On Saturday, an announcement was made that Ring of Honor had been sold. ROH is the third largest wrestling promotion in the United States today, and big news for their company is big news for the industry as a whole. The ownership is passing from Cary Silkin, who purchased his initial share in the company from Doug Gentry years ago, to the Sinclair Broadcasting Group.
Sinclair Broadcasting reaches 35 markets in the United States, and they promise that new ROH shows will begin being broadcasted to those markets this September. In addition, if you live in a market that does not carry one of Sinclair’s stations, you’ll be able to stream Ring of Honor shows via the internet. Disappointingly, Philadelphia is not one of the markets that ROH will be available in (blasphemous), so I’ll be forced to watch shows on my computer should I choose. I am, however, happy for those of you who will have access to the Ring of Honor on your television sets.
Right now, it’s being assured that most of ROH’s roster and office will remain untouched. Eddie Edwards, Davey Richards, The Kings of Wrestling, Shelton Benjamin, and Charlie Haas are among wrestlers specifically mentioned by Sinclair to be remaining in the company. Jim Cornette will remain the executive producer, and Delirious will keep his job as the company’s head booker. Meanwhile, Kevin Kelly (yes, that Kevin Kelly) is going to be doing the play-by-play. Naturally, Sinclair has already implied that they’ll be trying to attract some more recognizable stars to the promotion in order to garner more mainstream appeal. Translation: WWE cast-offs will now have a choice of which secondary promotion they’d like to migrate to.
Although plenty of fans are excited with the news of ROH’s impending return to television, there is some skepticism surrounding the deal. The Camel Clutch Blog discussed some potential hazards of a broadcasting company buying the niche wrestling promotion, and they raised some valid and terrifying points. After reading their concerns, my optimism is tempered. That being said, I’m still looking forward to ROH getting back into the national spotlight.
i cant get it in new york but the more wrestling available to people the better. long live pro wrestling. if you allow me to be ignorant for a second, and im allowed to assume everyone in the south are still yokels looking for people to get body slammed roh might take off when promoted to them the right way.
they are light years in front of tna and the wwe in originality and match quality. hdnet is a joke. if kevin steen v generico was on a tv station that didn’t shit the bed as badly as hdnet it could have been so much bigger and meant so much more. just say “hdnet” out loud. its fucking retarded. they play girls gone wild. they have horrible travel shows with these plastic voids just drinking and frolicking around half naked for hours, and then drinking shows. a four hour block of the same dude walking into different bars. this is the face of their non mma programing http://images.tvrage.com/shows/8/7221.jpg
roh was never going to succeed on a channel that was promoting mma that hardcore anyway. how are you going to be a mma channel and have wrestling be your most popular program?
You have some serious points here. I agree that the more wrestling on TV in any capacity the better – every single person who tunes into wrestling this week that didn’t last week is a good thing for the industry, and it’s a good thing for us as fans. Ring of Honor could make believers out of people who gave up on wrestling ten years ago, people who got tired of the silliness. It’s no secret that their matches are fantastic, and as you point out with Steen vs Generico, they proved that they can run a good storyline too, something that TNA is completely incapable of and WWE often falls short of. ROH’s roster right now is packed with guys who could easlier be national stars given the right exposure – The Kings of Wrestling jump to mind immediately (I don’t care, I’m a mark for them). People who watch Smackdown every week and freak out about WWE’s watered down “technical” and “high flying” guys would have their jaws dropped by The American Wolves take on the Briscoes. An actual tag team division, the talent borrowing ROH does from other indy feds, and their ability to establish believable bad blood between their feud partners would mean big things for Ring of Honor if they can actually reach new markets.
You’re absolutely right about HDNet. My cable service provider actually carries it, and I was completely unaware until about two months before ROH’s deal ran out because it was channel 800 and something and there was nothing on it besides one hour of wrestling a week that was worth watching. I’m a little leary about how this new broadcasting company will go about promoting ROH, but there’s no doubt if they do it right it could be huge. A fixed time slot would mean big things, but I kinda fear it will just bounce around late night in spots usually reserved for old syndicated slop. Time will tell I guess.
Also, I’d love to Test Big Boot the guy in that picture. Infuriatingly douchy.
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