The Official & Ongoing ROH World Title Tournament Thread

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

On July 3rd the ROH World Championship was vacated for the first time in company history, after Jay Briscoe was brutally attacked by S.C.U.M. In reality, both Jay and Mark's ROH contracts had expired, and the company apparently didn't plan far enough in advance to avoid this issue - or they did, and decided a tournament was the best route to go. Either way, Ring of Honor matchmaker Nigel McGuinness announced a tournament to crowd a new world champion, taking place on ROH TV and culminating at Death Before Dishonor in Philadelphia on September 20th.

WHY THIS IS AWESOME:
1) Tournaments are my favorite, and there's no enough of them in wrestling. WWE hasn't done one correctly in WAY too long - the modern King of the Ring is a joke. TNA's annual tournament is unique in that the wrestlers collect points and it's a much more complicated process, which I enjoy. But it's about time we had a good ole' fashioned single-elimination tournament that actually mattered on the indy scene.

2) The matches, or at the least the majority of them, are happening on ROH TV. This is GREAT for the company, and actually gives me a reason to tune in.

3) While ROH has no world champion, they have promised added influence to the tag team division. And really, you can't go wrong with that idea. More American Wolves. More C&C Wrestle Factory. More ACH & Tadarius Thomas!

This is the official ongoing thread, and I'm going to TRY my best to keep it up to date with what's going on. The actual touranment doesn't start until the end of this month, with the Providence taping on July 27th. So in the meantime, ROH is announcing a new participant every day, and eventually there will be a total of 16 guys.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Participant #1 - Michael Elgin

"Unbreakable" Michael Elgin was announced as the first man in the ROH world title tournament. Elgin was guaranteed a shot earlier this year by defeating Jay Lethal at Supercard of Honor VII. The last time Elgin got a shot at the belt, he lost to Kevin Steen in one hell of a match. In 2012, he faced off against Davey Richards in a 5-star match, but was unsuccessful.

Participant #2 - Brian Kendrick

Former WWE and TNA Superstar Brian Kendrick is one of the original Ring of Honor stars, although his time in the company didn't last long. The former X-Division Champion and 2-time WWE tag team champion brings his own style of weird to the ROH title tournament. Fun fact, before Kendrick became famous as Paul London's tag team partner, he tore it up with the American Dragon (now, Daniel Bryan) in Memphis and Texas indy scenes.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Participant #3 - Karl Anderson

The "Machine Gun" has been mowing down talent in Japan for the last four years, making a name alongside WWE's "Sweet T" Tensai in New Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH. Karl Anderson came over to ROH to wrestle briefly against Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin, but he's now looking to make a more permanent name for himself in Ring of Honor, by winning the world championship.

Participant #4 - Kevin Steen

"Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen held the ROH world title before dropping it to the last champ, Jay Briscoe. He's been all over Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and various other promotions, playing the lovable babyface and the dominant heel, both to perfection. Steen's title reign lasted 328 days; the fifth longest reign in ROH history.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Participant #5 - Paul London

The Intrepid Traveler owes Ring of Honor fans a debt, after suffering a concussion against Davey Richards at Border Wars 2013, and being forced to pull out of his commitments to ROH TV. And what better way to pay that debt back by returning to world title contention in this tournament, possibly against former long-time tag team partner, Brian Kendrick? Kendrick was involved in a fight with Xavier, ROH's second only world champion, before leaving the company for WWE.

Participant #6 - Roderick Strong

Only one man in ROH history has captured the world title twice - Austin Aries. Could Roderick Strong, the man who defeated WWE's Seth Rollins, be the second? Since losing the belt, Strong has ROH TV title, which he lost to Adam Cole. But for the last year, he's been wandering around the Ring of Honor locker room, putting on solid matches, but without much of a direction or a goal. Now, with the ROH world title in sight once again, this could be the launching pad that he needs to regain relevance among the company's revolving door of talent.

Participant #7 - Adam Cole

That's right, the current reigning PWG world champion is stepping up to the plate and looking to become the undisputed king of the indy circuit by winning this tournament. I've always thought PWG provided a better outlet for Cole, allowing him to work on more of an entertaining gimmick and heel character, but in recent months that side of him has been poking through in Ring of Honor as well. After losing his world title match to Jay Briscoe, and teasing an alignment with SCUM, it's clear Adam Cole is more driven than he has ever been before. It's also clear that he's not signing with WWE any time soon...

 

[AttitudeAJM]

Elgin or Adam Cole sound like the smart pick but I'm rooting for Paul London. I was a huge fan of his when he feuded with Michael Shane and his matches against Xavier were some of the best of the very early ROH title matches.

