A few weeks back, the illustrious Dave Meltzer claimed that he'd bet that Ring of Honor could not fill a 10,000 seat arena. Cody Rhodes, being his Daddy's little boy, stated that he would "take that bet." Over the last few weeks, the Young Bucks, with Cody Rhodes and Marty Scurll, have been scouting places to hold a pro wrestling event called "All In". They are all in places that can hold 10,000 people. The final Four cities are Chicago, Ontario, California, Long Beach California, and London. So, who do you think will come out on top of this bet? Meltzer, Cody, or you just do not care?
Well, it's not really important in the grand scheme of things, of course, but I'd personally love to see ROH make Dave Meltzer eat ten grand. I understand and respect that Meltzer is a big voice among wrestling journalists, especially in the minds of fans who prefer indie or Japanese style wrestling, but he's such a gigantic mark for himself that he should be taken down a few pegs. Chicago and London have especially hot crowds and if Cody and the rest of the Bullet Club who're primarily working ROH get the word out, if they really get out and let fans know about the bet, then I think they could have a realistic shot. As to who I think will come out on top, my heart would prefer ROH to come out on top but my head says that it'll be Meltzer. Ring of Honor has pretty much prided itself for the last 12 years or so as basically being King of the Indies and their crowds pretty much reflect that. I came across a report just a little while ago revealing ROH's total attendance for the first half of this year, the show average, etc. For the first half of this year, the report claims Ring of Honor drew a total of 24,307 fans with an average show attendance of 1,105 fans. The most attended event in ROH history took place during their Supercard of Honor event this year during WrestleMania weekend, which drew 3,500 fans. So basically, Meltzer's bet would require ROH to almost triple the biggest attendance they've ever had. You'd also think that New York would be a final candidate considering it's ROH's biggest market.
I'm fairly certain that new Japan/roh wanted to they could draw 10,000 easily in toronto... It might not be a bad idea to invite the local Indy's like destiny, smash etc. And TNA along for the ride... Would actually establish TNA/Roh a little bit more in Canada if they both had the rub from NJPW. New Japan is the number two world promotion. They need to start acting like it more in north america, Canada is key.
The only way i could see ROH could Draw 10,000 fans at this point is if they do a joint show with all the major indy feds and get some New japan stars on the show as well. I'm don't watch ROH that much mostly because while i do love their product, the fan reactions does take away my interest to the product but they do have fans of the product and that'S great. The problem is that they are an indy fed which means that they have a small and loyal fans base that will follow them wherever they go but at the same time, that's not enough. You won't attract the casual fans at this moment because if they want to watch wrestling, they will watch WWE not an indy show. So the only way to attract that many peoples in a single market is to pick a location that's is near a hot bed of hardcore wrestling fan, try to strike some sort of deal with other popular indy feds like IMPACT and PWG and some sort of deal with international promotions like AAA or new japan and put up a supercard with all the talents from these different promotions that way you get the fans from each promotions to check out the show, you can have promotions across every platform available. Personally if i was them, i would tried to do the show in california since it's were more of the hardcore wrestling fans are or are willing to travel to for a show like this one.
Good luck to them. Can’t see them doing it, but no harm in trying. Presumably if 10,000 people show up Meltzer would just say it was a lie and there were actually 43 people there, most of whom were school children bussed in for free.