Welcome to ROH Honorable Mention, Last Word on Sports’s look at the biggest news coming out of Ring of Honor.
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Roderick Strong, aka Mr. ROH, has been successfully defending the ROH Television title against all comers in what has been titled “Roddy vs. the World”. This week’s iteration saw him defending against a Combat Zone Wrestling veteran, Masada. One of the interestings aspects of this open challenge program that Strong has been carrying is that his opponents are rarely anybody on the active roster. The commentary team of Kevin Kelly and Mr. Wrestling III did a masterful job of pointing out how Strong has little to no prior knowledge of the men he defends against. Wrestling may be predetermined but it’s this sort of discussion, and not what is trending on social media that legitimizes the sport, albeit briefly for the fans.
One of the strongest parts of the shows week to week are these little tidbits by the commentators. There is a clear dedication to making everyone look stronger, instead of being witty and culturally relevant. By hyping Masada up as a veteran of death matches, his loss to Roddy becomes that much more impactful, even if he is an unknown to regular ROH fans. Smackdown has made efforts to present a better product with the signing of Mauro Ranallo and NXT commentary has been solid with the work of wrestler turned color commentator Corey Graves, but the flagship show of RAW, the one used to promote its brightest stars, falls short when compared to ROH’s talking heads.
Something is Fishy
Building steam towards the 14th anniversary show, the televised Ring of Honor hour of wrestling showcased all of the participants of the upcoming World title match. The main event for the North Carolina taping saw reDRagon take on Adam Cole and Jay Lethal. An accidental “Lethal Injection” on Adam Cole later and the heels walked away the losers for this match up. The booking on this match is a bit of a head scratcher. O’Reilly is the face going into the match and he is the smaller scrappier wrestler. Granted, reDRagon have tagged together for quite a bit, but with the big show looming, garnering more support for Kyle with a dastardly heel win would have gone a long way to elevating the importance of this match.
The other issue with this match is Bobby Fish’s role. Despite wrestling as a face with his reDRagon partner, Fish has come off as a very heelish character in his interactions with Roderick Strong. At Final Battle, Strong defended Fish after a bit of controversy when Mr. ROH apparently tapped out to Fish. After the event in the backstage area, Strong was interviewed and reveled in his victory, affirming that he “would do anything to win”.This seemed to be laying the groundwork for a Roddy heel turn, but the forthcoming interactions between the two grapplers does not make the picture as clear as it may have been after their clash at Final Battle.
In the subsequent weeks, Roddy has insisted that he did not tap out and his frustration has been palpable. During one week of tapings, Fish invited Roddy to be a guest on The Fish Tank, during which Fish aired a clip of their match, showing Strong tapping out, something the referee did not catch during the match. Mr. ROH became visibly angered, as he as even resorted to calling Fish a sore loser and throwing a microphone at him. Part of the confusion here stems from Strong initially embracing the lengths to which he would go to keep the Television title, but then growing frustrated by being called out on it. His childish frustration lends itself to the actions of a heel, however, Fish’s smarmy demeanor and antagonistic appearances during Strong’s title defenses make the case for a heel turn for one half of reDRagon.
With just under three weeks to go before the 14th anniversary show in Las Vegas and ROH’s recent signing of reDRagon to an exclusive deal, one would assume that Fish will get his rematch at the landmark event. Roddy vs. the World, defenses against legitimate challengers, purports Strong to be a fighting champion, one who will not back down from any challenge. This past week saw Fish call Roddy out on just that, eventually saying that the world does not seem to include Bobby Fish. Yet again, the way this is presented makes Fish resembling an obnoxious “wronged” loser, not a face looking for what is rightly his. Then, in the main event, Fish teamed with his very face partner and came away victorious. The duality of both Fish’s and Strong’s characters distracts from what could be an enjoyable program between the two. Ring of Honor needs to decide which direction the company wants to go with in terms of both wrestlers and then not deviate from that plan. Both men can credibly play the part of the heel and face, but with limited airtime left between now and the PPV, decisions need to be made to clarify storylines.
As I wrote about last week, the World title picture lacks the definitive emotional investment for Jay Lethal that your typical championship would demand. Lethal is being stuck in between a long brewing feud between Cole and O’Reilly. Granted, defending a title is certainly motivation itself, but it is overshadowed by the culmination of the former Future Shock partners clashing with the World title on the line. Muddying the waters for the two singles titles in the company is a questionable tactic. A championship is a prop, but when done currently, the champion should be elevating the meaningfulness of said prop. In both instances, the challengers are crafting the most compelling reactions from the fans. If Lethal and Strong walk away from Vegas as champions, they will be operating outside of the storylines that have been devloped for the last few months by the powers that be in Ring of Honor. ROH produces some of the best wrestling on television, but to garner a broader audience, especially while the company tours the country, measures need to be taken to assure that the casual fan finds a reason to tune-in on a weekly basis. Grey area can be intriguing, but with excellent stars on the roster, the black and white of good and evil can make an intriguing product a must watch program.
