chessarmy
Guest
Make no mistake that since ECW (the real one) closed it's doors in January of 2001, perhaps no other company post-ECW has come close to having quite the same feel on a non-national level as Cary Silkin's Ring of Honor (www.rohwrestling.com). For those who lived it, nothing compares to the atmosphere and fun that you experience at an ECW show, but man ROH is close. The overall underground, rebellion undertones are definitely there, and while ROH doesn't sell their product on violence and adult storylines, but it still has that rabid, loyal fanbase who love the performers and the action. In April of 2007, ROH made the big jump and became a national company, announcing that they would debut on Pay-Per-View that summer, and also taking the right steps to revise their corporate structure and sign their talent to contracts to prevent them from flying off to TNA or WWE.
Lately a lot of people have been yammering back and forth in the business about a rumored Ring of Honor wrestling television show to debut sometime in 2008. It's a very big step for a company with only five years existence to jump from a northeastern independent promotion into a televised media conglomerate without losing heavy amounts of money to start with (in fact, it's damn near impossible). I think the key to ROH's success on television, and as a company whole, is babysteps, like in What about Bob?
ROH has been very good about taking babysteps. They went from running one show a month in Philly in 2002 to doing double-shot weekends and two-to-three shows a month not only in the northeast, but Vegas, San Francisco, Europe, and Japan. Remember, this was just a rinky-dink independent! They began to bring in some of the biggest names in the business and use them in storylines. Guys like Raven, Mick Foley, Ricky Steamboat, Bobby Heenan and Jim Cornette all worked ROH in some fashion. You also saw some nice guest appearances by Bruno Sammartino (whom many thought hated the wrestling business nowadays), Tammy Sytch, Baron Von Raschke, JJ Dillon, and others. Besides that, ROH also brought in the biggest names from around the world, specifically Japan. Of those Japanese talents, the most notable to work in ROH were Japanese legends CIMA, Mitsuharu Misawa, Great Muta and Kenta Kobashi. These are LEGENDS, working the very indy ROH.
But I digress, we've seen the babysteps the company has made and the intelligent strides that they've gone through in the past six years, but it will probably not be until they debut on television that the entire world can finally catch a true glimpse of what Ring of Honor is all about. So, here's my plan for the ROH Television show.
Firstly, do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, film matches for the television show for the first year that it's on the air (unless by some fluke a beneficiary donates tons of dough). Do NOT pre-tape "exclusive" matches and DEFINITELY don't air anything live (they already know this). Granted since the debut of Monday Nitro in 1995, live wrestling is the key to being a big name in the business, but ROH simply cannot spend that kind of cash.
My idea is to book the ROH television show very much like, perhaps identical to, UFC Unleashed. My idea is to basically use a one-hour TV show to sell the Pay-Per-Views and the DVDs. Yes, the original purpose of wrestling on TV was to do THAT very same thing (and to push House Shows before PPV), but it seems the business has forgone that in favor of weekly ratings (which in the end do not mean much in 2007). Basically they need to put Dave Prazak, Lenny Leonard, or both, or anybody in ROH who can handle the host duties, in front of a green screen or a curtain with the logo on it and have them put over the product as much as possible, while showcasing matches. When UFC Unleashed does it, host Mike Goldberg basically puts over older fights and the participants, usually when building to a PPV. With this formula, you can showcase matches from recent ROH DVD Tapings (but not exclusives) before they come out on DVD (to sell the DVDs), you can showcase performers you are looking to push, AND you can showcase the overall ROH product for free without having to tape a whole new show and tediously time-edit the thing down.
The possibilities are not only endless, but easy. You could have an "All American Dragon" episode where they highlight three Bryan Danielson matches within one hour (obviously the shorter ones), perhaps have Danielson introduce the matches and comment on some of them, and have Prazak push the respective DVDs that the matches are on, while also selling Dragon's NEXT match or ROH's NEXT PPV. You can do a look at the "Bloodiest Brawls" or something with ROH alumni like Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Homicide, and others (much like the recent commercial releases). Put Prazak or whomever in front of a camera to introduce matches and at the bottom of the screen, keep a picture of the DVD case up and put a graphic up like "CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe From 'Joe vs. Punk II' 10-16-04. www.rohwrestling.com" (maybe a one hour match was a bad example, but its the first thing that came to mind). You can literally tape the entire season in one weekend and edit it to go quickly. It's inexpensive, it exposes the product, and it pretty much guarantees more DVD sales and bigger buyrates for their pay per views.
Naturally this is just one idea of many that you could do, but I feel it would be the most cost-effective in the quickest amount of time. The whole point of the TV show is to grow the viewership and to sell the merchandise (DVDs, Live Tickets, PPV), as opposed to just "ratings", a lesson TNA will forever fail to learn. If you look back, it was Eric Bischoff's over-compulsive obsession with ratings that ultimately drove WCW into the ground. So rather than focus on the ratings (hey, the Monday Night Wars ended seven years ago), focus on selling your product and converting fans to your style. I mean, it's tough to convert long-time WWF and WCW fans, who are accustomed to goofy comedy, flashy characters, and short matches to a much more fast-paced, yet at times, lengthy and drawn-out, ROH product. But if you ask me, this is the best way to go without going the way of the proverbial ECW dodo.
