WWE looking to buy Ring of Honor

[Messiah]

http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2017/3 ... oadcasting

ROH doesn't carry the same impact it once did when you mentioned it to a lot of fans, but this would still be a pretty big deal.

[Everlong]

Yeah it seems to me that the audience that used to really push ROH has moved on to Lucha Underground. Still a big deal though for sure. WWE just keeps snatching up the "competition," if it can really be called that.

[The Legend]

I know what the article says, but I doubt that the WWE would be very serious about continuing ROH as a show on the Network. Much more likely that WWE would just take ahold of the video library and then cut the majority of the roster.

[Hanley!]

In a way this is exciting for those of us who have WWE Network subscriptions. It could mean access to one of the better wrestling shows out there, and some really top level talent. But I'm still hoping this falls through. Ring of Honor is basically WWE's top competition in America these days. It doesn't have the name or the budget that Impact does, but its following is just as strong, and its reputation and quality levels are much better. I think ROH provides a valuable alternative to WWE, for both the viewers and the wrestlers. I'd hate to see it give up its place in the wrestling world to become nothing more than the latest version of NXT.

Yeah it seems to me that the audience that used to really push ROH has moved on to Lucha Underground. Still a big deal though for sure. WWE just keeps snatching up the "competition," if it can really be called that.

I don't really agree with that, or at least that's not my perception of things. Ring of Honor has a decently sized, loyal fan base that's steady. Lucha Underground received more buzz for a while, but that's died off over the last year and not a lot of people are talking about it anymore. And even at the show's heights I don't think its ratings were even close to ROH's. Though that's partially down to not a lot of homes having access to El Ray.

I know what the article says, but I doubt that the WWE would be very serious about continuing ROH as a show on the Network. Much more likely that WWE would just take ahold of the video library and then cut the majority of the roster.

No way would they be cutting the majority of the roster, the way they've been swooping up talent lately. WWE hasn't been shy about courting the sort of wrestlers who become successful in Ring of Honor in recent years. And Ring of Honor has never had a bad reputation within WWE the way that TNA has. I'm certain most of the talented guys would be kept. Unless someone is demanding too much money or has a reputation for being a pain to work with.

[Twister]

I really hope they dont. Competition is healthy for the business, even if they are only small in comparison.

[Hanley!]

It could hurt WWE long term also. How many of their top stars these days (excluding the part timers from the 90s and early 00s) have come through Ring of Honor? Probably most of them at this point.

Compare that number to the amount of genuine stars that have been created in NXT. We all love a lot of the wrestlers who have come up through NXT and the show gets a lot of credit. But when it comes to making stars, NXT is overrated. Look at the top names that have come from NXT ... Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Austin Aries, Samoa Joe, Sami Zayn. These are all Ring of Honor alumni who were awesome when they showed up in NXT and learned nothing there.

Meanwhile, they've had very little success with the unknown or untrained talents that they've tried to create in NXT. Charlotte is someone who basically started from scratch in NXT, and the same goes for American Alpha. There are probably a couple of other examples too. But in general, WWE is not good at cultivating new talent. Their best wrestlers and their most popular wrestlers mostly learned their trade elsewhere before coming to the company.

If Ring of Honor is bought up, in ten years we might find that the company's newest generation of main eventers is primarily made up of Baron Corbins. And that's not what anybody wants.

[The Legend]

NXT isn't without its success stories, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, Enzo and Cass, American Alpha, Balor (not known in America much at all).

Also, it goes to figure that the biggest stars so far have come from backgrounds with other major promotions. NXT is four years old, meaning the mainstays from the early days have only been in WWE for a couple of years at most, they are still on their career ascension, especially since they are all younger than the guys that worked up to the likes of ROH.

[DBSoT]

NXT isn't without its success stories, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, Enzo and Cass, American Alpha, Balor (not known in America much at all).

Also, it goes to figure that the biggest stars so far have come from backgrounds with other major promotions. NXT is four years old, meaning the mainstays from the early days have only been in WWE for a couple of years at most, they are still on their career ascension, especially since they are all younger than the guys that worked up to the likes of ROH.

