HUGE news...well, kinda.

[Slyfox696]

I found the following with fan comments on the Ring Of Honor Message Board this morning

Ring of Honor Announcement
Sunday, October 26, 2008

Ring of Honor is announcing that Gabe Sapolsky will be leaving the company effective immediately. Everybody at ROH would like to thank him for his contributions and wish him well in all future endeavors.

Going forward Ring of Honor will be focusing on the stories and the talent in the ring. The company will have no further comments on this issue or a replacement for Mr. Sapolsky. We would like to thank all of the fans and media who have supported us over the years and look forward to bringing you more great wrestling excitement in the future.

That's certainly interesting (at least as interesting as ROH can be). There's no doubt that ROH grew in size under Sapolsky, and if I remember correctly, was even pulling a monthly profit. The "effective immediately" part is what intrigues me.

Use this thread to speculate on why it happened, and what will happen going forward.


Or to give a big yawn because you don't care.

 

[Tim]

Yawn.

 

[klunderbunker]

Interesting as he was one of the bigger names there. Hopefully they have a good replacement for him.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I've been meaning to make my End Of ROH thread for a while now.

 

[Slyfox696]

They should hire Eric Bischoff. Then somebody might start taking them seriously.

 

[Uncle Sam]

They should hire Hulk Hogan.

 

[justinsayne]

Maybe Gabe is going to TNA to attempt to fix the damage caused by Russo & Co.

As far as ROH is concerned, it's pretty much dead now, or will be soon, I give it another year or two before they are forced to close up shop, wouldn't be surprised to see McMahon buy it up since he has so many former ROH guys either on the main rosters or signed to development deals just waiting to be called up, my thinking is that he'd want it for the video library, though he could also use it as another training ground too

 

[Y 2 Jake]

It's pretty much very alive right now. And will be for a while. So long as they've got Danielson, McGuinness & Aries.

 

[Slyfox696]

May not have Danielson long...

He's rumored to jump to the WWE around Feb or March of 09.

 

[justinsayne]

May not have Danielson long...

He's rumored to jump to the WWE around Feb or March of 09.

God I hope they put his boring ass on ECW

 

[CCS]

I honestly cant follow ROH. Their story lines are too hard to get interested in and their matches are too hard to find. But the wrestling is great so i watch ROH on youtube sometimes. Bryan Danielson realy needs to jump to WWE or TNA. He's done everything he can do in the indys. Nigel McGuinness has had the ROH world title FOREVER. It seems like they're building him like they built Samoa Joe during his long title reign.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

May not have Danielson long...

He's rumored to jump to the WWE around Feb or March of 09.

The promotion will survive without him. But once all the main stars go then the DVD sales will go down.

But it's just an indy promotion so it'll survive in some form for a while yet.

 

[CCS]

The promotion will survive without him. But once all the main stars go then the DVD sales will go down.QUOTE]

I dont know if that's true. As soon as CM Punk won the WHC , ROH started putting their CM Punk dvds on their main page so "You can see how it all started" So if Danielson goes to WWE it will only create more publicity for ROH.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

What about their show DVD's?

 

[CCS]

They'll have plenty of new talent to feature on the show dvds.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

The talent they've got now isn't drawing.

 

[CCS]

I honestly wouldnt know.

 

[klunderbunker]

Right now this might be what was needed. The shows just seem to run together to me. Maybe a new direction is what they need.

 

[LigerBomb]

I found the following with fan comments on the Ring Of Honor Message Board this morning

Ring of Honor Announcement
Sunday, October 26, 2008

Ring of Honor is announcing that Gabe Sapolsky will be leaving the company effective immediately. Everybody at ROH would like to thank him for his contributions and wish him well in all future endeavors.

Going forward Ring of Honor will be focusing on the stories and the talent in the ring. The company will have no further comments on this issue or a replacement for Mr. Sapolsky. We would like to thank all of the fans and media who have supported us over the years and look forward to bringing you more great wrestling excitement in the future.

