenue. . A smaller roster of talent is used to control labor costs. . Sinclair will pay the top guys and signed them to contracts. After that Joe Koff considers every else replaceable.

 

The SBGI charges for seminars to break into in the company . Unless , Koff and company thinks you can draw money like Cody or Marty you have to pay to play. . Yet another ROH revenue steam . .SBGI is all about getting the max return with the minimum risk .They are all about increasing the bottom line.

 

. Sinclair has a culture of austerity . They throw nickels around like man holes covers . Which is the main reason SBGI is so profitable and is able to put together deals like buying out the Tribune Company for $ 3.9 billion . However the SBGI fear of risk also holds them back from growing ROH into a major wrestling company..

 

I really loved the old ROH but in reality it died around 2009. However , I am good with the SBGI ROH . I get a free 1 hour wrestling with a good to great talent roster , good PPV 's , NJPW talent , CMLL talent , and now UK talent. Also the wrestlers get a good place to work , TV and PPV exposure , a shot a NJPW work and they get paid. Wrestlers getting paid on time and their promised wage is huge.. The SBGI ROH is different than the old ROH , however I have learn to appreciate the product for what it is , not what it used to be.

Wasn't ROH always charging people to break in though? SBGI may be more blatant but it seemed like they wanted you to go through their training schools unless you were an established indy guy before.