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There are several things ROH needs to address in order to get the buzz and lure the fans they've been searching for into spending money on the product. Never has this been more apparent than this past weekend when the company put on an excellent PPV and virtually nobody talked about it. Even on ROH's own message board, which has been a haven of love, there wasn't much discussion about the PPV.

Even though the lack of buzz for ROH's PPVs isn't their biggest problem, I'll address it first, as it is relevant at this time. I talked about how good this PPV was in my last edition of Tales From The Pulpit. I wrote that people who ordered "Driven" would see something special in the main event. It seems the problem is that ROH PPVs aren't special.

While I thought "Driven" was one of the better PPV offerings from the company in recent months, I didn't feel the production crew captured how special the moment was when Steen & Generico celebrated with the fans in Boston after finally capturing ROH gold. The post-match celebration was incredible live and should have translated well on television, but I felt after watching the PPV that the post-match footage was edited too much and didn't convey how much that moment meant in Case Gym back on September 19.

The fact is for several months, ROH's PPVs haven't seemed as special as they did when they initially began airing last year. The novelty of the company airing shows on PPV has clearly worn off, so the question has to be asked why does the company continue to air these events?

Originally, the idea of running on PPV came about to draw in new fans, but as the recent firing of booker Gabe Sapolsky illustrates, the company hasn't gained new customers and in recent months has not been profitable. I feel without television, the company is going to have a hard time drawing more fans, but if they truly want to increase their fan base through PPVs, an overhaul of the current PPV model is necessary.

One of the most glaring problems is that the PPVs haven't stood out in recent months for what a typical ROH show looks and feels like. If the company truly wants to draw new fans, the PPVs need to look and feel different than the typical ROH DVD. The Hammerstein Ballroom of the former ECW arena seem to be the best options for ROH to use at this time if they were to change the look and feel of their shows.

The ROH product is meant to look gritty, but at times it looks like something a shot and edited by a high school A/V team. The PPVs are often chopped together and look like the production team is trying to fit as much as they possibly can in 2 hours. Nobody is going to get into a PPV product that looks like a compilation tape no matter how good the wrestling is. I won't even talk about the graphics that appear on screen during the show, as they look amateur at best.

The company is teasing a change in the PPV model for this Saturday in Chicago. Let's hope that it's something that drastically changes the look and feel of PPVs from here on out. If the company isn't going to change the current model, they are wasting their time and money with these PPVs.

I'll be back with pt.2 this Thursday with a look at how I feel the content of PPVs should be altered to give fans the feeling they are watching something important.

Sean Radican and Derek Burgan deliver state-of-the-art wrestling audio each and every weekend exclusively at PWTorch.com/members. When not writing his obnoxiously successful “Tales from the Pulpit,” Sean collects matches to help Derek burn bridges. Contact him at PWTorchSean@gmail.com.

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