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no I didn't write that lol. I got it from www.angrymarks.com, I thought it was an interesting article that you guys might enjoy reading. What do you think? Could ROH's TV show be like this, or would you rather see a normal TV show like we see with WWE and TNA?
Lately a lot of people have been yammering back and forth in the business about a rumored Ring of Honor wrestling television show to debut sometime in 2008. It's a very big step for a company with only five years existence to jump from a northeastern independent promotion into a televised media conglomerate without losing heavy amounts of money to start with (in fact, it's damn near impossible). I think the key to ROH's success on television, and as a company whole, is babysteps, like in What about Bob?
ROH has been very good about taking babysteps. They went from running one show a month in Philly in 2002 to doing double-shot weekends and two-to-three shows a month not only in the northeast, but Vegas, San Francisco, Europe, and Japan. Remember, this was just a rinky-dink independent! They began to bring in some of the biggest names in the business and use them in storylines. Guys like Raven, Mick Foley, Ricky Steamboat, Bobby Heenan and Jim Cornette all worked ROH in some fashion. You also saw some nice guest appearances by Bruno Sammartino (whom many thought hated the wrestling business nowadays), Tammy Sytch, Baron Von Raschke, JJ Dillon, and others. Besides that, ROH also brought in the biggest names from around the world, specifically Japan. Of those Japanese talents, the most notable to work in ROH were Japanese legends CIMA, Mitsuharu Misawa, Great Muta and Kenta Kobashi. These are LEGENDS, working the very indy ROH.
But I digress, we've seen the babysteps the company has made and the intelligent strides that they've gone through in the past six years, but it will probably not be until they debut on television that the entire world can finally catch a true glimpse of what Ring of Honor is all about. So, here's my plan for the ROH Television show.
Firstly, do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, film matches for the television show for the first year that it's on the air (unless by some fluke a beneficiary donates tons of dough). Do NOT pre-tape "exclusive" matches and DEFINITELY don't air anything live (they already know this). Granted since the debut of Monday Nitro in 1995, live wrestling is the key to being a big name in the business, but ROH simply cannot spend that kind of cash.
My idea is to book the ROH television show very much like, perhaps identical to, UFC Unleashed. My idea is to basically use a one-hour TV show to sell the Pay-Per-Views and the DVDs. Yes, the original purpose of wrestling on TV was to do THAT very same thing (and to push House Shows before PPV), but it seems the business has forgone that in favor of weekly ratings (which in the end do not mean much in 2007). Basically they need to put Dave Prazak, Lenny Leonard, or both, or anybody in ROH who can handle the host duties, in front of a green screen or a curtain with the logo on it and have them put over the product as much as possible, while showcasing matches. When UFC Unleashed does it, host Mike Goldberg basically puts over older fights and the participants, usually when building to a PPV. With this formula, you can showcase matches from recent ROH DVD Tapings (but not exclusives) before they come out on DVD (to sell the DVDs), you can showcase performers you are looking to push, AND you can showcase the overall ROH product for free without having to tape a whole new show and tediously time-edit the thing down.
The possibilities are not only endless, but easy. You could have an "All American Dragon" episode where they highlight three Bryan Danielson matches within one hour (obviously the shorter ones), perhaps have Danielson introduce the matches and comment on some of them, and have Prazak push the respective DVDs that the matches are on, while also selling Dragon's NEXT match or ROH's NEXT PPV. You can do a look at the "Bloodiest Brawls" or something with ROH alumni like Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Homicide, and others (much like the recent commercial releases). Put Prazak or whomever in front of a camera to introduce matches and at the bottom of the screen, keep a picture of the DVD case up and put a graphic up like "CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe From 'Joe vs. Punk II' 10-16-04. www.rohwrestling.com" (maybe a one hour match was a bad example, but its the first thing that came to mind). You can literally tape the entire season in one weekend and edit it to go quickly. It's inexpensive, it exposes the product, and it pretty much guarantees more DVD sales and bigger buyrates for their pay per views.
Naturally this is just one idea of many that you could do, but I feel it would be the most cost-effective in the quickest amount of time. The whole point of the TV show is to grow the viewership and to sell the merchandise (DVDs, Live Tickets, PPV), as opposed to just "ratings", a lesson TNA will forever fail to learn. If you look back, it was Eric Bischoff's over-compulsive obsession with ratings that ultimately drove WCW into the ground. So rather than focus on the ratings (hey, the Monday Night Wars ended seven years ago), focus on selling your product and converting fans to your style. I mean, it's tough to convert long-time WWF and WCW fans, who are accustomed to goofy comedy, flashy characters, and short matches to a much more fast-paced, yet at times, lengthy and drawn-out, ROH product. But if you ask me, this is the best way to go without going the way of the proverbial ECW dodo.
------------
no I didn't write that lol. I got it from www.angrymarks.com, I thought it was an interesting article that you guys might enjoy reading. What do you think? Could ROH's TV show be like this, or would you rather see a normal TV show like we see with WWE and TNA?
