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They thing to understand from ROH's perspective is that, while names like Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles, and Homicide are all tremendously over with the ROH crowd and would undoubtedly draw well for the promotion, by using TNA names on a regular basis, they would come off as a minor league to TNA, which is not something ROH wants if it’s trying to sell its brand name to potential PPV and TV outlets or create any other potential business relationships. Beyond that, creatively speaking, there were really no stories left to tell with these guys. They had all worked with one another and guys like Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness enough that by continuing to book these guys would just be rehashing what had already been done, and by letting them go, they’re able to bring up some new talent and, in the event that any of the TNA guys return, they’ll have fresh people to work with.
Another thing to understand is that Gabe Sapolsky recognizes that ROH is a promotion that people will pass through, build a name, and then move on, and he's realistic enough not to expect any of his talents to stay and make a career in ROH when they have better deals coming in from elsewhere, and that even if it takes some time to do so, it would be better business to build new stars to carry the company and let the old guard move on with minimal disruption of the creative flow of the promotion. If nothing else, they’ll save some money by booking the TNA guys, who are most likely going to cost more than younger guys looking to work their way up to a TNA or WWE deal.
That said, while I can understand TNA's position on what conditions it will allow its contracted talents to appear under, there is something to be said about TNA's practices in regards to, coincidentally or not, running directly against ROH so frequently. As people who have been following the situation know, TNA has already run direct opposition to ROH in Dayton and Long Island in recent weeks, and I believe are slated to do so again in Boston sometime down the line. I will play devil's advocate and assume that TNA isn't doing this in a deliberate attempt to hurt ROH's business, but I will echo more of what Mike Johnson was saying, which is that even if TNA considers itself to be on a different level than ROH, running opposite them is going to hurt both sides because the fanbase who might go to one or the other if either was unopposed would now be split between the two shows. If they are in fact doing it deliberately, then it’s a bad move forcing the fans to choose, because the fans will not be happy and will start pointing fingers, and ROH's largely internet-based fans will probably point the finger at TNA. A sizeable chunk of the ROH audience loudly grumbled when they found out about the Dayton and Long Island situations, and assumed that TNA was doing it deliberately to try and squash ROH. If TNA is doing it on purpose, then there is a chance that they might not be as successful as they would expect because there's some markets where ROH has a heavy, loyal following that won't bail out just to go to the TV product.
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Then again, to once more play devil's advocate, TNA might not do so badly running head-to-head against ROH because TNA has several former ROH main eventers on its roster, guys ROH fans have missed watching live for some time now. Meanwhile, ROH can be said to be lacking in top level guys that will work as main event draws. For the last year or so, ROH has been in a rebuilding phase as they have tried to cultivate a new main event crew to replace the old guard who had left prior to the move to PPV. They've been mildly successful so far, as Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, Austin Aries, and the Briscoes have all really stepped up and done a great job of carrying the promotion through the last year, and guys like Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, the No Remorse Corps, and Age Of The Fall are all ongoing projects.
However, while this group has settled in as the regular ROH roster, they're not quite at the level the old guard was at yet, and I wouldn't turn around and say that it's because these guys aren't over and are never going to be able to replace them, but it's just a matter of taking the time to let them develop before they get over like the guys who aren't there anymore. It also took a while for the original ROH main eventers to get over. Samoa Joe, CM Punk, and Homicide were all popular when they first set foot in ROH, but it took years for them to become regarded as ROH gods, so to speak. There's lessons to be learned from WWE bringing guys up and overpushing them way too soon, and ROH has been pretty successful with their strategy of letting the guys work, seeing who gets over, and then pushing them accordingly. Bryan Danielson and the Briscoes are the last originals left over, and Aries is right up there with them, but Nigel's still growing into his role as ROH World Champion even though I find his heel act immensely entertaining to watch. But the under guys still need more time to grow into that kind of role, and Gabe Sapolsky's a good enough booker that he'll give them time to let it happen.
