Is Ring Of Honor Getting Too Much Attention On AEW Shows?
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With AEW President Tony Khan’s purchase of Ring of Honor in March, wrestling fans were ecstatic to see one of their favorite promotions saved. Having been instrumental in the start of so many legendary careers, from Samoa Joe and CM Punk to Bryan Danielson and Seth Rollins, Ring of Honor had become an institution left on the brink of extinction. Once ROH was saved, however, the question became, what to do with it?
Khan recently stated that he is trying to acquire a TV deal for the brand. That can take some time, though, so until then Khan has been tasked with trying to figure out a way to keep Ring of Honor relevant and its talent used. Putting ROH stars on AEW television was the most logical thing to do for the time being, but has that worked?
Ring Of Honor Has A Plethora Of Stars That Deserve Our Attention
Despite its troubles, ROH still has a healthy and very talented roster of stars fans may know from the past, as well as up-and-comers. Everyone is familiar with Samoa Joe. Perhaps ROH’s biggest star ever, Joe resigned from ROH after being released for the second time by WWE. Jay Lethal is a long-time veteran of ROH and TNA and is consistently one of the most entertaining performers out there. The Briscoe Brothers, despite the past controversies that will keep them off AEW television, are one of the most dominant tag teams of the last decade. Jonathan Gresham, the current world champion, is a powerhouse who shows that a smaller size (he is only 5’4’’) isn’t a roadblock to success.
With so many wrestlers out there with no TV contract and nothing much to do, how does AEW find a place for them? The company has already received criticism for bloating its roster with so many ex WWE talent. What do they do with the influx from an entire company?
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AEW Has Been Giving Too Many Main Events To ROH
The partial solution to the problem has been to have ROH stars wrestle in AEW, and even defend their titles there. That’s cool, right? Who wouldn’t want to see the Ring of Honor World Championship defended on TV? The problem is that AEW has advertising those matches as the main events for its own programming, and with very mixed results.
Between Dynamite and Rampage, ROH matches have main evented AEW programming four times in the past month. Some of it was great. Watching Jay Lethal battle it out with Konosuke Takeshita on Rampage was a lot of fun. Samoa Joe defending his ROH World TV Title on Rampage against Trent Beretta was a stellar match, and also successful by making sure to mix Ring of Honor with AEW. Twice, however, Dynamite has closed the show with ROH matches, both of which were rejected by the fans.
The first example of this was the Minoru Suzuki Vs Samoa Joe bout for the ROH World TV title back in April. The match itself was amazing, but it will forever be remembered for its aftermath. As Joe celebrated his victory, the lights went out as they too often do in AEW. When they came back on there stood Satnam Singh, the 7’2” beast from India, making his debut in an AEW ring. He destroyed Samoa Joe and fans groaned. Many didn’t know who Singh was, and worse, it felt cheap, like something WWE would do. It put too much pressure on a wrestler who hasn’t even wrestled yet and took away from Ring of Honor’s moment.
The other example is Dynamite’s recent main event of Deonna Purrazzo vs Mercedes Martinez to unify the ROH Women’s Championship. It was great to see women main eventing the show, and both are superb wrestlers, but Martinez has been booked as a low midcard talent in AEW, and many unfortunately don’t know who Purrazzo is, so to put them in the main event made no sense. It made for an awkward match with a dead crowd who didn’t know what to do.
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AEW Is Ignoring Its Own Talent
Putting ROH stars on AEW is a brilliant idea to keep things fresh and unpredictable. It doesn’t work though when it’s done so often and with stars who haven’t already been built up.
It also doesn’t work when it’s always the main event. Let ROH matches start the show or happen on Dynamite at the top of the hour. To give them your main event so often tells us that you think your own talent is not main event worthy, when we know that’s not true. AEW’s roster is stacked with the best wrestlers in the world. They’re not being treated as such. Tony Khan, let Ring of Honor shine. Continue to give them an opportunity. Just don’t do it at the expense of your own company. You run AEW. That should always come first.
