Multiple ROH Contracts Near Expiration; Should We Worry?
The Cause of Concern for Ring of Honor in 2016
Whilst the title of this article begs the question, it only stands to reason that we explore why this could be worrysome for the wrestling company we all know as ROH; Ring of Honor. The company has, almost unanimously, risen to the #2 position of the most popular western wrestling promotions, after TNA continues to make poorer and poorer business decisions that nearly result in one of their two yearly PPV events being cancelled. But, for a myriad of reasons, the company has fallen in the eyes of the audience in these past couple of months. Which, in turn, begs another question; why?
Starting from the top, at their main event scene, Ring of Honor have had questionable booking decisions, from having Colt Cabana suddenly re-emerge and solidify himself as the number one contender for the World title, despite being nothing more than a comedy character for several years prior, to having their talent routinely take losses from New Japan Pro Wrestling talents, as a part of their cross-promotional partnership.
It’s all well and good having these awesome talents come in from a harder-to-access part of the wrestling landscape, but when former multiple time tag team champion, and one of only two two-time World champions, Jay Briscoe reaches a time-limit draw against the newly-debuting New Japan “young lion” Jay White, there’s clearly a problem to be seen from the outset. And don’t get me started on Tomohiro Ishii’s World TV Championship reign.
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The Impact of Top Stars Leaving
But you’re probably only here to see the scoop of who could potentially be leaving to greener pastures, right? According to PWTorch, the following superstars have contracts up at the end of December, following ROH’s Final Battle event…
Additionally, it is also to be believed that the winner of the 2015 Top Prospect Tournament, Donovan Dijak, will have his contract up for renewal in September, with no word to be seen on if Dijak re-signs with the company. That being said, it is also apt to note that ROH has already lost some of their bigger names this year, with Moose, Cedric Alexander, Michael Elgin, and Roderick Strong all departing to either TNA, NJPW, or WWE. Looking at this list, it should be easy to see why this could cause a slight bit of concern.
Having Jay Lethal as the top guy in the promotion for over a year is nothing to laugh at, but the potential repercussions of Lethal heading off to another promotion could be dire, same for Adam Cole, who is already popular with the fans and PWG audience in Reseda. Two tag teams in The Young Bucks and reDRagon (the latter also doubling as highly-capable singles stars, with Fish currently holding the World TV Championship) also potentially leaving might leave ROH with little-to-no starpower anymore… unless Dalton Castle and Silas Young magically become main event material before the end of the year, things could be bad for the stomping ground of today’s wrestling elites. The Briscoe Brothers and The Addiction aren’t going to be around forever, after all.
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With that in mind, it becomes difficult to imagine what potential backups they have for when these talents could decide to leave. After all, according to internet forums (your number one source of information *wink*), Adam Cole has the WWE’s attention, and the Young Bucks have previously said before that they have an interest in the WWE. However, nobody can really know anything until we see it happen on TV, so it’s all a matter of speculation at this point. The aforementioned Dalton Castle could easily become a top star in the promotion, but that only fills one spot. The rest is a hard task to achieve, to say the least.
What are your thoughts on this hearsay? Comment below!
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