Yesterday, ROHwrestling.com put out a statement that Michael Elgin would be returning to Ring of Honor in Kalamazoo, Michigan for the Champions vs. All-Stars card Saturday night. They spoke about how it was a “clerical error” preventing him from returning to America and that 2014 was his banner year. It was soon followed by this tweet from @MichaelElgin25:
@ringofhonor I said this on our call, thank you for getting me back home. But, an article doesn’t fix lies and damage done. I QUIT.
— Michael Elgin (@MichaelElgin25) October 6, 2014
Elgin soon tweeted back to a fan that called it a “bitch move” that, “promoting me for a show I won’t be at is not my bitch move”. He also stated last night he couldn’t change the ROH out of his Twitter until he returned from the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. St. Louis Cardinals baseball game in St. Louis.
It’s quite possibly the disappointing ending to the story between Ring of Honor and Michael Elgin from last month which saw Elgin lose the ROH Heavyweight championship abruptly to Jay Briscoe in Canada and be taken off cards until his VISA was resolved. I wrote about it and how in any other situation? Elgin would have been walking immediately to another major wrestling promotion. Instead? He had to wait in limbo for his VISA issue to be solved so he could make it back to the company that unceremoniously dumped him.
Even the decision to have him randomly return to Kalamazoo seemed quite anti-climatic. To wear a booker cap for a second, why wouldn’t you build it up huge for your former champion to return? Build up Elgin’s Revenge. Why aren’t heels tearing down Elgin as a former paper champion so he can return and shove their words down their throat? Why isn’t this a big deal?
Instead, it’s a rush job. Like ROH did just toss Elgin on the card and hoped he would show up. Elgin stated that he had a call with Ring of Honor and thanked them for, “getting me back home”. The fact he would quit over Twitter and thank some fans has two alarms going in my head.
The first is a work. ROH had some success with “departure” storylines, from CM Punk to Kevin Steen. Punk made his jump to the WWE a spectacle, including winning the ROH championship. Steen had booking issues and an expiring contract between the ROH sale to Sinclair Broadcasting, which was manipulated into Steen being too against the Code of Honor to be an ROH athlete. Steen was the uncontrollable chaos that ROH couldn’t get rid of. It could be that ROH is trying to build Elgin’s VISA issue into a way to turn him heel, seeing how a lot of fans turned on guys like Bret Hart and CM Punk for perceived whining. Elgin comes back, complains about ROH’s treatment, and the fans boo him for his case. It would actually work great to make Elgin a lot like a 1997 Bret Hart. He got screwed out of the ROH title due to his VISA. He got screwed out of bookings. He has to climb back the ladder he already destroyed when he made it to the top. It isn’t fair. ROH fans would likely not take his side, which would also allow Elgin to finally show he can talk in Ring of Honor. Elgin isn’t Bobby The Brain on the mic, but he isn’t the boring Benoit-lite that ROH seems to push on him. It didn’t work for Davey Richards and it certainly doesn’t work for Elgin.
The other alarm is interest. In my earlier article on Elgin’s belt drop, I mentioned that the interest in Elgin was low from WWE and NJPW. TNA was also in no position to bring in Elgin with their desperation or a new TV deal. It’s possible in the past 24 hours, something changed. Maybe Global Force Wrestling wants a guy like Michael Elgin on the January 4 PPV in Tokyo, Japan in association with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Maybe TNA is close to signing a television deal and wants Michael Elgin in the fold as a way to say, “We’re not dying. We’re ready to take the best talent available in the world” and give Elgin the kind of push they once gave Samoa Joe. Maybe Triple H sees the value of adding another Canadian to NXT (to join Zayn, Steen, Viktor, Dillinger and Tyler Breeze) and looks at Elgin’s age, talent and availability as a great addition to the roster. There’s even AAA, who has an impressive roster despite being on a channel nobody seems to get (if your cable/satellite package mentions an El Rey network? There’s a show called Lucha Underground featuring John Morrison, Alberto Del Rio and Chavo Guerrero on it. No I’m serious!) that could maybe see Elgin as a get.
It’s tough for me to believe that Elgin, after regaining his VISA and returning to his home with MsChif would quit ROH without a back-up plan. I feel that’s the whole reason he swallowed his pride for the last month was because he had nothing but ROH. If this isn’t just a work and it is Elgin quitting Ring of Honor, we must be seeing Elgin somewhere else in the very near future. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we only see him next on TV during a playoff baseball game, since the Cardinals took the series lead in their NLDS series.
Photo by jetsbk (Brian Krieger) from Flickr.
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