| ROH: Return to Glory
ROH: Ring of Honor
It had been a great couple of months for Ring of Honor. After the highly successful double header in the month of September, it was said by many that a TV deal was only a short time away and that proved to be the case as well. Come the 24th of October, Gabe revealed that they had indeed landed a TV deal with the Warner Brother (WB) Network. WB had been known for always keeping close tabs and providing some nice updates and clips for them, this was the fans obvious choice should they get a TV deal and now they have there was no doubt that they would transfer over to a slot on the WB Network. This was all that was said by Gabe and over the next few days, speculation along with rumours would grow about the ROH future for now as there had been no news on the next show or anything of that sort. This was finished though because on the 1st of November, Gabe revealed that Ring of Honor would be taking an extended leave of absence through this time until they got back into the true ROH spirit and way of things and could really rely on the product to perform on a live TV slot basis on a big-time network. This is all that was heard for a while and the ROH website was shut down and all that was left was for the IWC to continue speculating about where or even when Ring of Honor would return or when ROH would release even a little bit of news.
Rewind 2 months and we are now at the 2nd of January and this is where things really did start to get interesting for the wrestling world, the fans of Ring of Honor and Ring of Honor itself. On the 2nd of January, none other than Jim Cornette came out in a press conference and he revealed that after a long break, Ring of Honor was back and it was back with a bang but before he got onto the rosters, he said he had a few more things to announce beforehand. He announced that ROH would return this month but with a difference because from now on, ROH would be at a set time every week for 4 weeks before a PPV after that time. Each show would still have the unique subtitles and the show would be held on a Tuesday night and the best thing was, it was live across America and even in some parts of Canada on a 2 hour delay on a sister network just set up by the WB Network specifically for Canada. Another announcement given was the pure championship would not be back but a new title would be added and that was the ROH Pure Wrestling Championship and this title would be contested under normal rules but expect the normal challengers for the Pure Championship to be gunning for this gold now. The other announcement was that a ROH show had been pencilled in for the return and it would take place on the 9th of January because ROH was making its long awaited return to New York as the ROH crew and wrestlers rolled into the Manhattan Centre in Manhattan, New York and it was destined to be a great night. Cornette went on to say he had babbled enough and he then proceeded to announce the all new information for the new Ring of Honor, This included the staff information, show information, the list of champions and the all important roster.
Next PPV: 4th February, 2007 – ROH Presents Unscripted!
Show Information
Name: N/A
Channel: WB Network – Warner Brothers
Time: 9 – 11PM
Status: Live
Day: Tuesday
Length: 2 Hours
Staff Information
Owner: Cary Silkin
Promoter: Gave Sapolsky & Jim Cornette
Announcers: Dave Prazak & Lenny Leonard
Ring Announcer: Bobby Cruise
Backstage Interviewer: Shane Douglas
Champions
ROH Champion: Vacant
ROH Pure Wrestling Champion: Vacant
ROH Tag Team Champions: Jay Lethal & Chris Sabin
Now came the rosters but of course there were some tough choices for some of the current ROH talent to make. People like Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and Chris Daniels could not stay in both now ROH had gone big-time of course and not all of them did either. AJ Styles decided that he would stay in TNA as he felt they had given his career a much needed boost by his several TNA X Division reigns. But it was a different story with Chris Daniels and Samoa Joe and they decided to say with the place that had made them stars and in some ways, had made their careers as well. AJ Styles was a big loss but Joe and Daniels had shown the true Ring of Honor spirit and they showed why ROH is the best and has got the most respect in North America. In some weird way, the departure of J Styles had just shown what the true spirit of ROH was all about and it was only going to get better and better. Below you will find the new and improved Ring of Honor roster.
Roster
Alex Shelley
Austin Aries
Billy Kidman
Bryan Danielson
Chris Sabin
Chris Hero
Christopher Daniels
Claudio Castagnoli
CM Punk
Davey Richards
Delirious
Elix Skipper
Homicide
Jack Evans
Jay Lethal
Kurt Angle
Paul London
Petey Williams
Roderick Strong
Samoa Joe
Sonjay Dutt
Spanky
The Amazing Red
William Regal |