Wrestling Icons Request Thread

[Soulpower]

ROH on PPV!

Finally! Ring of Honor will air on PPV....

INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING PHENOMENON RING OF HONOR INKS STATESIDE TELEVISION DEALS

WITH iN DEMAND, TVN AND ECHOSTAR

PPV/VOD Distribution Deals Bring ROH into 50 Million Households

New York, May 3, 2007 - Ring Of Honor Wrestling (ROH), in association with G-Funk Sports & Entertainment, has concluded programming and distribution deals for PPV and VOD wrestling cards with iN DEMAND Networks, TVN and EchoStar Communications Corporation’s DISH NetworkTM, making the critically-acclaimed ROH brand available for the first time ever to approximately 50 million American households. The agreement calls for a card every 60 days from shows both stateside and abroad, and will premiere July 1. A total of six cards are planned throughout ‘07/’08. ROH owner Cary Silkin made the announcement today with G-Funk’s President Ken Gelman. The debut event, entitled “Respect Is Earned,†will be taped May 12 in New York City from the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center, and will feature a glistening array of talent from Japan, England, the U.S. and Mexico.

Long revered by a loyal underground fan base, the Philadelphia-based ROH—currently seen on Canadian, British and Japanese TV—appeals to the disenfranchised wrestling fan fed up with storylines which seem to take precedence over the kind of powerful ring competition that ROH specializes in. ROH, in fact, is seen to have the highest level of athleticism in its field today, which recently culminated in a sweep of the 2006 Wrestling Observer awards for “Most Outstanding Wrestler,†“Best Brawler,†“Best Major Wrestling Show†(ROH took four of its Top 10) and “Best Booker.â€

“Fans around the world now know that our brand of action is, indeed, the highest-flying, hardest-hitting most daring and acrobatic action presented today,†says Mr. Silkin. “We are thrilled that we can finally show a televised audience what our crowds have known for the last six years…that ROH harkens back to an earlier era of wrestling where authenticity still counted for something. There’s a magic at our shows that I, as a wrestling fan, had all but given up on.â€

G-Funk Sports and Entertainment will be handling all marketing and promotion for the wrestling programs, including creation and launch of an affiliate website on May 15, www.rohaffiliates.com, which will contain easy-to-implement marketing materials and all event information. Each show will also be supported by a range of targeted national consumer advertising and promotion.

According to Mr. Gelman, “Ring Of Honor already has the respect and enthusiastic following of legions of fans around the world through their live events, but represents a fresh new entry into the world of televised wrestling. These distinctive programs will prove a welcome change-of-pace for audiences and a popular new option for cable operators and satellite providers as they expand their transactional offerings.â€

This is a huge step for the company and this could be the thing that exposes ROH to more fans. All I can say is its about damn time!

 

[Montana]

Great News....heres a preview ( I wonder why its taped so far in advance)

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[Soulpower]

^^ If you're talking about the PPV its because its a lot cheaper to tape it and then air it on PPV... If it were to air live the guys at ROH would have to spend a lot of money which they might not have.

 

[Montana]

I understand that, but like 7 weeks. Storylines could change and stuff in that time.

 

[ion256]

ill watch it if they cut the match times down to 10-15 minutes each if not i wont because roh puts me to sleep with there long boring matches

 

[Nancy Di Loreto]

ROH will only have 2-3 hours so I'm guess we're only gonna see 5 maybe 6 matches if we're lucky. And they better be bloody good. And if they want a good buy-rate, I recommend getting Samoa Joe to wrestle in the Main Event. Maybe with Bryan Danielson...

 

[monkeystyle]

Wait so the ppv's are taped ahead of time?

Ok, well what a waste of time. I'm not going to be ordering any of these.

 

[Soulpower]

^^^Joe isn't a part of ROH and even if he was he couldn't wrestle.... The contract he signed with TNA prevents him from wrestling on PPV's from different wrestling companies. That's why Austin Aries/Starr doesn't appear in the video, he's a TNA contracted wrestler and won't be part of the PPV.

As of now there's no card set-up for the May 12th show (which will air on PPV) but I'm guessing we'll see the tag and ROH title on the line.

And to MS... Its 10 bucks, if the matches are good I'm buying it anyway. If I can shell out 40 bucks for a 3 Hour version of RAW, I can shell out 10 for some good wrestling.

 

[Montana]

I think if they were taped like a week in advanced it'd be cool. Only 10 bucks is a good deal. Its worth it, i bet they will put on a supershow. I wonder if the dragon gate guys will be allowed to wrestle.

 

[monkeystyle]

I found this on another forum that I occasionally visit. This is the top 6 reasons why RoH on ppv will fail.

I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but there are definetly some things worth pondering.

1 - Already a stupid amount of wrestling shows on PPV already. WWE does something like 16. TNA does 12. UFC are doing a minimum of 12 and don't anyone even come out with they aren't competition because WWE gives a shit who UFC are and don't care who ROH are. As soon as somebody is trying to get you to buy their monthly show, it's competition.

