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I've been away for a couple of weeks due to some personal commitments, but I'm back with another 100% Mamajuana-free edition of The pROHfile.
Since it's the first thing on people's mind these days where ROH is concerned, let me start off by addressing the cutbacks ROH is going to be making. The obvious first place where these cutbacks will be seen is in the number of talents booked on ROH shows going forward. While ROH has a very talented roster, they're at a point now where they have enough names that can draw a crowd that every top name doesn't need to be booked on every show. One thing I think I should point out is that ROH is a strong enough brand within its audience that just coming to town is enough to draw a decent size crowd, so when you have a main event and upper midcard consisting of Nigel McGuinness, Bryan Danielson, Austin Aries, Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, Delirious, and the Briscoes, it's certainly possible to book a card with a strong top three matches consisting of some combination of these guys without needing them all, while using the rest of the crew (who probably work cheaper) to fill out a solid undercard.
Other things being taken into consideration are high-priced outside talent. Joey Matthews has been brought in, but my expectation is that he will be used sparingly. Those ex-WWE guys command a higher paycheck than Eddie Edwards, you know? Cutting Daniel Puder was a smart move in my books, not because of any of the anti-Puder sentiment that he got from the fans (although I would argue that said sentiment would be exactly the reason you would want to bring him in), but because his price tag was also most likely at the higher end, and I still have my doubts as to how compelling a Daniel Puder match would have been even with somebody carrying him. It might also be time to cut back on the number of appearances being made by the Japanese guys. I am under the impression that ROH is responsible for covering travel expenses for a lot of the guys, and I would expect that the Japanese workers would most certainly be included in this. With Go Shiozaki said to be coming in as a semi-regular and the Dragon Gate crew already booked for their traditional Wrestlemania-weekend appearance, it might be time to scale back big time on the number of appearances Naomichi Marufuji and Takeshi Morishima make. They're both already way over with the fans, and it would make it more special if they weren't in so frequently.
So that covers the talent, but where else could ROH save some money? Well, for starters I would give up the PPV experiment. While the PPVs were never intended to be money drawers in and of themselves, the idea was that they would draw in people who found them while flipping channels and draw them into becoming regular paying customers who buy DVDs and attend shows. Unfortunately, while the PPVs have been some of the best ever produced by anyone ever, they haven't had any real effect on DVD or merch sales. If anything, they're an inconvenience to the regular ROH diehards who buy all the DVDs (which is a lot of fans) and like watching them in sequence. The PPVs shows, while smartly booked in such a way that they're somewhat disconnected from the regular shows storyline-wise, are still gaps in the regular progression of the storylines, and so you have a lot of ROH fans who buy the PPVs to see them first chance they get, then go back and buy the DVD when it becomes available to get their hands on the show and the bonus disc. Including a bonus disc with the PPVs to make them worth buying to people who already bought the PPV is a good way to make money, but also comes off a little bit as ROH milking the diehards, who I wouldn't be surprised to find out make up a very large percentage of the ROH PPV audience.
However solid the idea of trying to expose their product to a new audience is, ROH has to be careful to do it in a way that won't make them go broke. Fortunately Cary Silkin, the wise businessman he obviously is, and Gabe Sapolsky, a firsthand witness to the collapse of ECW, know well enough not to try and extend ROH beyond its financial means, but I would go beyond the talent cutbacks and killing the PPV experiment and instead start looking at their attempts to expand into new markets. In 2006 and 2007, ROH began pulling out of domestic markets such as Cleveland and Minnesota that weren't taking off as well as they had hoped, and instead directed their energy (and money) into breaking into new markets overseas. I'm not sure what the costs involved there were, but I would imagine that it would cost them a little more to run in Japan than it does in Chicago Ridge. Therefore, I would think it might be a good idea for them to instead stay in North America and try and expand their live business here. The trip out west late last year didn't pan out financially or attendance-wise as well as they had probably hoped, but a lot of that was not their fault, and I definitely think there's an audience to be had out there, so maybe it would make sense for them to run two or three weekends in California instead of Japan and the United Kingdom.
While I hardly think that ROH is anywhere near the breaking point, I am comforted by the fact that management saw the money situation and decided to try and get it under control before it got out of control. While the comparisons will always be there, I think one thing there can be no doubt of is that ROH is run a lot more responsibly and realistically, financially speaking, than ECW ever was. Continued growth of business is always a good thing, but at what point do you say the business is getting too big for its own good?