At first I was kind of against this tournament happening but given the returns we've had and the match ups possible in the tournament I'm completely on board.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

ROH have done a great job of bouncing back strong from BITW weekend, which was a total failure.

Brian Kendrick returning to ROH is cool, even if he won't be called Spanky. Karl Anderson and Forever Hooligans (not involved in the tournament, but returning for Toronto, NYC and Providence TV tapings) is awesome because the more ROH use the affiliation with NJPW the more chances we have of seeing guys like Devitt, Shelley and dare I say, Okada in an ROH ring. Which would he awesome.

Jay Briscoe having to vacate the title and the title being vacated itself was pretty sad. Despite ROH's size as a wrestling company their World title is extremely prestiged with all the great talents who have held it. It had never previously been vacated until now, but a tournament with names such as these really will make up for it in the long-haul.

Curious to see will The Wolves be added. Half expect Matt Hardy to feature, hopefully some more outside talent. Wouldn't say no to an Eddie Kingston return.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Participant #8 - Sonjay Dutt

Sonjay's inclusion in this tournament was a big surprise to me. It's nice to see ROH reaching out to names outside of their immediate circle of regular talent. I've seen exactly ONE of his matches in ROH, and it was against Daniel Bryan; I don't actually remember if it was good or not, but I'm going to go out on a very obvious limb and assume YES!

Eight men named. Eight men left to go.

1. Michael Elgin
2. Brian Kendrick
3. Karl Anderson
4. Kevin Steen
5. Paul London
6. Roderick Strong
7. Adam Cole
8. Sonjay Dutt

Out of the eight guys named, exactly two of them have been ROH world champion before, and that excites me. It's rare that there's a 2-time champ in ROH (Austin Aries!), so this tournament really gives a ton of other great indy talent a spotlight. Looking at the current ROH roster, and assuming they're going to use more regulars than surprise additions, I'm guessing the final eights spots will look sometimes thing like this:

9. Davey Richards
10. Eddie Edwards
11. Jay Lethal
12. Mike Bennett
13. Matt Hardy
14. ???
15. ???
16. ???

As far as free agents that could potential fill the remaining spots, I've got no idea. Still waiting for that epic ROH vs. PWG collaboration iPPV. Adam Cole, PWG and ROH world champion? Yeah, I like that idea a lot...

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Doug Williams is the name most ROH fans want to see entered in the tournament.

I don't think The Wolves will be entered because Davey tweeted in response to someone asking him on his status ahead of the tournament that his focus was on the World Tag Team titles and with them planning to make those the focal points of the upcoming live events and TV taping, tag division minus The Wolves is a bad move. It opens up more spots anyway, there needs to be one young guy who benefits from this at least, whether that be ACH or Matt Taven I personally don't care.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Sorry for not keeping up with this. Here's the complete first round brackets:

Spoiler

So, unless ROH really doesn't want Kevin Steen going to the end, I don't much hope for a Brian Kendrick vs. Paul London semi-final match. Maybe that's just the post-attitude WWE tag team mark in me that wants to see that, but I thought it would've been cool. Of course, in that division there's also the potential of Steen and Elgin rematch.

In the other division, I think Cole and Briscoe should be a great match. Lethal and Sonjay Dutt have the most history together, working that program in TNA about four or five years ago.

As far as final match predictions, if ROH were any normal company, I'd say the storyline progression indicates that Kevin Steen and Adam Cole would see action in the finals. It's also possible Steen gets screwed over by Matt Hardy, and Cole takes on Michael Elgin. Both matches excite me.

I'd pop if Cole walks out the ROH and PWG world champion.

 

[Perfected123]

I don't like Taven in the tournament with him being TV champ and all, and aside from Whitmer vs Bennett (again, urghh) it looks solid. Everyone is predicting a Cole vs Elgin final, which would make the most sense and all, but I feel it may be to predictable. My guess is the final being Cole vs Steen, with maybe Cole using underhanded tactics to win it.

 

[Hard Hit Prince]

I think it's pretty obvious that Adam Cole will be the one in the finals... Now the interest will be in Kevin Steen or Michael Elgin going to the finals. I believe that Matt Hardy will ultimately play a role in this, but for now, let me enjoy this tourament. Matt Taven and ACH will gain from this, so will Ciampa so I'm happy for now. I predict that Michael Elgin will take the gold, at least I hope so, just because Adam Cole is probably the favorite. Some great matches that we can end up having like a Steen vs. Roderick Strong and a Karl Anderson vs. Elgin... Finally something I can really watch in ROH again! The last thing that got me pumped was Generico vs. Steen, so you can see my desperation.