Post by spawnsyxx9 on May 7, 2008 14:37:43 GMT -5
Posted by johnny_nitro at roh lj community, it is superb read.
"It seems like a lot of the talk going into this Saturday's Ring of Honor event at the Hammerstein Ballroom will be what the crowd size will be going in. Internally, the company is hoping to hit 2,000 as a sellout was never even bandied about as a possibility.
I have no idea if ROH will break their attendance record in New York City this Saturday, but if they don't, I can't imagine what else the company could have done short of a suicidal idea where they load up on a ton of outside names and make all the regulars seem less important in the process. That sort of booking helped propel Smoky Mountain Wrestling to the grave in the early 1990s, so it's not exactly a sound marketing strategy for a company that doesn't have millions of dollars in corporate backing.
From a presentation standpoint, ROH is instead taking a page from the old ECW formula by delivering a buffet of different in-ring styles over the course of several hours. You've got your Danielson mat classic with Marufuji. You've got your wrestling on speed and acid highspots with the Scramble match. You've got your stiff brawl in Necro vs. Morishima. You've got a strong heel vs. babyface World title match. You have a grudge revenge Tag Title bouts. You have a Three-Way Dance. You have a traditional tag match where not only is there a grudge to be settled but the victors are next in line to vy for the Tag Team titles. Everything has a purpose. Nothing feels shoehorned in. Everything brings a taste of something a little different to the table.
Still, with no weekly TV and no major advertising budget, the Hammerstein Ballroom attendance will live or die on word of mouth and the online community's support of the company. It's an interesting situation because while the online fan is what ROH cut its teeth on, of late, it's become something of a trend lately to question the company's growth and product.
The odd thing about that is that in many ways, this past year should be the one year ROH and it's fans alike should be happiest the company completed intact.
ROH faced the loss of all the "name" talent that they helped raise awareness to that was later signed away by TNA. They answered that challenge by growing their next crop of talents. Some succeeded (Nigel McGuinness as the John Cena of the company, garnering an emotional reaction from fans who either love or hate the hell out of him) while some are still a work in progress (Age of the Fall, led by Jimmy Jacobs, who is trying hard to break out into the next cool "cult" style heel similar to Raven or CM Punk, but in my opinion, still hasn't hit on all cylinders yet), while Gabe Sapolsky sees the current generation as in the midst of getting over, noting it took time for the likes of CM Punk, Samoa Joe and Homicide to become breakout stars and draws.
ROH took their first baby steps towards building their name as some sort of TV brand name with the move into taped PPVs. The PPVs were not a huge success, nor did they set the world on fire, but I have yet to hear from one reader who ordered any ROH offering and absolutely hated it the way they sometimes detest WWE and TNA PPVs. Beyond the quality of the shows, even if ROH only did a hypothetical 1,000 buys worldwide per show, that's 1,000 more PPV buys than the company had a year ago, because this was all virgin territory. From a TV and marketing standpoint, it certainly sounds a lot better to walk into a meeting with potential sponsors, licensees, partners, etc. saying you have international PPV clearances and a national DVD deal than it does saying you sell out National Guard Armories on a regular basis.
Still, most online fans want immediate perfection and infinite gratification, failing to realize that for ROH to truly survive and evolve into something healthy beyond a small company that eventually hits the saturation point of a small core audience, they have to continue to try new ways to expand the audience. Every entertainment entity stumbles and falls, as ROH did when they ran the failed West Coast events, but they have to take those chances or risk complete stagnation of the product and the company. Every decision will always have its cause and effect - some fans will love one direction while others will bemoan it as the end of the company. Never will any of them ever be truly satisfied, so all any company can do is try to do their best to create and evolve.
