Marketh.

It must be over 6 months by now since Gabe's firing, so why not look at Pearce's successes and failures since then? He gets a lot of flak, but there are undoubtedly some things that he has improved on. Here's a rough idea:


Pros

More emphasis on characters - VERY European Claudio, A-Double, Grizzly Redwood, Dirty Ernie, the hiring and re-hiring of Eddie Kingston, Colt Cabana, Jimmy Rave, Joey Ryan and Prince Nana (Yeah, he returned near the end of Gabe's tenure, but it was Pearce's decision to have him regain his riches and reform The Embassy).

Production - Weekly videowires, more promos, more videopackages and adverts.

American Wolves - One of the highlights of 2009 so far and a huge benefit to the careers of Davey and Eddie, especially Eddie, who is improving in the ring and is less bland. They are getting the treatment that tag champs deserve, unlike Steenerico and putting on good matches all the time.

Main event scene - I'm sure some will disagree on the decision to put the belt on Lynn, but before then there were a good amount of possible dethroners: Aries, Lynn, Dragon, Tyler and Jimmy. Although Lynn and Tyler were the most likely candidates, with Nigel's injury it could've been anyone. Hell, even a lot of people thought it was KENTA.


Cons

Shorter matches/shows - After what we'd seen from years of Gabe's shows, the drastic change wasn't comfortable for most people. The decrease in match length lead to a decline in quality, meaning it wasn't uncommon for a main event match to be ***1/2. It used to be that the average ROH show would have at least one **** bout, but of course, that's just my opinion. The shorter shows have lead to a large increase in "B" shows, which can't be helping DVD sales.

Non-finishes - A huge rise in DQs, countouts and draws was pretty evident. They can be effective (see Dragon/Morishima), but to have them in just about every other AOTF match is nonsense, imo. It's done a good job at making countouts a bit more exciting, but apart from that...

Loss of the "ROH feel" - The HD Net shows are a prime example of this. While I'm probably one of the few that enjoy these shows, I definitely don't hold them to the same standard as the DVDs and PPVs and they really feel like I'm watching a completely different promotion with most of the same wrestlers.


I'm sure there's more, so let's get a little discussion going.

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King Steventon

Grizzly and Earnie had the gimmicks after Gabe but before Pearce actually took over as booker IIRC. I don't doubt Gabe would have resigned most of those guys outside Kingston, but Pearce hasn't really done anything with Kingston yet. Hopefully he does, but so far just teasing of the Hero fued.

I would also say the main event is pretty uninteresting right now. I would say it could just be me but it's evident I'm not the only one from other sites I glance over. Tyler's title hunt was drawn out way, way too long, he should have won it at Final Battle if anything (obviously get some big wins leading up to it beforehand). Lynn doesn't have any big rivals at the moment and there is no real "Lynn vs ___" defences I relly want to see like if it was a Dragon or Aries reign. I also have a hard time thinking of a bigger facepalm in wrestling right now that Jerry Lynn: ROH Champion.

I would say the biggest disadvantage is the shortening of match lengths. I have seen constant marks like Tree from the ROH boards claim it is good because it doesn't burn out the live crowds as much, which may or may not be true, but from I have seen the crowds seem the same as always for the main event sometimes even deader. I can't remember many dead crwods from 2005-06 when ROH was in their peak and frequently had lengthy matches. The whole crowd burning out thing was from 2007 when they had undercards full of shitty faction war spotfests and hundreds of 2.9 counts in the entire undercard. The ROH style doesn't work well with shorter matches and workers thee need more time to build matches and add in the intricate details, the vast majority of 2009 ROH stuff I have seen I would class as "good" but I wouldn't call much of it outside the 45 minute Lynn/Nigel match "great".

I have no problem with non-finishes, it's just the poor use and repetitiveness of them.

The business plan is totally mind-boggling and nonsensical. The TV show is just the exact same format as WWE and TNA and that will get them no where. They need to offer an alternative or superior product if they have any chance of drawing in new viewers and they are not doing that, and yet that is what made them popular in the first place. The current business model is just a total disaster imo and I think there's alot more substance to the whiny "OMG ROH WILL DIE" shit on ROH boards than people will want to admit.

I can not think of one interesting fued or angle Pearce has booked himself. The most interesting things like Wolves and Embassy return are decent but they have just fallen into his hands more than anything.

Also, can we really account the booker for production values?


EDIT - Yeah... had to be "that guy"

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Marketh.

It depends. I wasn't sure about putting that in, but there's definitely been a lot of changes since Gabe left and Pearce took over. I doubt Pearce was in control of HD cameras and whatnot, but I can only assume the increase in videowires and promos came from him since those changes happened when he took over.

You sure you're not forgetting the Wolves/Steenerico feud? To me, it's looking like epic stuff so far.

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King Steventon

Steenerico/Wolves fued was alright, really enjoyed their first match together though the booking just didn't grip me much. Having the Wolves win in a TV Tables are Legal match felt sort of anticlimactic. Maybe it was because Steenerico's reign was so lacklustre, I dunno, but I wanted to see a lot more before the big title switch. We have already seen Steenerico as the title-chasers for the better part of a year and half I would have rather seen them as the defending champs in the fued for a longer time. Various injurys have also hindered the booking somewhat and it would appear as if Dragon has taken over as the Wolves' main rival now which hurts Steenerico. Not that I'm opposed to Dragon hunting for the tag titles, but it's the fact that I'm not sure wether the Wolves are meant to be fueding with Steenerico or Dragon or both or wether they are on the same side that throws me off.

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Marketh.

I wouldn't look into it too much like that. The way I see it, they're separate rivalries and Dragon/Tyler is short-term, whilst Steenerico is long term. I predict that the Wolves will beat Dragon a couple more times then that'll be it, proving their domination over the top guy and cementing themselves as legitimate champs, then the Steenerico feud continues. I don't think they're working together, I see it as more like there was an opportunity for Steen to get his hands on the Wolves, so he took it by being Dragon's partner.
The whole Tables thing was quite lackluster, but if I know Pearce's booking, it's only to create more opportunities for Steenerico to say that the Wolves haven't pinned or made them tap yet, in order to keep this thing going. I don't think the booking of this feud has been all that bad, but the match quality sure is making this brilliant stuff. Obviously Pearce isn't in total control of that, but he's made some good match combinations between the six.

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