The Rise, Fall, And Rise Again Of Ring Of Honor (Part 1) | partsFUNknown - video Dailymotion

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The Rise, Fall, And Rise Again Of Ring Of Honor (Part 1) | partsFUNknown What are your greatest memories of Ring of Honor during its early years? Let us know in the comments while you follow along with Tempest with this look through the beginning of Ring of Honor!  SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/ Buy wrestling merchandise here: wrestleshop.com Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/

Transcript

00:00 The story of Ring of Honor is as much tied to the company's identity as it is to anything

00:08 else.

00:10 As I watched AEW Revolution, I was completely mesmerized by the atmosphere generated by

00:15 CM Punk's special one-off Miseria Canter entrance.

00:19 Not only did the song play perfectly into the story of his dog-collar match with MJF,

00:24 but what really pulled me in was the response the song got from the audience.

00:28 The call and response of this hardcore, passionate fanbase singing this obscure AFI song back

00:34 to CM Punk as he looked out to them smiling continued to illustrate just how thoroughly

00:38 Ring of Honor has resonated with those who watched it.

00:42 But it led me to think about why.

00:44 Why did Ring of Honor mean so much to so many people, wrestler and fan alike, for practically

00:50 a decade?

00:51 What was it about this little promotion starting up in the wake of WCW and ECW going out of

00:56 business that captured so many people's imagination?

01:00 Ring of Honor is going through its greatest period of change to date at the moment, but

01:03 it's worth looking back to better understand what made Ring of Honor successful in the

01:07 first place before we look to what might come next.

01:11 I'm Tempest Hailing from PartsFunKnown, and this is the Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of

01:16 Ring of Honor.

01:17 Part 1, The Beginning

01:19 Ring of Honor was launched following the success of APW's King of the Indies tournament in

01:24 2001.

01:25 The two-night show brought together many of the biggest names in independent pro wrestling,

01:28 and was an eye-opener to many that there was enough talent on the indie circuit to sustain

01:33 a bigger promotion.

01:34 Names like Samoa Joe, Frankie Kazarian, Doug Williams, Adam Pearce, Christopher Daniels,

01:40 Brian "Spanky" Kendrick, The American Dragon, Bryan Danielson, Low Key, and some guy named

01:45 AJ Styles all took part in the show, with Danielson knocking off Low Key in the finals.

01:50 Already the ROH fans watching this will know that many of the names I just listed would

01:54 soon become the foundation for Ring of Honor's roster, and this is what many people would

01:58 consider Ring of Honor's greatest success.

02:01 See, Ring of Honor was never going to be this huge moneymaker, at least not at first, but

02:05 what the company was able to do was give young wrestlers another place to work.

02:09 In the wake of WCW and ECW both closing, suddenly there was only one major player in town if

02:15 you wanted to make a full-time living in pro wrestling.

02:18 If you weren't working for WWE, odds are you were struggling.

02:21 The early 2000s were some of the worst years ever to be a pro wrestler, simply because

02:25 there were so few places to make a living.

02:28 That is why many looked at the newly christened ROH with great fondness.

02:32 The number one asset to the wrestling business has always been the talent, and Ring of Honor

02:36 quickly proved themselves capable of identifying, cultivating, and developing talent.

02:41 This would be one of ROH's greatest contributions to the business as a whole, and will certainly

02:45 be a running theme throughout this story.

02:47 The new promotion had a simple business strategy.

02:50 Book hungry young wrestlers on shows designed to attract about 500 people, then sell merchandise,

02:55 and later DVDs of the event, thus breaking even.

02:58 ROH wasn't meant to be a huge moneymaker with this model, but it allowed them to run

03:02 shows and start to build the ROH brand name through word of mouth as a result of their

03:06 own stellar shows.

03:08 And to their credit, that's exactly what happened.

03:10 In the ring, the product was far different from any other wrestling promotion being presented

03:14 in the United States at the time.

03:16 Gabe Sapolsky, former protege of Paul Heyman, was the booker and instituted the Code of

03:20 Honor which saw wrestlers shake hands before and after the match and respect the official,

03:25 establishing the promotion as a more grounded product and creating a built-in way for heels

03:29 to get heat, simply by not respecting the code.