One of the strangest complaints I've heard in recent months is that ROH simply runs house shows and there is no direction. Well, if there's no TV, of course all they are running are house shows! ROH has always been an entity that got over its talent and direction based on the in-ring work of its talents, so I don't see where that philosophy has changed, beyond the idea that every two months, one of those shows airs on PPV - and you can easily follow the PPV shows without any additional outside knowledge of the company, which is no easy booking feat. The company has run Internationally in Japan, has tried new markets (and will this weekend in Virginia) and is looking towards Canada. All without television. If you go on the idea that half the fans showing up don't know the talent, you have to make the shows somewhat accessible to them and the best way to do that is treat every show like a stand-alone house show and it's not like these presentations are WWE house shows where the paying fans often feel and are treated like glorified extras. These are small, intimate shows.
If anything, ROH hit growing pains over the last year, pains that the company management forced upon on the company themselves by striving to grow and not remain in the same place they were the year before. That's not necessarily a negative thing. You just have to put it all in perspective. Two years ago, the company was running a hotel ballroom in NYC. Now they are running one of the premiere concert halls in the city. Several years ago, they were running a 400 seat sweatbox in a Recreation Center in South Philly 12 times a year. Now ROH runs in the area of 40 shows a year in various markets.
Not every show gets the home run reaction that the original ROH shows did in 2002, but that was a different time with a different set of talent before a different set of fans in the same venue. For the most part, 80-90% of live reports we receive on ROH live events and PPV are extremely enthusiastic and positive. So, if everyone is having a good time at these shows and the company, every year, seems to try something grander than they did the year before, the real mystery is why are fans so jaded and vocal?
All the things I've discussed are not the sign of a company on the verge of implosion, as some have openly pondered - they are a sign of expansion and of management trying to grow their investment. It's a company taking measured chances and hoping the gambles turn out for the best. There's no indications that ROH is on the verge of following other companies that had their own unique product and cult audiences into the void.
Of course, that doesn't mean it couldn't happen, either. Nothing is ever set in stone and one day you could be sitting here reading about the demise of the company. That's where those jaded fans who complain about everything come into play. Yes, even you. If you consider yourself a smart wrestling fan and can conceivably travel to New York City this Saturday, when you break it down, you have no excuse not to be there.
The number one complaint I receive in my in-box regularly comes from that segment of fans out there who want an alternative to WWE and TNA - they still read and follow wrestling but won't watch Raw or Impact because they feel no need to have an emotional attachment to the characters. Some wrote off wrestling when WCW or ECW died and they maintain a slight interest, waiting to see if and when something important or fun might happen. Some have graduated onto MMA but still want to keep tabs on where their old favorites are. The one underlying connecting factor for all of them is they want some form of professional wrestling they can enjoy.
Honestly, ROH is your last resort if you are one of those fans. I can't say that I jump for joy over everything the company does, but the reality is that Ring of Honor goes out of their way to provide a uniquely different atmosphere, live presentation and in-ring product than any other promotion of any size in the United States. If you can feasibly make it to this show and choose not to go, you really have no one to blame but yourself if you dislike professional wrestling today, because you are the one dropping the ball to sample something different where you are pretty much guaranteed the most pure professional wrestling for your dollar.
It's not like ROH is running a small venue in the middle of some town out where it's hard to reach, either. Complaints that you don't want to sit in a National Guard Armory that has no air conditioning doesn't wash when the venue is the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.
Not wanting to drive due to the expense of gas? The Hammerstein Ballroom is within walking distance of Penn Station (a 4-5 minute walk at most), the Port Authority Bus Terminal (a 10 minute walk at most), every subway line in NYC and also within a short travel of Grand Central Station. If you are unable to find a way to this show via public transportation, you are simply being lazy.
Some of you out there have been looking for something to call your own. I can't tell you that it will be ROH. All I know is that if you don't invest a night and a few dollars to find out for yourself, you really have no one to blame but yourself and the Hammerstein show is the perfect launching pad for that inquiry.
