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Probably the biggest news coming out of Dragon Gate USA recently concerns their newly-announced PPV deal with G-Funk. If that name sounds familiar, it ought to: up until recently, they were the company ROH partnered with to distribute their bi-monthly PPVs, a relationship which was officially announced as dissolved mere days before Dragon Gate announced their own relationship with G-Funk. Contrary to the coincidental timing of these two moves, this isn't a case where Dragon Gate stole ROH's PPV deal from under their nose, because as Mike Johnson reported, it would be impossible for such a deal to come together in just a few days. This was something that had been in the works for some time and G-Funk's original idea was that Dragon Gate PPVs would air on the months ROH PPVs weren't. However, with ROH deciding to get out of the PPV market for the time being, it looks like Dragon Gate has an exclusive with G-Funk as far as professional wrestling goes.
Similar to what ROH had been doing, Dragon Gate USA will be running taped PPV events rather than going live, and these shows will be taped at live Dragon Gate USA events. In other words, every Dragon Gate USA show going forward will be a PPV taping, starting with their debut event on July 25th in Philadelphia, which has been titled Enter The Dragon. I don't know this for sure, but I would guess that Dragon Gate USA's plan will be to air the PPVs for a month or so, then release them on DVD afterward like ROH had been doing, perhaps with some bonus features thrown in.
I find Dragon Gate USA's move to PPV to be very interesting because Gabe Sapolsky was dead set against doing PPV when ROH made the move back in 2007, but it was one of the first moves he made at the helm of Dragon Gate USA. Maybe having spent some time seeing how the taped PPV model worked in ROH changed Gabe's thoughts on the matter, but going to PPV just pretty much solidified Dragon Gate USA's position in independent wrestling in North America. They haven't even held their first event yet, but they've basically walked in and become the #2 indy promotion in the country just based on PPV and the people involved. With the excitement surrounding the formation of Dragon Gate USA, combined with ROH alienating part of their fanbase with some of their recent moves, we may be looking at the beginnings of a situation where DGUSA surpasses ROH as the top indy in North America within the next year or so. They haven't come out and said as much, but Sapolsky and DGUSA are two very driven entities which also have personal reasons for wanting to leave ROH in the dust.
As it is, they've already grabbed two of ROH's top stars by booking Bryan Danielson and Davey Richards for the second show on 9/6 in Chicago. From the wrestlers' perspective, I can see why both men would do the show. It's a booking for one, and Danielson at least isn't under any kind of contract right now which would prevent him from working the show. I'm surprised that Davey's contract would allow for him to work Dragon Gate USA, especially since DGUSA is a direct competitor more than any other wrestling company right now. This to me is a total political move on Dragon Gate USA's part because even though both men will certainly have great matches, this sends a message that DGUSA is not shy about bringing in ROH talent and using them in a way that will make DGUSA seem like a superior company. We're not talking about a couple of midcarders or curtain jerkers, we're talking about two bonafide ROH main eventers, and if they come in and a)are used better than they are in ROH, or b)come in and put over the Dragon Gate regulars, or both, it has the potential to make ROH look bad. To me, this just goes to show why ROH is hesitant to put Danielson back into a featured spot, because what's to say that if they gave him the ROH World Title, Gabe wouldn't try to bring him to Dragon Gate USA and job him out? I think this vindicates ROH in the way they've booked Danielson recently.
Beyond Danielson and Richards, Dragon Gate USA has also announced CIMA, Genki Horiguchi, Masato Yoshino, Dragon Kid, SHINGO, and Naruki Doi as appearing at their Chicago event. Now here's where things get interesting: DGUSA is going to let the fans book the card for the show, either by going to the Dragon Gate USA website or their Myspace page and letting their voice be heard. I think this is a great idea, because letting the fans get involved is the kind of thing that will get the fans excited and interested in the product. Plus, it's perfect for the internet crowd because we're talking about a bunch of people who like to complain and think they can do things better. Well, here's their chance to get involved and help shape Dragon Gate USA's second event.
As if all that wasn't enough hype for the Chicago event in September, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross will be at the event doing an autograph signing. This tells me that DGUSA is not just trying to lure in the ROH crowd, but also try and get WWE fans to come to the show for the signing and hook them with the action. Gabe's been making all the right moves to get people interested in his product, and I think it's great that he's going beyond the ROH audience and trying to draw in fans from everywhere he can. It's a great promotional move, and since they had to be in town for TV anyway, it makes perfect sense to bring them in.
