Man, I haven't seen an ROH show since Danielson's farewell event. Been a long, long time. I don't even know who Adam Cole is.
I just looked at the listing for the 10th Anniversary Show though and it does look pretty good. I see that Jimmy Jacobs and Kevin Steen are currently feuding; I bet that's fucking awesome.
But still... I don't see myself going out of the way to download shows on my shitty computer or buying any DVDs. ROH will have to start airing in my city for me to start watching again.
Honestly, you're not missing anything amazing by not watching. Product has definitely taken a step down since Danielson left, but the tag division is probably the best in North America right now and they've got some really promising young talent like Kyle O'Reilly, Adam Cole, and Michael Elgin, who is a motherfucking BEAST. Elgin might just be my new favorite obsession, the dude is built like a fucking mack truck but he bounces and bumps around like a cruiserweight. He's ridiculously strong, like freaking John Cena strong. Dude's going to be a star in no time.
I've been watching regularly for a while now. It airs on TV here, albeit in a ridiculous timeslot (Saturdays at 11:30 PM).
I fucking love Kevin Steen. He's so damn great. His whole deal with being "ROH's worst nightmare" has been progressing nicely. I'm looking forward to his match with Jimmy Jacobs and it's one I definitely see Steen winning. He'll be ROH World Champion by the end of the year, he's been great.
O'Reilly is also climbing up the ladder and becoming one of my favorites. His match with Edwards was pretty good; he can definitely hang with top talent. I'd like to see him in the World Championship scene later on this year. He has the potential to be a star, so I hope they really allow him to grow and work some good matches.
Tomasso Ciampa's another guy I'm really big on. He's really got some good intensity and they've built him well. I'm thinking he probably beats Jay Lethal for the TV Title, right?
I haven't really seen enough of Ciampa to have any real opinion on him. I've never seen him work more than a 10 minute singles match, but he seems solid in the ring and he gets good heat. He's the perfect guy for a stable like The Embassy.
So out of touch with ROH lately. I haven't watched in ages.
Yeah like I said, you're not missing anything amazing. Good amount of solid wrestling and the Kevin Steen angle is quite interesting, but outside of that the product has become a bit average as of late.
Can I talk about CM Punk and Daniel Bryan in here? I'm going to.
Sure why not. Any past ROH discussion is fine in here too.
Honestly, I don't watch ROH because I prefer the entertainment factor of storylines and drama over just pure, in-ring action. Granted, I haven't watched enough ROH to say they don't have these things but from what I've heard, they can't compare to other promotions in terms of their storyline writing and the like.
If I wanted to watch nothing but in-ring action, I'd stay glued to YouTube all day.
It's funny because every year ROH has some of the absolute best "storylines and drama" in pro wrestling, yet they get pigeonholed as being nothing but sterile pseudo-strong style spotfests with no angles or characters, which is absolute horseshit. The whole El Generico/Kevin Steen/Steve Corino angle has been literally going on for TWO YEARS now and it's easily been one of the most epic feuds I've seen in any promotion, ever. I'm not even being hyperbolic here, if you enjoy quality long-term booking of an angle with lots of drama and surprises, there's no reason you shouldn't be watching ROH, if only for Kevin Steen right now.
Shit I'd take the whole Generico/Steen/Corino saga over last year's "Summer of Punk" even. In fact I'd take it over that pretty easily because whereas that angle was really only interesting for about a month, this one has been going on for 2 years and is still exciting.
Their production values are horrid. I think they have to find a way to step up there if they ever want to grow.
They really aren't that bad. The only reason it looks so shitty in comparison to WWE or TNA is because they don't film in HD. The actual production values of the show (graphics, editing, lighting, etc) are all pretty top notch, it just looks like shit because it's filmed in SD and it's the year 2012 and everyone is used to HD now.
I don't even think they have any intention on growing. They just want to exist and produce a good, pure-wrestling product.
They're a near-perfect breeding ground for new talent.
Well of course they're trying to grow. They ARE growing right now, SBG has added like two dozen new stations to their airing line-up over the last few months, they're running shows in new areas. It's slow but they're definitely on the upswing right now, growing steadily but slowly.
