ROH Honorable Mention: Bullet Club New Members
This past weekend, Ring of Honor presented Global Wars, a PPV card that featured a number of New Japan stars, a returning Colt Cabana and a head-scratching end to the night.
Recently, the company has had two back to back shows: Global Wars and a War of the Worlds Tour. One of the bright spots in the product over the last few months was Colt Cabana’s return to the company. Known for his comedic style, his appearance at ROH’s Supercard of Honor showed the fans a different side of his character, taking on a serious tone, in an almost shoot-style promo, Cabana elucidated his reasons for wanting to pursue the title that has eluded him thus far. The following night, he scored a roll up victory over ROH World Champion Jay Lethal and seemed to be favorite going into his hometown of Chicago for the Global Wars event.
Leading up to the event, ROH did a poor job of promoting an event that was priced at forty-five dollars. Compared to prices of most events, including the top promotion of the WWE, ROH’s PPV cost is more than triple the cost of the average event. Instead of using the air time the company has on the Comet network to promote the event, ROH television featured events taped in February, with stars that were no longer even on the roster any longer. Considering the hefty price tag with Global Wars, more than 5 minutes of a highlight clip of Cabana’s promo was need to drum up viewership. However, based on the events, it seems as the PPV was a mere afterthought, being used more for shock value and as a springboard for future events.
At the end of the main event match, the lights went out and the Young Bucks and Adam Cole appear in the middle of the ring and laid everyone to waste. The title match ended in a no contest and even the heel champion Jay Lethal was dealt with by the newly fortified ranks of the Bullet Club. In defense of ROH, there has been trouble with “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega’s visa and as such as he has not available to be the leader of the Bullet Club. For Ring of Honor being able to have the Bullet Cub be meaningful in the company, there needed to be more members of the club, specifically a singles star to join. Adam Cole’s star has been on the rise since his return and feud with former tag partner Kyle O’Reilly and in a vaccuum, him joining is a logical move as he is a legitimate title contender and has been involved in the main event for quite a while. He is also believable as a stablemate to the brash and cocky Young Bucks and has the experience, despite being young himself, to be an effective leader of this new faction.
During the War of the Worlds show on May 9th, Adam Page came out at the end of the show and seemingly joined the Bullet Club himself. This was again, an interesting choice on behalf of the company. Page has been B.J. Whitmer’s lackey in The Decade and he finally turned on Whitmer and went out on his own, turning face. Although his turn had been rather ineffective and inconsequential, this quick turn currently lacks the backstory that would go a long way to making this a bit more impactful.
The War of Worlds tour taping this week has The Addiction coming out as tag team champions, on the same night that War Machine defended their belts successfully, so it sees that the show will be used for television tapings. Hopefully, this week’s edition of the programming will feature this up to date booking. In a time period during which there is a preponderance of wrestling available to fans through the power of the internet, Ring of Honor needs to use televisions as an avenue to promote the product more than half-heartedly. There are too many options for fans nowadays for Ring of Honor to rest on the laurels of the past and squander the spotlight that the company garnered at Wrestle Kingdom 10.
(Main Photo: rohwrestling.com)