Looking even further ahead, Dragon Gate USA has already announced their third event, as they will be returning to the ECW Arena in Philadelphia on 11/28. By that time, they'll already have two events as well as one PPV in the books, so we'll have a better idea at that time of what kind of competition DGUSA will really be to Ring Of Honor. If Dragon Gate USA performs strongly enough they could end up grabbing a large chunk of the at least partially disenchanted ROH audience, and by the time 2010 starts, ROH could be in some real trouble. The thing I see when I look at Dragon Gate USA is that it's going to start out a lot like the earliest ROH shows with fast paced, hard hitting action, and the only problem I see is that I don't know how well these guys can speak English, so there may be some roadblocks to them connecting with the crowd as characters. Then again, the focus of those early ROH shows was 95% on the action anyway, so the comparison still holds. There is a segment of the ROH fanbase that doesn't like the way the company has slowed down the in-ring action, and I think for those fans, Dragon Gate USA is shaping up to be something a little more up their alley and will be something they'll want to keep an eye on.
Speaking of indy companies that aren't ROH, I'd like to take a look at ROH's two sister promotions, FIP and SHIMMER. Since 2004 in FIP's case, and 2005 in SHIMMER's, ROH has had productive working relationships with both companies, and both have been great sources of talent for ROH, while FIP and SHIMMER have benefited from the exposure they have gotten from being featured on ROH shows and from DVD sales on ROH's website.
However, things have changed a bit for FIP over the last couple of years. FIP's owner had a family situation in late 2007 which resulted in the company going on hiatus for several months, and when they returned to action they announced that they would now be running one show per month instead of two. They framed this as a decision to make it easier for the fans to keep up on the product since they would only have one DVD per month to buy instead of two, but anyone who knows anything about business knows that you don't start producing less unless people aren't buying what you're currently producing. FIP's presence in ROH became even more diminshed after Gabe Sapolsky resigned as FIP booker in the wake of being let go by ROH. The FIP Title is rarely referred to these days, and even though FIP's owner is still producing ROH's DVD, the production of FIP DVDs stopped with their October 2008 event, and anything after that event has yet to be produced. Obviously the relationship is still there, but it's pretty evident that it's not as strong as it once was.
On the other hand, SHIMMER has actually increased its exposure in ROH in recent months, and has more or less taken FIP's position as the featured sister promotion. SHIMMER matches are far more frequest these days, taking place on almost every TV taping and at many regular ROH events. I like that SHIMMER is getting more exposure in ROH because it's a truly different product, where FIP often came off as ROH Lite, and I think if it weren't for the Gabe Connection, it probably would have never grown as big as it did. Also, by asking fans to buy FIP DVDs in addition to ROH DVDs, I think they may be diluting the sales of both product lines, while SHIMMER runs a much lighter schedule of DVD releases than FIP had been and is therefore a little more affordable for discerning fans. Things are down all around, and in this economy, it makes sense to feature the product lines that people can afford to keep up on.
Speaking of things being down, ROH will be running what looks to be a really light schedule over the next few months. As of right now, they're set for one weekend in July, one weekend in August, two in September, and one in October, whereas they've run twice as many shows during this timeframe in years past. This definitely gives you the feeling that business has gotten slow enough that they need to tighten things up, but that said, I'm not ready to write ROH's epitaph. Even though it's generally a bad sign for business if a company starts running less shows, I think it's at least somewhat reassuring that they have the good sense to not run more shows than their business can support and get themselves into worse trouble.
If there's one thing I feel comfortable saying about Cary Silkin, it's that he's shown himself to be a responsible businessman in the past. He's always had a good head for not doing things that will lose the company money, whether it's pulling out of markets that weren't working out for them like Buffalo, Long Island, Connecticut, and Cleveland, deciding to put an end to the Straight Shootin' series, or cutting back on the number of talents being booked on each show. I'm comfortable with his ability to manage the business in a way that will allow for its long term survival because he's not a guy who's going to run beyond his means and drive his business into the ground like we've seen so many people do in the past. If ROH's continued survival means running less shows per year, that's fine with me. This might also be a better way to keep fans who can't afford to buy forty-something DVDs per year and will drift away from the product as a result.
I kind of look at Ring Of Honor lately the same way as I look at the last year or so at my regular job. Some people got let go, we don't get bagels for breakfast every Monday morning anymore, they redefined what constitutes overtime they'd have to pay us for, and upper management is doing a lot more videoconferencing than traveling. On the other hand, even though things weren't as good as they used to be, the company is still afloat and I still have a job. Similarly, ROH's business has been down and they've had to make some cutbacks just like everybody else, but the good news is that even though they're not running as many shows or booking as many wrestlers, ROH is still alive, and at the end of the day, that's good for a lot of people. It's good for the wrestlers who have a place to work, even if it's not the money they would get in WWE or TNA. It's good for FIP and SHIMMER, whose survival is in large part dependent on the survival of ROH. And of course, it's also really good for the fans who love ROH and will stick with them through anything, and would probably stop watching wrestling altogether if it went under, just like that same segment of fans existed for ECW.
And with that, I'm done for today. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back later this week with more ROH goodness right here on PWInsiderXtra.com. Take care, and see you then!
Stu Carapola can be reached at stupwinsider@yahoo.com.
