STEP DOWN: Ring of Honor “Powers That Be”
There was more drama surrounding Michael Elgin this week than his whole 76-day ROH World Championship run delivered. Elgin surprisingly dropped the title to Jay Briscoe at All Star Extravaganza 6, which was a huge shock to most of the fans. It was widely assumed the run would come to an end at the annual Final Battle PPV in December, but few expected it to end this soon, including Elgin.
I actually feel bad for the former champion, in this case, although given that he’ll be stuck in Canada for quite some time, getting the belt off him might have been a good decision in hindsight. Elgin was already disappointed that New Japan overlooked him months ago, and instead brought Adam Cole, Michael Bennett, Maria Kanellis, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish overseas for the G1 Climax finals. After two years of chasing the belt, coming up short against the last three world champions – including a 5-star match with Davey Richards – it’s so disappointing to see the culmination of all that work cool off in less than three months. To make matters worse, since he’s stranded across the border, he had to vacate the AIW Championship as well, missing several dates which of course means a decent paycheck.
There’s a lot of convolution surrounding what happened behind the scenes between Elgin and Ring of Honor. It’s being said the straw that broke the camel’s back was him stating he wanted to do a try-out with Major League Baseball. That added to existing frustrations between the two sides. Elgin had accepted independent bookings, and was then told ROH had unannounced shows booked for those days; the biggest example was the Field of Honor event in Brooklyn, which he had to miss. He then did a job in the PWG Battle of Los Angles tournament, which pissed off management, who were then infuriated further by the MLB interview, and went over booker Hunter Johnson’s head to make the title change this past weekend.
I’ve talked to people from within ROH, from all over the spectrum including management, production and the locker room, and it’s interesting how many different stories are being told. There are a lot of names frustrated with management, and a general disconnect between the boys and the suits. That seems pretty standard whenever corporate America gets involved with pro wrestling’s circus act.
I’m most disappointed by how the company handled this Elgin situation. There’s plenty of blame to go around on both ends, but it’s hard to side against a wrestler for how he’s booked in another company’s promotion. A world champion can always request that he doesn’t do jobs – AJ Styles got kicked out of the tournament by DQ – but at the end of the day, a job is a job, and a paycheck is a paycheck. If ROH was paying Elgin six figures a year with travel expenses, and he was doing indie events just to promote his brand and defend a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP in foreign territories, then I would understand the old-school mentality.
I love PWG, but let’s face it – when you look at the whole of wrestling fans, few people even know they exist. Getting bent out of shape about Elgin losing a match that won’t even be available on DVD for another month, that maybe 1% of the ROH fanbase will ever see, is a joke. In regards to the MLB situation, Elgin later clarified that he’s just interested in learning new training techniques, and wants to gauge his own skills by doing an open try-out; he never once said he wanted to leave pro wrestling for baseball.
Here’s my open statement to Ring of Honor: let’s spend a little less time overreacting to drama with one of your pro wrestlers, and a lot more energy improving the production quality, so that when you expand into the Atalanta TV market with your shiny new syndicated deal, ROH TV does’t look like an indie. While I wouldn’t model your business after anything Dixie Carter does, Sinclair could certainly learn a thing or two from the look and feel of Impact Wrestling.
