I don’t remember when I first heard about Ring of Honor. I’m guessing it was in college (since it was founded in 2002, it couldn’t have been in high school), but at one point or another, I got my hands on a couple of DVD’s, including their first event, The Era of Honor Begins. I still have that DVD, in fact, and every now and then, I would pop it in and watch the Low Ki vs. Christopher Daniels vs. some kid named American Dragon Triple Threat match, which to this day is one of the better matches I’ve ever seen.
I didn’t keep up with ROH, partially because it was difficult to find back in the pre-streaming service days but mainly because the entirety of the promotion’s existence (up until last year) was during my wrestling sabbatical.
I’m sure I’ve written about this a time or two, but as days go by, it occurs to me how long my break from pro wrestling was. In truth, while I’ve been a fan of the sport since 1992/1993, the majority of that time was spent not watching actively.
I originally had a whole timeline in this section, but in order to save time, I will sum up. I watched voraciously until college in 2001, when it dwindled a bit, especially my WWE viewing. It ebbed and flowed throughout my post-secondary education, ending completely when I fell head over heels in love with, at the time, the future Mrs. Matthews. From late 2005 – 2014, my wrestling viewing was reading results on WWE.com. I’m not joking. The WWE Network saved my pro wrestling life, along with a couple of guys called the New Age Insiders.