Chris' Columns
                       
10/5/09
                                                       

                                                                   Has The Era of Honor Ended?

As we all know, Nigel McGuinness and Bryan Danielson have signed contracts with WWE.  Last week in The
Manhattan Center's Grand Ballroom, these two finally ended their three year on-and-off again feud, and once the
dust settled, The American Dragon was the one that came out on top. I wish both of these two the best of luck and regardless of what any website or newsletter says, this was a five star match. At the end of the year there will not be very matches that could even be considered against this one. It may have not been the longest match, but does that even matter? I won't go into much detail of the match itself because this is a match that every wrestling fan should watch. If you have never bought a Ring of Honor DVD, then now is the time to start because my words can't do
justice to the performance these two put on for us in New York City.

The real question here is, will Ring of Honor be able to survive their two biggest draws leaving for WWE? The short answer is, yes.  Why couldn't they? But in the long run, have they built enough "stars" to keep bringing fans in to live shows, buying DVD's and watching their weekly show on HDNet?  I like Nigel a lot but in the grand scheme of things, they could have survived if he had left right after losing the belt to Jerry Lynn. Hell, they could have survived if he
had left a year or two ago without any worries.  Bryan is a completely different story though. 

When you talk about ECW, everyone might have a different answer for the first name that comes to mind.  For some,
it might be Rob Van Dam, for others it could be Taz, the list could go on and on.  But, when you talk about Ring of Honor, it's very difficult to find someone that wouldn't name Bryan first.   Bryan has been with the company from day one. He was in the main event of the first Ring of Honor show, he had the best match on every show he was on and was beloved by just about every fan in the audience. Lots of wrestlers have come and gone throughout the history of the company but he was always there.  So where do we go from here?

Ring of Honor fans are notorious for being hard to please.  They cheer the heels, boo the faces and ultimately pick
who they want to see pushed.  Is this a bad thing?  If you're booking the company, then it might be, but to the rest
of us in the crowd, it's a hell of a lot better then seeing the same three or four guys constantly trading the belt.
Eleven men have been the champion over the course of almost eight years and until this past June, when Austin Aries won the belt at Manhattan Mayhem 3, no one had ever been a two time champion, plus his reigns were almost five years apart.  Longer title reigns are not something out of the ordinary for Ring of Honor, but during some of those
long title reigns they completely missed the boat on pushing someone into the top position when it mattered most.

Nigel held the belt for nearly eighteen months and in that time frame, Tyler Black and Claudio Castognoli were both ready to be champ.  The fans were behind them, but what happened? They both lost title matches to Nigel and then began a downward spiral. Tyler has still maintained a lot of his popularity, but what would it matter if he won the belt now? Go back to the spring of 2007 and he was the hottest thing going in the company.  If he beats Austin Aries now
it won't have the same impact it would have had eighteen months ago.  It's like Jeff Hardy winning the WWE Championship in December of 2008 instead of January 2008 ; Sure, he won it, but it just didn't matter anymore. Did Nigel need to hold the belt for that long? Absolutely not, and he was hurt several times over the course of his reign.
He was over without the belt, someone could have stepped up but it just wasn't in the plans at the time, and they
rode it out. When he did eventually lose it, he lost to Jerry Lynn, who may be a legend but he doesn't need to be champion in 2009.

Ring of Honor may have a very good roster but to me, the only guy that is ready to take the next step right now is Davey Richards. He's got the talent to be the champio,n but will he get his shot?  He's been tearing it up in the tag division with Eddie Edwards ; last week at Glory By Honor, they brought the house down with their ladder match against Kevin Steen and El Generico. There are other solid talents on the roster like Delirious, Colt Cabana, Kenny
King and The Briscoes but none of them are ready for it right now.  They need to be built up and that's not going to happen overnight. As of this writing, there are at least ten Ring of Honor shows left this year including television tapings. This is plenty of time to build up Davey to face Austin Aries at Final Battle and have him take the belt. Then
in 2010, it's time for Aries to move into Bryan's old role of helping the young guys get over so they are ready when
it's their time to be pushed. 

It's sink or swim time for Ring of Honor and I don't want to see them go down without a fight. Over the past three years, they have become the only wrestling company I follow regularly and I don't want to lose them. I've witnessed some of the best wrestling in the world at Ring of Honor shows and I would hate to see that end. If they go under, someone else might try to take their place but it will be like CZW trying to duplicate ECW - no matter what they do,
it's just not the same.

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