Comments on: Ring of Honor Weekly

By: Pulse Wrestling | Ring of Honor Weekly

Pulse Wrestling | Ring of Honor Weekly — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:51:06 +0000

[...] going on this week? With the Florida shows cancelled, there goes that idea and I already addressed the underlying problems with that. Wiswell covered the Big Return of LAX, while DVD reviews have been done, notably with Big Andy [...]

By: Matthew Michaels

Matthew Michaels — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:18:20 +0000

Good point re: online profiles. Maybe we should do that for them. Hmm…

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:40:10 +0000

Norine,

I did misunderstand. My bad.

By: Pulse Wrestling | Pulse Wrestling’s Real-Time Smackdown Report 10/03/2008

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:02:50 +0000

[...] on WWE History of the IC Championship DVD DetailsDoc on 10 Thoughts on ECW – 09.30.08Norine on Ring of Honor WeeklyIain Burnside on WWE Can’t Act, May Get CartoonAdam on Ring of Honor [...]

By: Norine

Norine — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:34:05 +0000

Adam, I think you misunderstood me. I didn’t mean to insinuate ROH would not survive unless they developed sudden rapid growth.

I do believe in ROH’s core product and think it’s the best stuff around. I would like to see ROH grow and be able to draw new fans into the live shows.

The point I was trying to make is that it is not easy for a small organization to expand and it can be very expensive. I would not mind paying more for ROH pay per views but right now that low price is a great selling point. Because of that low price, I purchased their first ppv, then purchased some DVD’s from their site and have not missed a ppv since. I regret not being able to buy more DVDs right now.

ROH isn’t the only organization to cancel a show or shows due to lack of interest and ticket sales. Someone correct me if I am wrong but didn’t that happen to TNA or WWE a year or so ago?

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:51:03 +0000

It’s hard to see a scenario where ROH could experience the type of growth that could lead to consistent house show attendance, TV time, etc. without changing the core product pretty significantly.

ROH is a product designed for the hardcore fan and like Norine said, they are going to have to bring in a lot more of then that to thrive.

By: Norine

Norine — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:41:10 +0000

Andy Mac said it:

“Ring of Honor’s primary business concern right now should be growth without changing the core product.”

Mass advertising is not cheap and I can attest to that. And I have not seen any guarantees when you sign up for advertising that you will get your money’s worth. While ROHbots will follow ROH anywhere, the point of advertising would be to target the people who have never experienced ROH. I do hope that ROH finds a way to do small scale local advertising when they run a show in order to pull in non ROH fans.

By: Bones Barkley

Bones Barkley — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:21:04 +0000

And as I laugh as I write this, if ROH really wanted mainstream press and nationwide attention, all they would have to do is let loose Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black at a public rally and corner someone like Sarah Palin in the middle of a speech or just a walk down the street. God knows how much of the national media is following her already.

By: chris hughes

chris hughes — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:21:00 +0000

if ROH allowed people to join their messageboard, it might also help!

By: Bones Barkley

Bones Barkley — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:16:10 +0000

Talent = Ring of Honor

Management = Ring of Lazy

By: Andy Mac

Andy Mac — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:11:46 +0000

Production and all of its many facets far and away the worst aspect of the company. They have poor advertising to the casual fan, who while it isn’t their audience and the people who would most enjoy the wrestling, still are paying customers. In base terms, once the company has a fan’s money for the show it doesn’t much matter if they like the show or not as long as they are treated well. Ring of Honor’s product more than speaks for itself so wrestling fans’ enjoyment should not be a problem. I am sure if you look at RoH’s ledgers you see a ton of repeat business. I know that I and many others on the site are part of this. Hell when a new DVD comes out RoH could probably pre-box a good 3 or 400 of them with pre-addresses to the hardcores and just wait for their checks to clear. That is great, and necessary, but not a sign of growth.

Ring of Honor’s primary business concern right now should be growth without changing the core product. The product has already changed significantly to appeal to the more casual (read: non-indy) fan, but in all the right way. They need to work on raising their profile. Send out feelers to people that may be spokespeople for their products. Low-level celebrities have attended their shows (Billy Corgan, Redman, others), put them on camera (money permitting) create buzz in other ways. TMZ buzz is still buzz.

By: Norine

Norine — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:31:59 +0000

I get the impression that wrestling organizations, including ROH, depend on Internet advertising which may work for some fans but obviously not for everyone. I also agree that posting bios of wrestling talent is important. After watching my first ROH ppv, I spent time looking for info on the wrestlers I had seen. Some ROH experts, thanks Ace!, were kind enought to fill in the blanks but I’m certain not everyone took the time to do this kind of homework.

By: Mark Buckeldee

Mark Buckeldee — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:56:42 +0000

A lot of these exact same problems happened over here last weekend. A UK “Supershow” called Indypendence Day was scheduled for the 1400 seat Wolverhampton Civic Arena. The stars: A lot of ROH talent, some of the better UK guys and Kenny Omega.

The problem: They relied on advertising through Myspace, Facebook, a badly designed and rarely updated website (no match listings at all, even on the day of the show) and 1 messageboard forum.

The forum immediately crapped on the idea of another UK Supershow and only warmed up when the New Japan guys were announced.

The result: New Japan guys got cancelled (due to poor ticket sales, which annoyed a lot of people), the venue was downsized and, when show time came around, less than 500 people made up the biggest show.

There were no posters, advertisements or fliers in the city, the cheapest tickets priced out casual fans and the show organisers admitted that they tried to market shows ONLY to hardcore wrestling fans. They did get 1 magazine spot (the least read UK wrestling magazine) and an article on the Sun website (5 days before, and still announcing the New Japan guys).

It just shows that good wrestlers and good wrestling doesn’t matter if you can’t get people to come to your shows.