Whooaaa that's big.

Gresham just aligned himself with Tully's Big Bois and Claudio is a brand new star and undefeated. Could go either way.

ROH press release today about DBD and updates to Honor Club:

Ya know even though matches like MM/Deeb and Joe/Lethal really feel dated... that's not a bad card for an elapsed fan really.

It is a RoH card, and a damn good one so far.

Not sure how ROH will be going forward, but the card for DBD is looking good, and should make for a fun event.

I'm glad The Righteous got on the card. I've enjoyed what I've seen from them.

What's the deal with Jonathan Grisham asking for his release?

Jul 27, 2022 14:25:24 GMT System said:

What's the deal with Jonathan Grisham asking for his release?

It sounds like he was frustrated with Tony. Gresham was one of the biggest acquisitions of the company but TK made no time for him and was making these big career decisions on Gresham's behalf without consulting him (eg. having him join Tully's stable). When it was clear that TK saw nothing in him and was having him drop the belt to Claudio in a throw-away match he had enough, cussed TK out, mailed in a match and took a step back from Pro Wrestling.

You can see both sides. On one hand, Claudio is a better representative of ROH and the direction of the company moving forward. He's somebody who will likely feature on TV every week and then you can use ROH to give him a spotlight. On the other hand, why would Gresham stay when AEW did him dirty?

Mind you, I thought his matches against Bandido and Dalton were both lacking. There was an infamous spot in the Castle/Gresham match where they kept ducking clothesline in the corner to the point of comedy. It's hard to take Gresham seriously as a ring general when he's doing goofy spots.

People were saying Jonathan Gresham is basically Zack Sabre Jr. but doesn't sound like he's all that great in the ring.

He is amazing in the ring, just very small so once guys get above a certain height, he starts to be limited in what he can reasonably do. Being only 5'4 even ZSJ would have nearly a foot on him.

Jul 27, 2022 18:10:42 GMT Emperor said:

People were saying Jonathan Gresham is basically Zack Sabre Jr. but doesn't sound like he's all that great in the ring.

His technique and style is very similar to Zack. However his matches since signing with TK haven't been the best and he's done extremely little to get himself over. The AEW locker room has changed considerably since fans were praising Gresham with Danielson, Garcia, Moriarty, Yuta, Lethal etc. all emerging so there wasn't really a need for another full-time technical wrestler.

In terms of their body of work, ZSJ is a whole other level entirely.

Roster page is updated and it’s certainly something…

www.rohwrestling.com/wrestlers

At least this weekend's card looks solid. Say what you will about how RoH has been handled, the PPVs still been great. Yuta vs Garcia pure title should be fantastic.

We got more active than they do!

Dec 6, 2022 20:33:13 GMT @ness said:

We got more active than they do!

So you’re telling me the hierarchy goes

WWE
AEW
PW
ROH

Because I believe it. We should make MJF an offer in 2024.

Dec 6, 2022 18:34:48 GMT c said:

At least this weekend's card looks solid. Say what you will about how RoH has been handled, the PPVs still been great. Yuta vs Garcia pure title should be fantastic.

As long as they add more matches this week. So far I’m whelmed to say the least.

Yes, Yuta/Garcia will be good. Yes, I expect Joe/Juice to deliver but am worried about Joe and the fact he’s gassed after 5 mins. Yes, Jericho/Claudio should be a fine main event.

Other than that though, yikes. I don’t care about the women’s title at all. SIOG fighting a random tag team is weird. FTR aren’t booked yet. Dalton Caslte & The Boys get huge reactions everywhere they go and they aren’t booked either. You have plenty of unused talent that could be on your ROH roster for the time being to beef it up and stack this weekend’s card, but they’re nowhere to be seen.

Previous ROH shows have delivered so I’m not too worried but they’ve spent the better part of this year pushing ROH stuff on their own brand and now Final Battle is here and we have 5 matches, 2 of which are rematches.

I like that Dalton Castle guy.

Dec 6, 2022 20:46:07 GMT RT said:

Dec 6, 2022 18:34:48 GMT c said:

At least this weekend's card looks solid. Say what you will about how RoH has been handled, the PPVs still been great. Yuta vs Garcia pure title should be fantastic.

As long as they add more matches this week. So far I’m whelmed to say the least.

Yes, Yuta/Garcia will be good. Yes, I expect Joe/Juice to deliver but am worried about Joe and the fact he’s gassed after 5 mins. Yes, Jericho/Claudio should be a fine main event.