I have no idea if the Hammerstein show will be a major turning point for the company or just another day at the office, but the building blocks for a great show are there based upon the lineup at a major venue located at a central destination point in the biggest city in the world to boot. The stars are certainly all in place for the constellations to form, but whether they do or not will be a story that the fans will write as much as the performers do."
I have no idea if ROH will break their attendance record in New York City this Saturday, but if they don't, I can't imagine what else the company could have done short of a suicidal idea where they load up on a ton of outside names and make all the regulars seem less important in the process. That sort of booking helped propel Smoky Mountain Wrestling to the grave in the early 1990s, so it's not exactly a sound marketing strategy for a company that doesn't have millions of dollars in corporate backing.
From a presentation standpoint, ROH is instead taking a page from the old ECW formula by delivering a buffet of different in-ring styles over the course of several hours. You've got your Danielson mat classic with Marufuji. You've got your wrestling on speed and acid highspots with the Scramble match. You've got your stiff brawl in Necro vs. Morishima. You've got a strong heel vs. babyface World title match. You have a grudge revenge Tag Title bouts. You have a Three-Way Dance. You have a traditional tag match where not only is there a grudge to be settled but the victors are next in line to vy for the Tag Team titles. Everything has a purpose. Nothing feels shoehorned in. Everything brings a taste of something a little different to the table.
Still, with no weekly TV and no major advertising budget, the Hammerstein Ballroom attendance will live or die on word of mouth and the online community's support of the company. It's an interesting situation because while the online fan is what ROH cut its teeth on, of late, it's become something of a trend lately to question the company's growth and product.
The odd thing about that is that in many ways, this past year should be the one year ROH and it's fans alike should be happiest the company completed intact.
ROH faced the loss of all the "name" talent that they helped raise awareness to that was later signed away by TNA. They answered that challenge by growing their next crop of talents. Some succeeded (Nigel McGuinness as the John Cena of the company, garnering an emotional reaction from fans who either love or hate the hell out of him) while some are still a work in progress (Age of the Fall, led by Jimmy Jacobs, who is trying hard to break out into the next cool "cult" style heel similar to Raven or CM Punk, but in my opinion, still hasn't hit on all cylinders yet), while Gabe Sapolsky sees the current generation as in the midst of getting over, noting it took time for the likes of CM Punk, Samoa Joe and Homicide to become breakout stars and draws.
ROH took their first baby steps towards building their name as some sort of TV brand name with the move into taped PPVs. The PPVs were not a huge success, nor did they set the world on fire, but I have yet to hear from one reader who ordered any ROH offering and absolutely hated it the way they sometimes detest WWE and TNA PPVs. Beyond the quality of the shows, even if ROH only did a hypothetical 1,000 buys worldwide per show, that's 1,000 more PPV buys than the company had a year ago, because this was all virgin territory. From a TV and marketing standpoint, it certainly sounds a lot better to walk into a meeting with potential sponsors, licensees, partners, etc. saying you have international PPV clearances and a national DVD deal than it does saying you sell out National Guard Armories on a regular basis.
Still, most online fans want immediate perfection and infinite gratification, failing to realize that for ROH to truly survive and evolve into something healthy beyond a small company that eventually hits the saturation point of a small core audience, they have to continue to try new ways to expand the audience. Every entertainment entity stumbles and falls, as ROH did when they ran the failed West Coast events, but they have to take those chances or risk complete stagnation of the product and the company. Every decision will always have its cause and effect - some fans will love one direction while others will bemoan it as the end of the company. Never will any of them ever be truly satisfied, so all any company can do is try to do their best to create and evolve.
One of the strangest complaints I've heard in recent months is that ROH simply runs house shows and there is no direction. Well, if there's no TV, of course all they are running are house shows! ROH has always been an entity that got over its talent and direction based on the in-ring work of its talents, so I don't see where that philosophy has changed, beyond the idea that every two months, one of those shows airs on PPV - and you can easily follow the PPV shows without any additional outside knowledge of the company, which is no easy booking feat. The company has run Internationally in Japan, has tried new markets (and will this weekend in Virginia) and is looking towards Canada. All without television. If you go on the idea that half the fans showing up don't know the talent, you have to make the shows somewhat accessible to them and the best way to do that is treat every show like a stand-alone house show and it's not like these presentations are WWE house shows where the paying fans often feel and are treated like glorified extras. These are small, intimate shows.
