What Direction is ROH going?

[Headfirst For Hardcore]

ROH has everything they can ask for now. They're the top indy in North America, there's no questioning that now. They have a one hour TV Show. They have PPV. ROH has one of the best rosters in professional wrestling today. But it looks like they're struggling, when they're supposed to be finding success.

For the past couple of months, ROH has made lots of changes. Matches are shorter, and more storyline driven. We've seen more "Television" style matches, with less highspots, and more DQ's and countouts. I'm fine with that stuff, but now it's just getting kind of ridiculous. Instead of all the shows having a "must watch" match, most shows now are skippable. They're trying to rely more on big names like Ric Flair, and AAA wrestlers to hype their product instead of the actual wrestling. Sometimes it's good, but I think it overshadows the product.

And with TV, there's tons more people starting to take aim and give ROH a black eye. We saw that with Larry Sweeney, Dragon Gate, and Alex Shane of the UK. People have criticized TV, and others say that it's just fine to showcase ROH. I don't really think TV has drawn more long-term fans. It's a nice showcase, but I haven't seen more hype for ROH. With WWE and now TNA being really good, ROH has kind of regressed, IMO.

So what direction should ROH go in? Should they continue to keep things how they are now, trying to appeal to the "casual" fan instead of the die-hard fan? Should they make changes to their regular shows and TV? Will some other indy try to outdo ROH?

That was a long post.

 

[Montana]

I was thinking of making a thread like this today, and i was going to say ROH is in quicksand. Headfirst highlighted most the major changes that happened once Pearce took over, and i don't think we should blame Pearce for the change in effort. I believe the lies with Cary Silken. Pearce clearly isn't that great of a booker. It's not what ROH fans are used to. The shows they are putting on now, just aren't giving the fans value of 20$ per show. Decent shows, but nothing that would make the fans go out of the way to get. They must start putting value into every show.

Water down the wrestling, mix that with poor storylines and it's just not working. The TV show in itself could be considered a sucess, BUT they show isn't all that good. ROH has done some big things this year, but all that gets overshadowed when your not putting out your best product. They have to add more to the shows than just wrestling. I also don't think the TV job is doing a well enough job of promoting the PPV's, DVDs and ROH site. I know they are just introducing the ROH wrestlers, but the people watching are ROH fans, and they are giving it bad reviews thus far. So they need to start putting on a wrestling show, and not just wrestling matches.

As far as their direction, I think they need to go into a "state of emergency" and bring back the action that made ROH what it is today. They have enough talent. I'd like to think the booking has been poor simply due to the change in bookers. I think Pearce has made some very poor calls, but I'd fix in the ring product first. Have ROH go to Ohio, and put on a bad ass show. Go to Boston, put on something great. Its not fair to fans in these other cities to get bad shows, while NYC and Chicago continue to have top notch shows.

It's certainly not the roster, and not the new faces to the roster.

 

[J-Coke]

ROH has got to bring it's best and use their TV deal to promote PPV. So far, I don't know what ROH is doing. They try to get new fans, but even they won't understand what ROH is about.

 

[Pac]

No more head bumps from start to finish is a good thing, the product doesn't intererst me at all though, even with Cabana and Rave back.

 

[kraynor3]

I have to admit, I've been worried since Gabe left.

Gabe had his missteps along the way, but the booking hasn't been impressive at all.