ROH Announces Six-Man Tag Team Championship
Following Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor PPV, the company’s major title is now around the waist of a new champion, Adam Cole, the leader of the Bullet Club. Now with ROH’s announcement that there will be a new championship added to the company, a six man tag team championship, it’s quite possible that the group will have their eyes set on even more fame and glory.
The company announced that an eight team tournament will begin in September. The Addiction with Kamaitachi, The Bullet Club and The Cabinet are all announced to be competing, with others teams to be announced at a later date. ROH’s partnerships with CMLL and NJPW will no doubt influence that pool of likely competitors, especially with CMLL as many of the company’s matches feature its stars in six man tag battles.
The first matches for the tournament will be at ROH’s All Star Extravaganza on September 30th and will culminate at Final Battle, to be held in NYC on December 2nd.
Kevin Kelly made the announcement during his daily ROH update.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M52yaOqW_O4
With an influx of new talent, the company’s decision to include a new title adds a new wrinkle to the way that their stars can be showcased. Although some felt that this was an opportunity to announce that the Women of Honor would be receiving a title for their division, the company has decided to follow in the footsteps of NJPW, who recently instituted their own six man tag title this past January.
The events of Death Before Dishonor and Field of Honor have the company in new direction, with Adam Cole carrying the company’s top title and his former Future Shock partner, Kyle O’Reilly making it clear that he has his eyes set on the ROH World Heavyweight title. The loss of stars like Cedric Alexander, Moose and Roderick Strong left the company with a few holes on the roster, but a recent string of excellent shows and slow builds to storylines have allowed other stars to emerge.
The partnership with NJPW has proven to seem to be more of a big brother/little brother relationship that has finally reached a sense of equality as of late, especially with O’Reilly defeated NJPW Never Openweight champion Shibata by submission. CMLL star Stuka Jr. made his first appearance on ROH recently, but lost the match and that may indicate that this new three way partnership will have ROH stand as equals with the other two companies.
Dragon Lee, another CMLL star has been announced to be joining the ROH ranks in the coming weeks and if his blow off match with La Masquera this Friday on CMLL’s iPPV is any indication, he may indeed be spending more time with the company. The announcement of the six man tag titles will allow stars like Dragon Lee and Stuka Jr. to be showcased in a manner that is familiar to them as the two companies have vastly different styles.
ROH has not introduced a new title in over six years, so how the company rolls out the tournament and the title will be something to look forward to, as companies like Chikara and Lucha Underground have made six man matches more important with championships or tournaments that add value to this match type. Gone will be the days of six man matches for the sake of including all the talent and that’s a good thing.