One thing to remember here is that if and when everyone develops to the point where they're seen as legit headliners, there are going to be people who will compare them unfavorably to the original ROH main eventers. I see it being similar to back in ECW when guys like Shane Douglas, Sabu, Raven, and Sandman were replaced by Steve Corino, Justin Credible, and Jerry Lynn where even though the new guys were occupying the same positions on the card, it was never quite the same as the glory days. The important thing here is that older fans have to be willing to accept the “new†ROH roster on its own merits rather than compare it to the old days, because as the company grows (as they hope internally), the new fans that will be drawn in will see Danielson, Aries, McGuinness, the Briscoes, Hero, and Castagnoli as “the ROH roster†and will accept them on their own merits without having a prior main event crew to compare them to. It'll be similar to when I started watching wrestling during the Hulk Hogan era and accepted Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, the Ultimate Warrior, Mr Perfect, and Ted Dibiase as “the WWF main event†without Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Pedro Morales, or Billy Graham to compare them to.
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But while we're on the subject of comparisons (I'm just a master at these segues, aren't I?), I was watching Necro Butcher when he was wrestling Erick Stevens and Roderick Strong in New York last weekend, and realized that I can draw a lot of similarities between he and Mick Foley back in his younger days. Both Necro and Cactus Jack portray wildmen who aren't totally incoherent, non-verbal monsters like an Abdullah The Butcher, but still throw caution to the wind and put their bodies on the line in the interest of winning a match. A direct parallel can be drawn between the two in that much like Cactus in the early 90s, Necro is currently regarded by a lot of people as the indy scene's biggest bump machine, both in terms of taking abuse himself as well as doing moves which probably aren't totally safe for even the person executing it.
The big difference I see here is that while Cactus Jack also became known as one of the best promo guys of his generation, we really haven't heard Necro speak much other than muttering something under his breath every now and then or saying something to a fan at ringside, and I'm not sure if the quiet act is out of an inability to promo (which I find difficult to believe as everything I know about the man behind Necro and out of character interviews I've heard lead me to believe he's a reasonably intelligent and well spoken guy), or if they're trying to protect the gimmick. I find the latter to be more likely, and indeed Cactus Jack was also told to keep his mouth shut when he was first breaking into the business, though with Cactus it was also because they didn't want a guy billed from New Mexico coming out in Texas and Tennessee and doing promos with a New York accent.
Now, I'm not saying that I'm predicting that Necro will turn out to be the next Mick Foley and that he'll go on to have a prosperous career as a multi-time World Champion, author of several books, and intermittently retired shilling sellout. In fact, I'm really just hoping that the injuries don't catch up to him too quickly and that he'll still be able to live a full life as he gets older. Quite frankly, that's my concern with a lot of ROH guys, but he's towards the top of that list. Another difference I see between Cactus and Necro, and this is a big one, is that Mick Foley knew when to take the big bumps so that they meant something instead of bumping all over just to get a reaction from the crowd, while Necro is more indiscriminate in regards to putting his body on the line. This is where having somebody who's been around the business a long time in the locker room could really go a long way, in terms of teaching people like Necro how to better tell the story of their match without just going out there and taking cringe inducing bumps to pop the crowd, because that's no different than lighter guys going out there and just doing high flying spotfests.
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Before I go, I just want to briefly touch on a bit of news that came out this week about Florida Championship Wrestling trying to get exclusive deals with several of the venues that FIP runs while also contacting young wrestlers around Florida to try and get them to work enhancement roles for FCW. I have no problem with FCW trying to work out deals with local talent because, let's face it, these wrestlers are going to look at it as a chance to get in front of people who are there evaluating developmental talent and hopefully catch their eye. They'd have a much easier time doing so by working in FCW than they would in FIP.
However, going to the venues FIP runs seems unnecessarily predatory to me. I've made no secret about the fact that I think very little of FIP in general despite the number of ROH talents they book on a regular basis. That said, FIP is a threat to nobody, especially a promotion that was more or less created by WWE and I have to believe that FCW would do okay simply being subsidized by WWE and using appearances by WWE talents to draw. One might say that FCW is looking to these venues in an attempt to squash FIP, but that seems somewhat petty to me when considering a group of people who work for a company to whom, quite frankly, FIP means nothing. There's also been no word as to whether or not the venues are going to take FCW up on their offer, so despite all the obstacles the promotion has faced recently, I wouldn't look at this as the impending doom of the promotion. However, with stories like this coming out, one can't blame Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens for opening their own promotion because FIP doesn't seem quite solid enough to count on these days.
That's it for this edition of The pROHfile. Thanks as always for reading, and all feedback can be sent to stuwrestling@hotmail.com. See you all next time.