That's certainly interesting (at least as interesting as ROH can be). There's no doubt that ROH grew in size under Sapolsky, and if I remember correctly, was even pulling a monthly profit. The "effective immediately" part is what intrigues me.

Use this thread to speculate on why it happened, and what will happen going forward.


Or to give a big yawn because you don't care.

It's particularly wording like the bold lines above that makes me wonder if something illegal may have happened. Probably nothing as bad as the Rob Feinstein business though. Perhaps Gabe was skimming from the top? Ah well, I'm sure the news will come out soon enough despite ROH's interest in keeping tight lipped.

 

[jmt225]

ROH is as good as dead.

Shame, too. They put out some really good shows. I get a ROH fix every couple of months and usually didn't end up being disappointed (I can easily tell which shows fit my preferences, though).

But what really is something is how they've been able to last so long. I mean, think about this, really think about it. Their owner gets caught going to meet up to have sex with a 14-year-old boy, and they survive that. They have lost most of their best/top talent to WWE and TNA over the years, and were still able to stick around. That is spectacular when you think about it. Seriously, what if Vince McMahon was caught trying to have sex with teenage boy, and then lost Cena, Michaels, HHH, Undertaker, and a few others to TNA or some other company? Would WWE survive that? I personally don't think so, but ROH did and it was all because of Gabe Sapolsky. It’s quite a story, but like they saying goes, all good things eventually come to an end.

I’m not some ROHbot who praises everything ROH does; they have put on a lot of shows I would never spend a dime on. But still, they were a good alternative and if they do go out of business like I expect, they’ll be missed from my end. I just hope guys like Jacobs, Black, Briscoes, ect. have a place to go and be used properly.

 

[klunderbunker]

Just why does this mean ROH is dead? There are other people that know how to book the place.

 

[jmt225]

Just why does this mean ROH is dead? There are other people that know how to book the place.

According to reports I've read on this, they were about to close shop after a Philly show recently.

Fact is that a lot of their fans will be pissed about this and will have a very short fuse when it comes to shows. If ROH now puts on ONE lack-luster show, shit will hit the fan with the fans they already have, which aren't that many to begin with.

Moreover, Gabe was absolutely right about just sticking with DVDs. They were turning profit with that alone. Pay-per-view and television cost a lot of money, and it just won't work out with ROH's product. Their product is for a certain kind of audience and only works with three hour shows twice a month. Anything past that won't work for their audience; an audience who wants something different and is willing to spend their hard earned money on expensive DVDs. And the reason most people spend their money on ROH DVDs is because each show seems to mean something special. You can't have that sort of atmosphere if you're on television every week. There is a reason why WWE only has one Wrestlemania every year.

Cary needs to realize that, and that no wrestling company outside of WWE at this point in time stands a chance of becoming a big deal. ROH has no chance to survive on TV. Gabe knows that, and was right in putting his foot down about it. If ROH gets a TV deal and fails, which is inevitable, they will be gone for good. And Cary Silkin is obviously pushing for that TV deal, which is why ROH is as good as dead in my eyes. Right now, at this very moment, pro wrestling is not a very profitable business and you have to make with what you got and ROH has a very solid thing going on that got a little ruined with pay-per-view (remember the Canada buys embarrassment?) and will get completely ruined with television. On TV, ROH will be WSX all over again; I guarantee it.

 

[klunderbunker]

That's very true. While I'm hardly an ROH mark, I always check the results of their shows. Its entertaining if nothing else. But you're right. Once or twice a month works. From what I've seen, they have no business doing tv. PPV........maybe 3 a year at most.

 

[CCS]

Well...........Acording to Wrestlezone , Adam Pierce is the new ROH head booker. I realy dont know what to think about this. The only reason i know who he is , is because of him winning the NWA title. The article said that ROH will be doing alot of 1970's style wrestling. If so , That will kill ROH.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

ROH will be fine. It just won't be as big as it used to be. If they're short of money then they bring in new, cheaper guys. The name alone should shift DVDs for a while.