By Sean Radican, PWTorch columnist

One of ROH’s major problems since their core talent of Samoa Joe, C.M. Punk, and Homicide excited the company has been the lack of charismatic talent both in and outside the ring. A lot of the wrestlers cut generic promos and display very little charisma and those warts have shown up over the course of the first six weeks of ROH’s tenure on Sinclair.

Many of ROH’s wrestlers have been given a chance to talk, but the results have been mostly negative. When taking all of the members of the roster that have been given promo time each week into consideration only Davey Richards, Roderick Strong, and The Briscoes have stood out.

Looking at each of these acts separately, Richards has stood head and shoulders above the rest of the roster and he hasn’t had a reputation of being a great promo guy, but his UFC-style sit down interviews have portrayed him as a tough bastard in the ring that works hard every day to make sure the ROH World Title stays put around his waist.

Roderick Strong on the other hand has come out of nowhere and delivered some really good cocky heel promos that have surprised a lot of people. It’s almost like he’s transformed himself into his character when he’s cutting sit down promos running down Richards on the mic. Strong has been bland to say the least on the mic during his lengthy tenure in ROH, but he’s stepped up and cemented himself as the top heel on the ROH roster right now and made himself a worthy challenger to Davey Richards at some point down the line after “Final Battle” in December.

The Briscoes have stood out as well on the mic. When they’re at their best, the Briscoes cut their signature promos while just being themselves and more often than not get fans excited about their matches. The only problem with the Briscoes promo style and the way they’ve been portrayed on television so far is that they’ve come across as much more likable and charismatic than their main adversaries ANX and Haas & Benjamin.

On television, authority figure Jim Cornette has thrown roadblock upon roadblock in the Briscoes path and they’ve mowed through all of them. The problem is the Briscoes have been portrayed as heels, but their babyface adversaries have been outshined on the mic and ROH’s creative team has made no adjustment to ensure the Briscoes are seen as heels in the eyes of new viewers.

As for the rest of the roster, ROH’s creative team of Jim Cornette and Delirious need to continue to give wrestlers like Jay Lethal, Eddie Edwards, Rhett Titus, and Kenny King more chances to talk. None of these acts are delivering behind the mic, although they have produced in the ring thus far.

As for Haas & Benjamin, who have been around for a long time and have experience in WWE, they should be given a shorter leash when it comes to promo time. Both men seem unsure of themselves when they’ve been given time to build themselves and their opponents up on the mic. On the Oct. 29 edition of ROH television, Haas’s intensity seemed forced and unnatural when cutting a promo on Cedric Alexander & Caprice Coleman, who are set to wrestle them in a Proving Ground match next week.

ROH needs fans to invest in the wrestlers and not the quality of the wrestling going forward if they want the promotion to grow. Only two matches thus far have had a true heel vs. face dynamic where the crowd invested in the wrestlers and the match in the ring. Eddie Edwards faced Michael Elgin two weeks ago and got the fans on his side while Elgin managed to draw boos from the fans. Last week, Jay Lethal played the face role very well against Mike Bennett, who played the heel role to perfection and drew heat from the crowd with Bennett’s manager Brutal Bob also playing a part in that from the outside. ROH management should take a long look at the talent that makes fans invest in their character beyond just the quality of the action produced in the ring.

On the other side of the coin, there was Davey Richards defending the ROH World Title against Roderick Strong several weeks back on television. That is exactly the kind of match that won’t expand the fan base ROH is seeking to build. The quality of the action was fantastic, but the fans in attendance were split in their support of Strong and Richards and cheered more for the quality of the action in the ring as opposed to investing in Richards and rallying against Strong.

If the company wants to see their iPPV buys increase, the talent on the roster is going to have to start producing in the ring and behind the mic. If Strong can get across in the ring what he has in his interview segments, he could have a lengthy feud against Richards for the ROH World Title down the line in a feud that could increase iPPVs buys beyond the 2,000 threshold.

Going into the “Final Battle” iPPV in December, ROH is going to need to have more than one hook on the card beyond Davey Richards defending the ROH World Title. It looks like the second biggest match on the card as of now is going to be Haas & Benjamin defending the ROH World Tag Team Titles against the Briscoes in a match that’s in danger of only appealing to the hardcore fans because a true heel vs. face dynamic hasn’t been established as of yet.

ROH needs to get away from focusing on talent that can’t get the job done behind the mic and in the ring. If the wrestlers on the roster can step up and play their roles well behind the mic and in the ring, it could fill one hole that is plaguing the product right now.

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com

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