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The next thing I'd like to touch on is the facial injuries Jack Evans suffered in Japan. The injury (apparently a broken cheekbone) required that Evans have four steel plates put in his face, and word is he'll be out of action until at least April, and that's apparently if you're being optimistic. Evans posted pictures of himself, pre and post-surgery on his MySpace, and they're sobering pictures to say the least. The fact that he was even thinking of wrestling in ROH the following weekend (which ROH officials thankfully shot down) boggles my mind, and really speaks as to the kinds of warriors a lot of indy wrestlers are.
However, how smart are they being? In recent months, Bryan Danielson, Jay Briscoe, and Jack Evans have all wanted to wrestle with serious or potentially serious injures, and while I understand the wrestler mentality that says that if you're able to walk, you're able to wrestle, however limited the match may be, but a lot of these guys are putting themselves in dangerous situations they don't need to be in. For starters, all three of these guys are among the most popular guys ever to come through ROH, and really don't need to put their body on the line to the degree they would if allowed. Unfortunately, I think that the recent backlash against Nigel McGuinness for backing out of matches due to injury may have other wrestlers worried that the fans will turn on them the same way, and I think it's sad that I might not be wrong about that.
In Jack's case in particular, I've been worrying about this guy for a long time. While there is no doubt that he in incredibly talented and has amazing matches, and as bad as I feel saying this, I've felt like it was just a matter of time until something like this happened to him. I've seen him take some bumps that were very close to ending very badly for him, and every time I see him go up top, I can't help but cringe, especially if he's going to the outside. Also, he doesn't always get the kind of rotation on some of the flip moves he does as he would probably like, and a lot of times he's come very close to landing right on top of his head. I vividly recall a match he had in New York City a couple of years ago against Ricky Reyes where he went for a springboard double backflip to the floor, but didn't get the rotation all the way and looked from my vantage point to have landed on his head on the floor, and I thought we had just witnessed what would turn out to be a really bad scene. Luckily it turns out I was wrong, but he keeps wrestling that dangerous style, and this broken cheekbone isn't his first serious injury, and I'm really worried that his style is going to have him out of the business and in a really bad way by the time he's 30.
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On a lighter subject, I'd like to finish up by giving my thoughts on some of the on-screen happenings in ROH.
Nigel McGuinness made his return to action in ROH's swing through the Midwest a couple of weeks ago, beating Chris Hero (who for the third year in a row, got the first World Title shot of the year on an ROH show) in a steel cage, then going on to beat Roderick Strong the following night in Chicago. Up next for Nigel is Brent Albright on 2/22 in Deer Park, NY and then a much-hyped ROH World Title defense against Bryan Danielson the following night in Manhattan. The storyline here is that Danielson and McGuinness were allowed to pick one another's opponents the night before their title match in New York City, and Danielson picked Albright while Nigel picked Rocky Romero to face Danielson. I'm pretty sure both men are going to get through their opponents on Friday night, but it'll be interesting to see what kinds of reactions Nigel gets both nights. While very close geographically, I've been to enough shows in both Long Island and New York City to know that they draw very different crowds. I'm going to be interested to see if a strong performance (and likely also a win) against Bryan Danielson will be enough to win over some of the anti-Nigel fans in New York City.
Also, I was surprised to see Age Of The Fall drop the ROH World Tag Team Title so quickly. Richards and Romero getting the title was also a little out of nowhere, as even though they’ve been given a strong run over the last year or so, they haven’t been positioned as tag team contenders. But now having dropped the title, I expect AOTF will use that as more fuel in the “we’re being screwed by the system†angle. Also, they’re now trying to recruit Austin Aries to their side, with the idea being that Aries, who has been frustrated with his recent string of losses, is also becoming disenchanted with the ROH system, refusing to shake hands with his opponents after each loss. I don’t see Aries joining AOTF, if for no other reason than he’s a bonafide main eventer, and I can’t picture him standing around silently behind Jimmy Jacobs during promos. I do think that it would make for great matches if he were to feud with them. Also, if I’m correct and Bryan Danielson’s run at the ROH Title ends after New York, Danielson could join Aries in a feud against AOTF and elevate them all, and maybe even move on to a program with Richards and Romero for the tag team title. This has the possibility of making a great three way feud if they decide to go in that direction.
Well, that’s all from me for now. All comments, questions, and thoughts can be sent to stuwrestling@hotmail.com. Thanks for reading, and see you soon.
