Ring of Honor might be coming to an end. It's possible that Sinclair comes up with a way to reboot Ring of Honor and keep it going as a company, but after releasing all of the talent they have under contract there's no way its going to be the same company after all that. There are arguably earlier time periods when RoH stopped being the company it started as, but they always managed to find some way define themselves and stand out from the other companies. Thankfully the indie wrestling scene is good right now with several companies that stand out of the field. GCW has a strong case with a bunch of hype and momentum for all their shows and they did just sell out the Hammerstein Ballroom which is always a goal for US companies. PWG is back with their big shows. AIW and AAW are holding strong shows in the midwest and there are a ton of other smaller companies holding shows regularly on IWTV or Fite TV. For me Beyond is definitely the company that holds the same spot with a tendency to over deliver on their cards, but always doing it in a surprising way.
Ring of Honor introduced me to a lot of my favorite wrestlers and delivered great moments in wrestling. He wasn't there for the start of the company, but perhaps no name is more synonymous with the beginning of Ring of Honor than Samoa Joe and his dominant title run that set the tone for the company. The highlight of early RoH for me was always the Texas Wrestling Association guys who came up. Its hard to argue with a group of wrestlers that included Bryan Danielson, Spanky, Paul London, Michael Shane, and Masada. The feud amongst London and Shane in particular produced a great hardcore match that saw the creation of the “Please don't die” chant. The first batch of RoH stars were an unreal group of talent that filled the card with great matches, but they didn't rest on their laurels.
At the show Generation Next they had announced a tournament for a bunch of guys who had worked undercard matches and a lot of dark matches and shows for the company that were going to get an opportunity to win a contract. A bunch of them showed up with a different idea. Alex Shelley, Roderick Strong, Austin Aries, and Jack Evans offered the other competitors the choice to join them or get beat up as they hijacked the show that led to an amazing eight man tag on the show and the rise of Generation Next was the focus on Ring of Honor for quite some time in the company as all four guys got over and became champs. This was a favorite of mine as Alex Shelley was and still is my favorite wrestler so anything involving him and pushing him to a level of importance was great in my book. Shelley sadly committed more to TNA so Aries replaced him as the main star of the company, but he still got some shining moments so it wasn't all bad.
As an escalation to the Code of Honor the company also created a new division and belt with the Pure Wrestling Division. The rules really focused on the technical wrestling aspect of the company. Each wrestler got three rope breaks for the match. After they used all the breaks the ropes couldn't save them they had to get out of a hold and they would also lose a break for any rule infractions. The initial tournament concluded interestingly with Punk and Styles who are good technical wrestlers, but not really the style that either guy is known for. However they both stepped up to the challenge of this match and delivered a classic. Some found the division confusing with its rules, but I loved the division and how people adapted to the rules or failed to and went back to the regular division. It provided a great home for guys like Chad Collyer, Matt Stryker, and John Walters. It was especially nice as storylines started to become more of a focus in the company and they needed shenanigans to end matches and it still provided a home for the original style that made RoH what it was.
They also did a good job of bringing in foreign talent that they treated like a big deal. WCW always brought in luchadores and Japanese wrestlers and valued their wrestling ability, but used them to fill up time in the undercard of shows and that was the extent of it. In RoH them bringing in AJPW was the theme of the second Final Battle. When they brought in a wrestler from NOAH it was the theme of the tour with them. Culminating in them having Morishima come in and be the champion as they first started to appear on PPV. As the company fortunes in Japan changed they created a partnership with NJPW and were the destination for young lions on excursion before or after their time in CMLL, the company that RoH also started working with thanks to their deal with NJPW and after AEW took away a lot of their big name wrestlers they utilized a lot of the CMLL wrestlers to shore up their roster and Rush and Bandido lead the company as champs.
There's a lot of great feuds that built up over the years and wrestlers who would have good runs there before going to other companies and doing their thing there. I could spend a ton of time talking about so much of the good and bad of RoH in the early years, but it really was just a treat to see so many great workers showcase their skills with no limits. It's run of hot shows lasted a long time and it was just a monster of a company for so long with no easy way to watch its shows which is insane to think about now.
Over time I fell off watching Ring of Honor live, but every once in a while I'd check back in. Except for local indies the shows I went to were Ring of Honor shows and I even drove fourteen hours to Philadelphia to watch tv tapings for RoH, although that was the end of the War of the Worlds tour and I got to see a bunch of NJPW talent and the RoH debut of Chuck Taylor. I never would have looked at other indie companies or puro without finding RoH and that's something I'll always love RoH for. I got to see my favorite wrestlers live at their shows and was introduced to so many of the wrestlers who would go on to become my favorites. So while Ring of Honor is going to be dead its spirit is going to live on in all the wrestling today. Not just because they revitalized the indies, but the American Strong Style became the style of wrestling in the United States.
As a taste of what I loved about Ring of Honor I made a twitter thread with some of my favorite matches they have on their youtube channel, plus I'm going to list some other matches I just enjoy.
Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong (Supercard of Honor)
Homicide vs. Steve Corino (War of the Wire)
Xavier vs. John Walters (Final Battle 2003)
Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer (Throwdown)
BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs (All of the matches)
CM Punk & Ace Steel vs. BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff (Death Before Dishonor 2 Night 2)
Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi
Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Briscoe
Jay Briscoe vs. Samoa Joe (At Our Best)
Briscoes vs. AJ Styles & Amazing Red
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