ROH What Went Wrong

 Ever since ROH announced they were temporarily closing their doors after Final Battle. Fans have been offering all kind's of opinions and theorys on what happens next. It's honestly sad that it took ROH announcing their "hiatus", for the promotion to be talked about so much again. It hasn't been relevant for a couple years now. 

ROH had issues with it's presentation, but now reports are coming out that Sinclair Broadcasting is in DEEP debt. Which is likely an contributing factor to putting ROH on ice for the time being, and rumors that the tape library is for sale.

In a previous blog I mentioned I enjoyed watching ROH, but something was definitely missing. Well now I want to highlight a few things that went wrong. Most of them are connected.

TV/Social Media Presence 

Sinclair owns over 200 local TV stations in various markets. In addition to regional sports networks. Now it's one of the caveats of being an syndicated program in that the time a show airs is different in separate markets. One would think Sinclair could have found an way to strategize getting as many markets as possible to air ROH at the same time, or at better times. In my local market in Baltimore where Sinclair and ROH is headquartered, the program airs at 10:00 pm on Saturday nights, with a replay Sunday afternoon and another one after midnight Sunday night. 

Sinclair's regional sports cable station Stadium regulated ROH to later in the night airings as well. Not the best way to capture and draw in new audiences. In addition, from my understanding their Honorclub streaming service left a lot to be desired as well.

If better TV timeslots weren't an option, maybe having additional programming even if it was  an studio style recap/promo show to go along with their one hour programming could have helped. They did start utlizing their YouTube channel with the weekly Women Wednesday's matches, but even that wasn't advertised nearly enough.

Logistically I'm sure it would have been an nightmare to try and pull off, but being that they only had one show. It use to drive me insane when a PPV occurred on an Friday night and the latest episode airs Saturday or Sunday, it was clear it was taped well in advance because they were still advertising the event.

Relying On The Elite Cost Them/No Major Stars/Lack Of Direction 

While writing/formatting this piece I quickly realized these three components are intertwined and what led to ROH's fall from grace. So I decided to bundle them together in an package deal.

ROH from 2016 to 2018 had their best years from an box office/popularity standpoint thanks to members of The Bullet Club/Elite. Their merchandise sold out frequently, they were all over the syndicated program and pay-per-views. You could not blame ROH for using the cash cow to make more money.

Problem was ROH much like WWE frequently does, depended on them so much they did not take the time to build up anyone else. When the Elite started AEW and pals like SCU and Best Friend's went with them. ROH had no franchise player to rely on. Sure the current roster had talented guys but none of them had that rock star charisma to them like The Elite. Even Marty Scrull who was a member of the Elite and Flip Gordon who was an associate of the group weren't built up enough to carry ROH once everyone else left.

ROH tried to pick up the pieces with some fresh blood. But the connection and story just wasn't there for fans. Which led to a lack of direction in which lane ROH wanted to present themselves. They tried to recreate the super faction with LifeBlood but while they are talented wrestlers, they didnt have the charisma needed to take over as the new hot group in town. 

Mentioned in my previous blog I believe they started to find their direction, being more sports focused in they're world of pro wrestling. They just needed a few elements such as press conferences for big matches/events or maybe in ring interviews after a win to support that direction. Hell maybe a couple of wrestlers would come to the ring with an entourage, anything to freshen up the product a bit. 

Again, they also needed a star or two to build around that had just enough charisma to draw new fans in. Instead they made world champions out of Matt Taven, Rush, and Bandido all three who I like as talent and their matches. And PCO who I could have done without as being world champion, none of them moved the needle as champions.

Besides the pandemic and the obvious financial challenges it bought. I think these are the main reasons ROH fell so hard, so fast. I sincerely hope that they rise from the ashes in their new incarnation and find their place in the wrestling eco system to great success. ROH is too important to the wrestling business