03:32 In addition to the extra rules, the style of Ring of Honor's wrestling was much more

03:36 akin to what was seen in Japan at the time.

03:39 Sports-based presentation with the emphasis put on strong, technical wrestling.

03:43 Not only was the promotion a breath of fresh air compared to the corporate sheen of WWE,

03:47 but the different styles on display gave hardcore fans a promotion that they could latch onto

03:51 with matches that were more like what they were looking to get out of their wrestling

03:54 with promotions like ECW now out of business.

03:57 You had rivalries like CM Punk vs Raven, which was very different from anything WWE was putting

04:03 on television at the time.

04:04 For those who are just now getting their first taste of this blood-soaked, passionate, emotional

04:09 CM Punk, that was Ring of Honor and more specifically, this rivalry with Raven.

04:14 Punk would berate Raven for being handed success and flushing it down the toilet in favor of

04:18 pills and booze.

04:19 Yeah, you could see technical wizardry from Bryan Danielson, Christopher Daniels, and

04:23 a myriad of other great performers, but you could also see a violent dog collar match

04:28 or steel cage match and it helped ROH develop an identity as a promotion with variety.

04:33 If you were a disgruntled wrestling fan upset with what WWE had to offer, odds are you could

04:38 find fulfillment in ROH.

04:40 Unless of course you were just a really big fan of WCW in 2000, in which case don't

04:44 worry, TNA just started up at the same time.

04:46 Ring of Honor was rocked by scandal while it was still in its infancy as owner Rob Feinstein

04:50 was implicated in an online sting operation where he reportedly had made plans to meet

04:55 with a 14 year old boy.

04:56 Feinstein has maintained his innocence through the whole thing and was never charged, but

05:00 in March 2004, ROH released a statement saying Feinstein was gone from the company.

05:05 While this scandal could have easily sunk the fledgling promotion, what came next was

05:08 perhaps their greatest period to date.

05:10 ROH would be run by Sapolsky, Doug Gentry, and Cary Silken, a New York ticket broker

05:16 who would serve as the company's new owner.

05:18 To this day, Silken is remembered as being the man who really gave ROH a chance to spread

05:22 its wings and continues to be thanked and respected for it.

05:26 The Feinstein scandal cost ROH its working relationship with TNA, resulting in stars

05:30 like AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels choosing to work for TNA full time, but that didn't

05:34 stop ROH from experiencing their best years.

05:37 Under Silken, Ring of Honor presented matches and stories that are still talked about to

05:41 this day.

05:42 There are tons of examples to pick from, such as Samoa Joe's historic ROH World Championship

05:46 reign and feud with CM Punk, resulting in two hour long draws, the latter of which being

05:51 ROH's first 5 star match.

05:53 You also had the original Summer of Punk, where CM Punk tricked the ROH fans into thinking

05:57 he had signed with WWE, only to win the ROH World Championship and sign his real WWE contract

06:04 on the belt.

06:05 Samoa Joe faced Japanese icon Kenta Kobashi in one of the best matches to ever take place

06:10 on American soil.

06:11 Bryan Danielson ran the gauntlet as ROH World Champion, having matches with Nigel McGuinness,

06:16 Homicide Kenta and Takeshi Morishima.

06:19 And as the years started to go by, you could make the argument that ROH was the best promotion

06:23 in America.

06:25 The roster would be ever changing, with CM Punk departing for WWE in 2005, Samoa Joe

06:30 leaving for TNA in 2007, and a bevy of talented wrestlers joining the promotions during the

06:35 2000s.

06:36 While ROH started with a roster of the independent circuit's top performers, they were soon

06:40 joined by many more stars like Homicide, Nigel McGuinness, Austin Aries, Davey Richards and

06:45 Eddie Edwards.

06:46 Additionally, the roster was further bolstered by ROH's working relationship with pro wrestling

06:51 NOAH, the top promotion in Japan at the time.

06:54 It was this partnership that allowed top stars like Kenta, Morishima and Kenta Kobashi to

06:59 compete for ROH in their aforementioned matches with Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe.

