ROH Ruminations – March 19, 2016

Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin pose

It occurs to me that since I do not talk about the matches themselves during my ROH columns, calling it a “recap” doesn’t seem fair. If people are looking for an actual review of the show, comment below, or head over to the DDTpod forums and make your own!

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As I watched this week’s ROH TV, I couldn’t help but think about the things Ring of Honor has that WWE lacks. I know, I know, I shouldn’t bring up Titan Sports in an independent wrestling column, but I can’t help it. 95% of the wrestling I’ve watched since picking up my pen has been McMahon driven, so that’s where my head is at. Regardless, I’d like to highlight two specific things that World Wrestling Entertainment could benefit from “borrowing” from ROH.

ROH Recap – March 12, 2016

Promotional Art for a Ring of Honor tag team gauntlet match, featuring ReDRagon, The Young Bucks and The Addiction

This week’s ROH featured a 7 team tag gauntlet, with the winning team earning a future title shot against champions War Machine. Now, the eventual winners of the gauntlet (Roppongi Vice) or even the matches themselves really don’t matter for today’s column, which will be a single lesson.

Lesson: WWE doesn’t care at all about tag team wrestling.

ROH Recap – February 27, 2016

ROH Recap – February 27, 2016

One of the things I’d like to do with DDTpod.com is start crafting columns for the wrestling I watch, and since I happen to have a snow day today (on the second day of spring, no less), I decided to try to catch up on my Ring of Honor viewing.

I have a hard time watching ROH regularly. Part of it is the inconvenience of it all, and I mean that in the most first world of ways. Logging onto my desktop, going to the website, logging in, finding where I left off – I mean, man, what a hassle!

Still, I always enjoy it when I do watch, so I’ll try to be better about this, NAIborhood.

From the NAI Archive – August 13, 2015 – Chief’s Briefs – Thoughts on this week’s NXT and ROH

From the NAI Archive – August 13, 2015 – Chief’s Briefs – Thoughts on this week’s NXT and ROH

I used to wonder why we rarely saw columns from the NAIpod gents on newageinsiders.com. Then I started a podcast and figured it out – When you’re doing 1-2 hours of aural content a week, it leaves very little to be discussed in a written form. Doc Manson and I just finished Episode 10 of the NAIborhood Podcast, which will be available this Sunday, and we covered a multitude of topics.

Though we didn’t get into this week’s NXT or ROH in too much detail.

Get ready, gang. It’s time for the Chief’s Briefs. I won’t cover everything, though you can pretty safely assume if I don’t mention it here, you’ll hear about it on the podcast.

From the NAI Archive – June 6, 2015 – ROH Reactions – The first episode on Destination America

From the NAI Archive – June 6, 2015 – ROH Reactions – The first episode on Destination America

The nice thing about deciding to watch Ring of Honor for the first time on a Wednesday is that there was a new episode available to the “free” members (that’s me) on Thursday, so last night (technically Friday), I sat down and watched the show many of you saw on Destination America.

Truthfully, I think they’d have been better off showing the previous week’s episode.

One of the major problems ROH is going to have to deal with is starting their “mainstream” run from a midpoint. Lucha Underground began on the El Rey Network, so they were able to tell all of their stories from page one. Ring of Honor doesn’t have that luxury. People watching on DA saw four matches featuring a whole bunch of talents and storylines that, to a brand new fan, were very confusing.

Now, most people watching are probably at least somewhat familiar with the product, so it won’t be that big of a deal, but as a relative neophyte, I found myself losing interest at times solely because I didn’t understand what was happening. This is something ROH will have to consider in the future.

The previous week’s episode featured an amazing 30 minute match between Jay Lethal and Kyle O’Reilly. THAT would have caught the attention of fans looking for WWE alternatives – When was the last time a WWE match went to a time limit draw?

(Before you jump down my throat, I get that this all probably happened fast so ROH put out the next TV show they had. I’m sure it will improve – I’m just telling you how I felt. Relax)

Anyway, on with the show.

From the NAI Archive – June 4, 2015 – DC Diaries – My first foray in a decade to the world of Ring of Honor

From the NAI Archive – June 4, 2015 – DC Diaries – My first foray in a decade to the world of Ring of Honor

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.