Will Ring of Honor ever be at TNA's level?

[The Extract]

What I mean by the question is, Will ROH ever be TNA's main opponent? I just recently found out that I get ROH with my cable package, so I have been watching the past few weeks and i must say that though I don't know many current storylines or wresters, it is a pretty good show!

To me, the level of wrestling currently are: 1: WWE, 2: TNA, and 3: ROH. Many people think that TNA is(in a few years) set to challenge WWE. But I believe that ROH will challenge TNA to tep up their game before TNA could challenge WWE.

 

[ABMorales787]

Hahaha. Laughable. I can understand that they do have good talent and have a different product. But lets face it. 10 years and since day 1 TNA has been higher. They got the TV deal first. And the PPV deal. ROH continues to lose talent to both TNA and WWE and their programming, while on TV isn't nearly as accessible as TNA is. Maybe if a large stockholder stops by to invest in ROH and secure talent. But I doubt it in their current position. Damn shame too. Variety always makes the product good.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Probably not, no. Ring of Honor is available to only 23% of America, that number will increase to 26% once Sinclair Broadcasting complete the acquisition of three local channels in the Florida region. Ring of Honor doesn't have the exposure to compete with TNA, who is of course a national wrestling product. Whether they'll move to a national channel down the line is a question a lot of ROH fans ask themselves, because supposedly if Sinclair got a good enough offer, they'd allow it, but until then considering they own the company they'll obviously broadcast the show on their channels.

However if you take heed of Dave Meltzer's word, Ring of Honor beats Impact in several regions of America ratings wise. ROH Wrestling supposedly does some good numbers for such a small show. Personally as a fan, I don't care, I watched Ring of Honor when access was nothing but DVD's. Now you can watch it online, on YouTube and if you have the platform in the States, on television. It's slow, but it's still expansion. Rome wasn't built in a day.

 

[Lowdown]

I'm gonna have to say no on this as well. ROH does have a nice talented roster, and their weekly TV show is good to watch. But they'll need more to give TNA a run for their money. Their PPV's can only be seen on the Internet, and from what I just read they're still having production issues. While they may be the #3 promotion, if they can only be seen on TV to 23% of the country then they have a long way to go to catch up to TNA.

 

[mlp420]

That's really up to the folks at Sinclair Broadcasting. People love to bash Dixie Carter and her family for all the money they've poured into TNA that hasn't worked out, but there's no denying that they are commited growing TNA as much as they can.

Meanwhile, Sinclair Broadcasting Group is a multi billion dollar publicly traded company that makes more money then TNA and WWE. If they want to compete, they could very easily. But it seems they're just using ROH as cheap filler for their station's junk time slots. Again, this is a billion dollar company. If they were commited to growing ROH, they'd issue everyone a refund for these ippv disasters that keep happening again and again so they don't run every fan they have left away. Better yet, a subsidy of a billion dollar corporation that specializes in broadcasting shouldn't have these issues at all.

They keep claiming they get 1 million viewers.

If they're getting that many viewers with 23% national reach on Saturday Night and Sunday afternoons, forget competing with TNA, or even WWE for that matter, they should be on prime time on CBS or Fox competing with American Idol or Big Bang Theory. Or at the very least they should be able to sell the program to non SBG markets like they said they would do.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It can happen but that means that ROH is going to have to become more of a "sports entertainment' company instead of mostly a "pure wrestling" company.

I've watched ROH since it was taken over by Sinclair Broadcasting and the wrestling action is usually solid, but I've yet to really see anybody that comes off as a charismatic superstar. There are a ton of guys in pro wrestling that are great inside the ring, including ROH, but it's ultimately the guys that are able to connect as characters to viewers that are the most important aspect if you want a wrestling company to grow.

ROH's ppv events being available only via the internet is another problem as they've regularly had technical difficulties that've prevented people from connecting to purchase the event or they've been unable to maintain connection due to difficulties after some have already paid.

