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McNEILL: What's Missing From ROH Television on HDNet Apr 9, 2009 - 1:11:17 AM
PWTorch VIP members have first-look access to all of Torch columnist Pat McNeill's latest blogs in the newly upgraded VIP Forum. His blogs are published first in the PWTorch VIP Forum, and McNeill interacts with other VIP members and Torch staff and contributors in the blog comments area afterward. Some of McNeill's blog entries will be exclusive to the VIP Forum.
We're three weeks into Ring of Honor's new show on HDNet. It is an interesting alternative to the way pro wrestling is shown in WWE and TNA's televised product. But it isn't the sort of show Ring of Honor needs right now.
First, let me address some of the complaints I've seen on the Torch VIP boards. The crowd energy seems low at the former ECW arena. That might be something that can be fixed by putting microphones closer to the crowd. Then again, maybe not. I watched Jerry Lynn and Delirious kick off the first episode. Then I went back on watched Lynn wrestle Delirious on the Montreal show in November. Different crowd, same lack of crowd noise.
ROH fans can get it up for big, important matches, but they're not going to make the same kind of noise for the preliminaries. And there was nothing on the first television taping that looked like it would have any impact past the time the fans left the arena.
As for the complaints about the "studio wrestling" atmosphere, that's part of the problem. Go back and watch one of the old NWA Saturday night show on WWE 24/7. It's squash matches and promos in front of a smaller audience. But there was a big difference. When Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes or Jim Cornette got the microphone, they made sure fans knew what towns they were wrestling in that weekend. Would it kill someone to have, say, Necro Butcher plug his big rematch with Chris Hero in Ontario on the 18th?
Instead, Ring of Honor has a graphic for upcoming shows a couple of times per hour. This week, the graphic was wrong, putting ROH in Markham on the night they're in Montreal. If Gabe Sapolsky was still running ROH, he would have already strangled someone over that mistake.
But Sean Radican already nailed the real problem. There's no standup with Dave Prazak plugging the new "Proving Ground" DVD's and giving fans a number to call and order them. There's no preview of the big Steel Cage Warfare main event of this month's "Caged Collision" pay-per-view.
Some fans will be attracted to the wrestling and the style of matches ROH offers. But, in this economic downturn, ROH's financial troubles (which sure haven't gone away) and with the public saturated with wrestling and MMA product, this company needs to sell itself. And it's not.
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