Since I'm in a wrestling mood today, I thought I'd throw this up here. I haven't watched Ring of Honor in a while, but it was really great when it hit the scene. Low Ki and Doug Williams quickly became two of my favorite wrestlers. Doug Williams went on to appear in TNA for a while, where he never seemed to be utilized all that well (big surprise). Low Ki won NXT for WWE, then was promptly fired. Another huge shocker.

That's the reason I really wish we could go back to a vibrant regional model in addition to WWE, but I think that pandora's box has been opened for good. It's just too difficult to create an independent group. I've seen several fold here in the Bay Area, but then again, San Francisco has always been a crap part of the country for wrestling.

Anyway, take a look at this if you've never seen it. Or even if you have. It's a great match, even if ROH is guilty of having wrestlers that can only seemed to be pinned after taking a nuclear blast to the face or some of equivalent power.

Oh, and sorry about the play-by-play and color. ROH had terrible people on the mic at this point.

4128467
I haven't seen that match, so I'll be sure to check it out in the morning.

As for the old regional model, I'm not convinced that it was for the best. Since there was little to no direct competition, the promotions had stagnated and were mostly in decline at the start of the 1990s. The rise of WCW as a nationwide promotion triggered a spike in creativity, and that brought in unprecedented numbers of viewers, but practically the moment that company folded, ratings started steadily declining. Now, only a fraction of the people who were fans in the late 90s are still watching the shows.

We'll probably see the whole cycle repeat itself in the coming years, though, starting when WWE folds.

4130074 The territories weren't perfect, that's for sure, but it was competition of a sort. Pride had a factor in trying to get the owners to put out the best product possible, wrestlers could hone characters without destroying their reputations nationally, different flavors could emerge from the visions of different bookers, etc.

Now we have one national brand in the WWE. TNA offers some difference, but not really enough. I haven't watched in a while, but they were doing everything in their power to be WWE-like when I stopped. Hopefully it's gotten better.

But that's what wrestling really needs: competition, be it in regional promotions or three or four television shows. Whichever. Management needs to feel like they need to put out a stellar product, and they need to feel like their wrestlers could move on to greener pastures if they aren't treated well. They need that tension again. I haven't really watched wrestling in a few years, and it's probably been the only time in my life that I stopped watching out of sheer boredom. I've stuck with it through some terrible times. Early 90s WWF was horrendous. But it was still entertaining, even when you were just staring at the TV thinking, "I'm watching a heroic garbage man wrestle an evil plumber. What the hell?" After watching John Cena cut the millionth samey-same promo on whatever vanilla heel was fed to him this week, I just couldn't deal anymore.

4130516
Yup, the current WWE product is absolute garbage. I continue to watch it (some sort of Stockholm Syndrome, perhaps?) but I tune out for at least half of the shows. I think there are two storylines currently running that I'm actually invested in, and those are buried deep in the mid-card.

I have some hope that WWE will improve when Vince McMahon finally retires. Triple H's work at NXT has shown that he can run an excellent promotion, after all. Until that day, though, I suspect the product will only get worse. The question is whether he'll step aside in time for someone else to save the company from its inevitable collapse.

4130591 Vince still hasn't moved aside?! I thought he was basically turning the show over to Triple H a couple of years ago. I'd heard that Hunter was freshening things up, but since I don't have cable anymore, I can't really check for myself. That's one of the biggest problems. Vince has become so weirdly entrenched in his vision that the product is totally stale, and without outside pressure, he'd rather trying and force his outdate vision on viewers rather than admit he might be out of touch.

Did they at least knock it off with the special guest hosts? That more than anything else sent me packing. I mean, wrestling is basically a commercial for the pay-per-view. On top of that, I have to watch normal commercials. Then Vince added these fucking special guest hosts for RAW, which was basically just a way for them to advertise whatever thing they were selling. That was just kind of the last straw for me. I kept thinking while watching the show that I was seeing twenty minutes of wrestling and one and a half hours of commercials.

I've never been a big fan of Triple H, but if he can bring back some sparkle to the product, I'd love to give him some accolades.

4130689
If only Vince had actually stepped down. He's delegated a lot of responsibility, but he still calls the shots, and he's so out of touch that he's alienating more and more of his audience with each passing week. For example, WWE currently has the most popular performer they've had in years, a guy who's almost universally loved by audiences, but Vince is pushing him down the card to make room at the top for his new golden boy, a good-looking Samoan guy with three moves, low stamina, and no connection to the crowd. He's going to get booed out of the building at Wrestlemania despite being the babyface in the main event.

I can't wait to see it, tbh. I'm gonna laugh my ass off.

Guest hosts don't appear often these days, thankfully, and when they do, they tend to be retired wrestlers instead of random celebrities. The commercials, though, are as bad as ever.