I don't think that ROH is generating a ton of viewers via syndication, otherwise you'd most certainly read articles reporting it and articles in which ROH & Sinclair are bragging about their success. Whenever I read reports of alleged ROH house show attendance, their less than 1,000 much of the time. So are TNA house shows for that matter. So, if those reports are accurate, then ROH has a long way to go before they can compete with TNA in ratings. ROH has a syndicated television deal that broadcasts episodes at various times & various affiliates throughout the week while TNA has a steady network deal that airs their programming in prime time every Thursday.

ROH has long been thought of as kind of the unofficial Kind of the Indies and that's something of an image that guys like Jim Cornette have cultivated. Cornette has a very old school mentality that he's allowed to get in the way more than once in his career. Cornette feels deep down in his heart that wrestling should still be run like it was back when he was a young guy first getting started in wrestling. It seems that the vast majority of fans don't seem to agree, resulting in ROH having more of a "cult following".

It doesn't help that, usually, most of ROH's top stars eventually head for greener pastures whenever WWE or TNA come calling with much more money than ROH is capable of delivering. If WWE made a serious money offer to just about anyone currently on the ROH roster, whose contract was close to expiring, most of them would jump ship at the chance for possibly being a bigger star on a bigger stage for much bigger money. Until/unless ROH is able to compete with TNA from a financial standpoint, then they will remain Kind of the Indies.

 

[Wald]

I think RoH is actually dying, which is a shame because they've been a solid company with some moments of excellence throughout the past decade. I'd go so far as to say WWE should strike a funding deal with them similar to the one they had with ECW is RoH are ever that way inclined.

That said, the product they put out today is the poorest it has ever been. The storylines are awful, production is still poor and outside of Kevin Steen, the Briscoes and Mike Bennett I can't think of anyone that could transition over to either TNA or WWE and make an impact.

On the flipside, TNA has sorted out a lot of their problems from the past few years. This year they've probably put on the most solid wrestling product of the lot, including WWE, and their roster is packed with talent with storylines that are finally (Heroin Babies aside) entertaining and making some sense.

TNA are rising, they'll never be at WWE's level but they'll always be number two. RoH might not even be around in 2 years. I just read an interview with Davey Richards where he just says his contract is up next year and he's gone. Says TNA would be of interest to him now that guys like Aries are being promoted to the top of the card.

 

[HBsam31]

I can't see it. From all the things i read they seem to be in trouble. I actually really like ROH. I am not a diehard fan, but I have watched and enjoyed it since it became available on tv. I think they will need to change their ways a bit if they want to compete with TNA. like Jack Hammer said, "become more of a sports entertainment show". The pure wrestling is great, but I don't think it will appeal as much to casual fans. I like them because they are something different, but I believe if they want to compete they will have to at least modify who they are.

 

[DirtyD79]

Why does it matter if it is? If you enjoy it you shouldn't give a shit about ratings or house show attendance. You should be enjoying the show. Hell some of the most entertaining wrestling I've ever watched was at shows that were lucky they could draw 100 people, let alone 1,000 or dare I say it "fill a whole arena." The Monday Night Wars aren't gonna happen again anytime soon unless wrestling as a whole suddenly experiences a surge of popularity like it did back then. I ain't holding my breath for that one.

 

[MINISTRYrising]

no. they just don't have the funding at the end of the day. If they did have the funding then this would allow them to maybe keep hold of there top stars and eventully get a good tv deal. But until this happens they are going to stay where they are.

 

[braveh]

I hope this is not deleted as spam.
I'm telling you....build some kind of entrance ramp or whatever....just replace the silver curtain.

The commentator with the accent (british? austrialian? irish?) is the worst color commentator i have ever heard. He is so bad I have to turn the sound off. I am being 100% honest. I don't love Michael Cole but I don't turn the sound off. Trust me....he has no business doing tv in our country. Send him home. Tazz and the old guy from WCW are bad but I wouldn't turn the sound off. I CAN NOT WATCH ROH WITH TEH SOUND ON.

 

[wrestlingfan]

No, ROH is a niche product, Majority of mainstream wrestling fans don't care about technical action.

 

[Strong Style X]

Strictly from a business standpoint? No, ROH doesn't have a financial backer with lots of money to unload onto the company like TNA does.