2 - ROH is built on DVD sales. Those sales are doing down now. Fact! People won't buy DVDs and PPVs of the same show when they roughly come out at the same time.

3 - PPV's that are taped NEVER do well.

4 - They are barely a blip on the IWC. You think the average person will chose ROH over WWE or TNA when their production is worse than anything ECW put on PPV?

5 - They won't even come close to TNA's buyrates and will very soon be losing money. When you are on PPV, you immediately lose 50% of fee you charge your customers to the PPV companies. Then it takes forever to get your money (and it's not 50% either) back from the companies. Plus you can't charge more than you charge for your DVDs so that's even less money. Oh and the IWC are fucking famous for bootlegging shit through torrents and what not so that's even less money being spent on PPV.

6 - If ROH had anything resembling a star, they are all gone now.

Gabe always said he would never want them to do PPV and I'd be shocked if this was his call. The writing is on the wall for ROH now.

 

[Rell]

Some people just cant recognize a good thing when they see it, I dont care if they taped the PPV today, if the wrestlings good I'll watch...Fu*k Hip Hop is dead...Wrestling is dead.

 

[monkeystyle]

Some people just cant recognize a good thing when they see it, I dont care if they taped the PPV today, if the wrestlings good I'll watch...Fu*k Hip Hop is dead...Wrestling is dead.

The issue here is not the wrestling. Its the fact that RoH really are not ready for a ppv.

The only people they appeal to is a small part of the iwc. Like ask the average fan if they've heard of RoH.

90% of them will say no.

I love RoH, but I think that over all the ppv's are a very bad idea.

 

[Montana]

I found this on another forum that I occasionally visit. This is the top 6 reasons why RoH on ppv will fail.

I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but there are definetly some things worth pondering.

1 - Already a stupid amount of wrestling shows on PPV already. WWE does something like 16. TNA does 12. UFC are doing a minimum of 12 and don't anyone even come out with they aren't competition because WWE gives a shit who UFC are and don't care who ROH are. As soon as somebody is trying to get you to buy their monthly show, it's competition.

2 - ROH is built on DVD sales. Those sales are doing down now. Fact! People won't buy DVDs and PPVs of the same show when they roughly come out at the same time.

3 - PPV's that are taped NEVER do well.

4 - They are barely a blip on the IWC. You think the average person will chose ROH over WWE or TNA when their production is worse than anything ECW put on PPV?

5 - They won't even come close to TNA's buyrates and will very soon be losing money. When you are on PPV, you immediately lose 50% of fee you charge your customers to the PPV companies. Then it takes forever to get your money (and it's not 50% either) back from the companies. Plus you can't charge more than you charge for your DVDs so that's even less money. Oh and the IWC are fucking famous for bootlegging shit through torrents and what not so that's even less money being spent on PPV.

6 - If ROH had anything resembling a star, they are all gone now.

Gabe always said he would never want them to do PPV and I'd be shocked if this was his call. The writing is on the wall for ROH now.

I think ROH is as ready now as they will ever be. This is the next logical step for the company. Most of their main events have a big fight feel to them. Like Morishima vs Nigel. I havent seen the match, but that match had a good about of hype around it. I really like ROH's booking as well. Which i think is the most important part of any wrestling program.

As to the points listed above, i do tend to agree with most. They are some downsides, but you have to take risk to advance. Every company has to take risk.

1) Too many PPVs: Thats true, but i once ROH finds its crowd (which a large following already) they will be fine with PPV Buyrates. Many are actually expecting fairly high buyrates from their loyal fans

2) Dvd Sales: Agree'd I thought they should do webcast + DVD sale for shows. With PPV now it will be hard. DVD sales might slip, but think of the handful new fans they will gain

3 PPVs taped: Agree'd hopefully they will change that as they grow.

4 unknown company: I'd rather see some of ROH house shows rather than wwe ppv's and tnas. Ill leave it at that.

5 Losing Money: Takes money to make money. I dont see them losing a whole lot as buyrates will be solid. Similar to TNA's. As far as Torrents, it could hurt, but they gotta overcome these obstacles.

6 Stars are gone ROH is very good building stars i've noticed. Right now they got a handful of top stars stilll on the roster.

 

[Rell]

The issue here is not the wrestling. Its the fact that RoH really are not ready for a ppv.

The only people they appeal to is a small part of the iwc. Like ask the average fan if they've heard of RoH.

90% of them will say no.

I love RoH, but I think that over all the ppv's are a very bad idea.

That is very true, but hey nobody knew what TNA was when it first started...look at them now, the only difference is TNA had established names like Scott Hall and Jeff Jarrett, ROH doesn't have that.

 

[kane6640]

when did roh get a large fanbase.if it was very big they wouldnt keep loosing talent to ever nickle and dim wrestling divison out their