07:04 When you consider that at the time, if you didn't look like John Cena, Batista, Randy

07:08 Orton or Brock Lesnar, you were unlikely to get a call from the big dub, Ring of Honor

07:13 existing to give wrestlers like Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe and CM Punk a platform not only

07:18 endeared them to the fans of the wrestling business, but it allowed them to take this

07:21 collection of tremendous performers who didn't fit the corporate mold and put on some of

07:26 the best shows of the era.

07:27 The highlights of Ring of Honor's early years greatly outweigh their low points as

07:31 the company continued to expand their reach, touring in Japan and the United Kingdom, showcasing

07:35 Dragon Gate talent in 2006 and engaging in a violent promotional rivalry with hardcore

07:40 promotion CZW.

07:42 Despite the fact that they weren't on TV and didn't really have a way of growing

07:45 their audience outside of the hardcore wrestling fanbase they'd been catering to, ROH was

07:50 gaining popularity.

07:51 The problem was, they were losing money.

07:53 Yes, the promotion's original vision of small crowds and DVD sales carrying them through

07:57 may have worked when they were just starting out, but as the promotion grew there came

08:01 a need for Ring of Honor to start doing what all good companies do, make money.

08:05 The problem with that is by 2008, America was going into a recession and it is extremely

08:10 difficult to make money running a wrestling company even at the best of times.

08:13 Especially when you consider that at the time there was no way for smaller promotions like

08:17 Ring of Honor to make their shows available on pay per view like there is today.

08:21 This would be a big part of the second chunk of this title, you know, the fall part, as

08:26 we look toward the 2010s, but what of this first decade of Ring of Honor wrestling?

08:31 Why is it that so many people look back on this era with such fondness that they will

08:35 sing CM Punk's song back to him nearly two decades later?

08:39 Well, as I said at the beginning of this video, the story of Ring of Honor is as much a story

08:43 of identity and during this first generation of Ring of Honor, the promotion's identity

08:48 was never more clearly defined.

08:50 Sure it may not have been as flashy and spectacular as the bright lights of WWE, but ROH was once

08:55 again challenging the idea that you need that to be pro wrestling.

08:59 WWE could be sports entertainment, and TNA could be whatever the opposite of entertaining

09:04 is, but if you wanted a true alternative, you could find it in Ring of Honor.

09:08 This first era had incredible matches, emotional storylines, great promos, and one of the best

09:14 collections of talent the wrestling business has ever seen.

09:17 But even more than that, wrestling fans are a passionate bunch, we're all guilty of that,

09:22 and when Ring of Honor was watched by a relatively small group of fans in the grand scheme of

09:26 things, those fans got to feel like they were part of the identity of the promotion.

09:30 Wrestling fans want to feel like they're part of something, part of a movement, or

09:34 a community, or whatever the case may be.

09:37 During the 2000s, Ring of Honor was that place for a lot of people.

09:40 Ring of Honor was never as rah-rah, anti-WWE as TNA or AEW have been, but fans of the company

09:46 would still fly the Ring of Honor flag very proudly because the show they were watching

09:50 resonated with them.

09:52 Even after the tumultuous years Ring of Honor has had since, which we will certainly get

09:56 to, fans of the classic ROH will still wave that flag, which they should, even if the

10:01 OG Ring of Honor logo is one of the worst things I have ever seen.

10:05 Ring of Honor was special, and they were special during a time where not a lot of promotions

10:09 below WWE felt significant at all.

10:12 If you were someone who would appreciate seeing Kenta Kobashi, Ring of Honor was the promotion

10:16 for you.

10:17 If you were someone who wanted to see long, well-paced stories used in tandem with great

10:21 matches, Ring of Honor was the promotion for you.

10:24 And if you were someone who wanted kick-ass music, then Ring of Honor was certainly for

10:27 you.

10:28 Wrestling is just a concert, and this concert plays Call to Personality, Miseria Cantare,

10:33 and the Final Countdown motherf**kers.

10:35 [Outro Music]

11:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]

The Rise, Fall, And Rise Again Of Ring Of Honor (Part 1) | partsFUNknown

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