 

[The Boss]

I always liked ROH when I went to their live shows. But I must say their TV program is TERRIBLE. The sound quality is really bad, most of their wrestlers don't know how to tell a story or work a crowd to keep them interested as a result the crowd is consistently dead - the worst I have ever seen (hard to believe as ROH used to have some of the most active crowds). Their current champion (Kevin Steen) dresses like a backyarder thus giving the impression (to fans unfamiliar with the talent) that the entire promotion is just a bunch of backyrders who managed to get a ring.

Sorry ROH, but that show has got to be improved before you have any chance at being seen as big time by the majority of fans. For years ROH was looked at as a potential big league without a TV show. When they got the TV deal they should have stepped up their game. But instead we got, "meh, this is good enough".

 

[Garavito]

ROH as TNA's main opponent? Sure.
ROH actually being or surpasing TNA's "level"? I quite doubt that.

TNA has had a TV deal, a pretty nice roster and mainstream popularity for a long time, and ROH is still just "king of the indies" - especially with, in my opinion, it's quality being decreasing recently.

I'm not up to date though and haven't watched neither of them in the past two months, so take this with a pinch of salt

 

[Cereal Killer]

I really don't think so. ROH as been around for 10 years for Christ sake. What the hell are they doing now?

I don't think they will ever catch up to TNA because 1. They are unprofessional with their shi**y camera quality and the crap that gets thrown in the ring at the start of every match and 2. They don't have any major household names. TNA has Jeff Jarrett, Kurt Angle, Sting, RVD, Jeff Hardy, etc. Even when they started out; it was like a WCW reunion. Who does Ring of Honor have to put them on the map?

They need to start focusing on the product and on bringing in some big names. I'm not saying they need to bring in all of WCW's ex-roster but 1 or 2 names that will put them on the map like Kurt Angle and Hulk Hogan have for IW.

I'm not saying ROH is a load of sh*t, I just think that they have to improve like "the big 2". Don't get me wrong but they have an amazing roster and is a great indy show for new and upcoming talent.

So for those that didn't read all that, they need to bring in some major Superstars and and improve the product.

 

[Papa Pillman]

Since production value is a major flaw that we have seen mentioned multiple times in this thread, I thought this was relevant to point out.

This week's ROH tv show was the first episode of the latest set of tapings that were filmed as the lead in to Final Battle, and what ROH presented was by far the highest quality program from a production standpoint that they have put out since debuting on SBG networks.

The arena looked good, lighting and camera angles were set-up well, there were no sound issues, the show had good flow, and the graphics used were lightyears beyond what we had been seeing on the show. They did a good job with on-screen graphics to set up Final Battle, and even the backstage pre-taped segments had a less amatuer look. Overall it was a very nice improvement as far as overall presentation.

As a side note, the crowd was hot too. I can't wait to watch the remaining shows from this set of tapings.

 

[BrockSamson]

It's possible but they need to do a few things that have already been mentioned for the most part.

1. Get some names people know. Anybody recognizable. Dean Malenko, maybe Joey Styles doing some announcing, bring in Sandman or New Jack or someone to do a short feud with Steen. I'm not saying turn it into ECW, but there a decent amount of ECW fans that would love to see their old favorites. Draw them in with that and try to keep them there.

2. Production Value. It's been said that there has been a recent improvement in this but I've yet to see it. The last RoH taping I saw was from early October and it pretty much sucked as far as commentary, set, audio, and camera work goes.

3. Visibility. If I want to watch RoH my options are youtube videos with a month or so delay or streaming/downloading sights that are, at the very least questionable in legality. You don't need a prime time spot to start, air your show starting at midnight on cable.

4. Crowds. I've seen RoH vids from a few years back where the crowd was pretty hot, lately not so much. Give tickets away if you have to. At least for the i-ppv's, it's discouraging to pay to watch something on your computer and realize they couldnt sell more than a few hundred tickets. If the fans at the event are getting excited it sells the event to the people watching at home. Dig up some rowdy ECW fans and get them a little drunk, lol. Also, anyone seen throwing streamers or confetti gets punched in the dickhole.