I don't completely disagree with your point. There is still time to see more of the NXT originals start to move on to bigger things. However, the most celebrated NXT members tend to be known names from outside WWE. Balor, Joe, Rollins, Zayn, Owens, DIY, Ohno, Roode, Nakamura, Asuka, Ember Moon, etc

You are right about Bray Wyatt, Enzo/Cass and American Alpha, but wrong on Ambrose and Balor. Ambrose was one of the biggest names in the indies before signing with WWE and Balor was one of the biggest names in modern wrestling. I also don't count Ambrose as part of NXT. I would also add that Tyler Breeze was a success story for the Performance Center. Though his main roster run has been awful, his run in NXT was fantastic. You could also add The Revival, Alexa Bliss, Charlotte, Bayley and Big E as success stories.

[Hanley!]

NXT isn't without its success stories, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose, Enzo and Cass, American Alpha, Balor (not known in America much at all).

Balor was made in New Japan though. That's where he learned how to be a main event level talent, and it's where he started to create his following. NXT didn't do anything to make him into a star, apart from introducing him to a new audience. Ambrose is a similar story, he just worked in a different company (CZW? I can't really remember)

Enzo and Cass are a cool act that WWE created so they get credit there. But they're both limited guys who don't look to have main event potential.

I'm not saying there's not success stories, it's just that they're few and far between. And most of their success stories are second generation wrestlers like Bray, Charlotte or Roman - people who grew up around the business. I think there would be reason to be concerned if WWE were suddenly responsible for training the majority of their talent almost from scratch.

[prophet]

It'd be wise for ROH to make a deal with WWE with regards to letting them use their video library but outright selling the company would be bad for the industry. ROH has working partnerships with New Japan, PWG and more recently WCPW; they're fine as they are and have a loyal fan base.

I'm more looking forward to Supercard of Honor than I am Wrestlemania.

[Hanley!]

I'm more looking forward to Supercard of Honor than I am Wrestlemania.

Kirbi has a co-worker who is literally flying over to America from Ireland for Wrestlemania week, and is going to the Ring of Honor show and some of the other shows, but isn't going to see Wrestlemania itself. That would have seemed insane to me in the past, but this year I kinda get it.

It would suck for New Japan if ROH was bought out by WWE, because of their business relationship. ROH is a great way to get more exposure for the NJPW talent within the United States. Same goes for CMLL in Mexico, but to a lesser extent.

[prophet]

I'm more looking forward to Supercard of Honor than I am Wrestlemania.

Kirbi has a co-worker who is literally flying over to America from Ireland for Wrestlemania week, and is going to the Ring of Honor show and some of the other shows, but isn't going to see Wrestlemania itself. That would have seemed insane to me in the past, but this year I kinda get it.

It would suck for New Japan if ROH was bought out by WWE, because of their business relationship. ROH is a great way to get more exposure for the NJPW talent within the United States. Same goes for CMLL in Mexico, but to a lesser extent.

Yeah it's crazy. There's a whole bunch of shows I'd much rather attend in Orlando this year than Wrestlemania (ROH, WCPW, the EVOLVE/PROGRESS dual-show) and that just seems wild to me.

[Str8Shooter]

Isn't Ring of Honor on a bit of a downturn over the past year or two? I haven't followed it as closely with watching the weekly TV show, but from what I hear and read online they're having trouble holding onto their talent. They've lost guys like Kyle O'Reilly, and Adam Cole has been rumoured to have one foot out the door for a while now.

It's kind of been replaced by Evolve as the go to stepping stone to WWE as well, with WWE's relationship with Evolve. It doesn't seem to have the same buzz it used to, I feel like I hear more about PWG, AAW, Progress, RevPro etc than RoH. That's not to say they're hurting financially though.

[Kreashko]

I would hate to see this happen. NXT is pretty much ROH with better production costs right now anyway.