Other than that though, yikes. I don’t care about the women’s title at all. SIOG fighting a random tag team is weird. FTR aren’t booked yet. Dalton Caslte & The Boys get huge reactions everywhere they go and they aren’t booked either. You have plenty of unused talent that could be on your ROH roster for the time being to beef it up and stack this weekend’s card, but they’re nowhere to be seen.

Previous ROH shows have delivered so I’m not too worried but they’ve spent the better part of this year pushing ROH stuff on their own brand and now Final Battle is here and we have 5 matches, 2 of which are rematches.

FTR not being booked is a good thing.  The Briscoes are not booked either.  Feeling an Ultimate Endurance match to get them mixed up again.

And let's face it, with no show right now, RoH really does not have to bring in any new fans.  This is a side PPV, that Tony likely only is aiming to break even on to do something with the brand and punt deciding what to do with RoH down the line another six months.

It's always been that way but I don't like the ROH relaunch being workshopped on TV when TV time is limited enough with the roster being as big as it is.

Tony still hoping for a deal. He bought it right as Warner and Discovery merged so it makes sense that there would be a long delay before pitching them a new brand, particularly one that needs streaming support.

I like this RoH format. Do shows twice a year or quarterly. Use the belts to prop up people in AEW. I wish the networks did not want their own belts, as the RoH belts would be great mid tier titles. That said four belts should be it for RoH. Women's, Tag, World and Pure. Unify the TV into the World title.

That said maybe it would be best to unify the titles into triple crown titles. The TNT Triple Crown title could be the TNT title, the RoH Title and the RoH TV title. The TBS Triple crown could be the AEW women's title, the RoH women's title and the TBS women's title. Would greatly reduce the AEW belt blot problem, make the RoH really meaningful as part of the Triple Crown, and please networks by giving them a named belt. Down the road if RoH gets a deal, break the titles apart.

Called FTR and Briscoes having a match. Should be great Dog Collar match. Expect an absolute bloodbath with Jay doing that nasty Dusty bladejob.

Reports are after this weekend, Tony will greatly reduce the amount we hear about RoH in AEW. May go as far as keep the titles off TV and all.

Rumours swirling that ROH is going to absorb NJPW Strong when Honor Club goes live, and that is the NJPW relationship Tony was hinting at. Hiroshi Tanahashi confirmed this morning that today’s NJPW Strong taping will be the last, and the fed is ending.

End of the month RoH TV returns on Honor Club. Bunch of people pulled from indy dates that conflicted with the tapings.

Apparently we will be getting ROH taping news tomorrow. And it is believed shows will in fact be taped at Universal Studios in Florida.

The tapings are live.

So far we've had...

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}
Mark Briscoe vs. Slim J
The Kingdom vs. Shawn Dean & Carlie Bravo
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Blake Christian

Of course ZSJ is in RoH and not on TV.

Results:

- Mark Briscoe def. Slim J

- The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett w/ Maria Kanellis) def. The Infantry (Shawn Dean and Charlie Bravo)

- NJPW World TV Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) def. Blake Christian

- Christopher Daniels def. Rohit Raju

- Konosuke Takeshita def. Josh Woods

- The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun, Toa Liona) def. Joe Keys, Rex Lawless, Leon St. Giovanni

- Ari Daivari def. Mascara Dorada

- Wheeler Yuta interviewed by Ian Riccaboni. Wheeler issues an open challenge, that is answered by Timothy Thatcher. A match is made for the future.

- Willow Nightingale def. Lady Frost

- Willow is interviewed by Ian Riccaboni. She calls out Athena; Athena answers the calls

- ROH World Championship: Claudio Castagnoli (c) def. AR Fox

Post main event Kingston said he is coming for Claudio.

///

Some really cool stuff in here. Yuta vs Thatcher should be great. Also Kingston vs Claudio is going to get intense fast. LONG history here.  Would love Kingston to get the belt and restart the Her gimmick with it.

Dude time for Hero to come back and reunite the KOR against Kingston.

Really curious what exactly Hero did. Like no one likes him. NXT sent him to Europe, AEW will not sign him, and he is not even on most big indy shows. Like I do not think GCW even used Hero.

Kingston made his heat with Hero public, but Kingston had heat with everyone at one point or another until he chilled out. And even then, he never said exactly what was done to Blackjack that made him quit.

///

I do expect the Claudio feud to become a worked shoot very, very fast.  I think Kingston will use all his hate for Hero and just say it was Claudio that did it instead in promos.  I hope Claudio falls back into the roll of a cocky heel too, as he was insufferable during the feud.