If anything, ROH hit growing pains over the last year, pains that the company management forced upon on the company themselves by striving to grow and not remain in the same place they were the year before. That's not necessarily a negative thing. You just have to put it all in perspective. Two years ago, the company was running a hotel ballroom in NYC. Now they are running one of the premiere concert halls in the city. Several years ago, they were running a 400 seat sweatbox in a Recreation Center in South Philly 12 times a year. Now ROH runs in the area of 40 shows a year in various markets.
Not every show gets the home run reaction that the original ROH shows did in 2002, but that was a different time with a different set of talent before a different set of fans in the same venue. For the most part, 80-90% of live reports we receive on ROH live events and PPV are extremely enthusiastic and positive. So, if everyone is having a good time at these shows and the company, every year, seems to try something grander than they did the year before, the real mystery is why are fans so jaded and vocal?
All the things I've discussed are not the sign of a company on the verge of implosion, as some have openly pondered - they are a sign of expansion and of management trying to grow their investment. It's a company taking measured chances and hoping the gambles turn out for the best. There's no indications that ROH is on the verge of following other companies that had their own unique product and cult audiences into the void.
Of course, that doesn't mean it couldn't happen, either. Nothing is ever set in stone and one day you could be sitting here reading about the demise of the company. That's where those jaded fans who complain about everything come into play. Yes, even you. If you consider yourself a smart wrestling fan and can conceivably travel to New York City this Saturday, when you break it down, you have no excuse not to be there.
The number one complaint I receive in my in-box regularly comes from that segment of fans out there who want an alternative to WWE and TNA - they still read and follow wrestling but won't watch Raw or Impact because they feel no need to have an emotional attachment to the characters. Some wrote off wrestling when WCW or ECW died and they maintain a slight interest, waiting to see if and when something important or fun might happen. Some have graduated onto MMA but still want to keep tabs on where their old favorites are. The one underlying connecting factor for all of them is they want some form of professional wrestling they can enjoy.
Honestly, ROH is your last resort if you are one of those fans. I can't say that I jump for joy over everything the company does, but the reality is that Ring of Honor goes out of their way to provide a uniquely different atmosphere, live presentation and in-ring product than any other promotion of any size in the United States. If you can feasibly make it to this show and choose not to go, you really have no one to blame but yourself if you dislike professional wrestling today, because you are the one dropping the ball to sample something different where you are pretty much guaranteed the most pure professional wrestling for your dollar.
It's not like ROH is running a small venue in the middle of some town out where it's hard to reach, either. Complaints that you don't want to sit in a National Guard Armory that has no air conditioning doesn't wash when the venue is the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.
Not wanting to drive due to the expense of gas? The Hammerstein Ballroom is within walking distance of Penn Station (a 4-5 minute walk at most), the Port Authority Bus Terminal (a 10 minute walk at most), every subway line in NYC and also within a short travel of Grand Central Station. If you are unable to find a way to this show via public transportation, you are simply being lazy.
Some of you out there have been looking for something to call your own. I can't tell you that it will be ROH. All I know is that if you don't invest a night and a few dollars to find out for yourself, you really have no one to blame but yourself and the Hammerstein show is the perfect launching pad for that inquiry.
I have no idea if the Hammerstein show will be a major turning point for the company or just another day at the office, but the building blocks for a great show are there based upon the lineup at a major venue located at a central destination point in the biggest city in the world to boot. The stars are certainly all in place for the constellations to form, but whether they do or not will be a story that the fans will write as much as the performers do."
