ROH: Marty Scurll Winning The World Championship Is Good Business
By Josh Raibick
On Friday, June 29th at ROH Best In The World 2018, Marty Scurll has an opportunity to become the ROH World Champion when he takes on Cody and current champion Dalton Castle. While Scurll might not be who most fans will throw their money on, I’m here to tell you why putting the World Championship on The Villain is the best decision Ring of Honor could make moving forward.
Since the build to ROH Supercard of Honor XII, Scurll has had his sights set on the ROH World Championship. Following a loss Friday, it would be safe to say that Scurll would move towards the back of the line of challengers for the World Championship.
But what if Scurll was to shock the world and come out victorious at Best In The World? If that were to happen, it would be huge as this would give Ring of Honor the option to push one of its more marketable wrestlers to the next tier.
It is not an insult to say that Scurll is yet to reach the level of Cody, Jay Lethal, Christopher Daniels, Dalton Castle, or The Young Bucks. Seven months ago, I would not have included Dalton Castle with that list, but it just shows what a major title reign can do for a wrestler.
As World Champion, Castle has gotten to work consistently with top tier talent, including two top tier names in Cody and Lethal. A World Championship reign for Scurll will mean continued work with such talent, as top tier talent tends to be the ones who are chasing the top prize in the company.
Obviously Scurll’s Villain Club t-shirts are popular with wrestling fans who shop at Hot Topic, but a win at Best In The World will increase Scurll’s popularity even more. But why should this be a major priority for ROH?
Well, to really explain why elevating a talent like Scurll to the top of the company is so important, I am going to use a baseball analogy to paint the picture clearer. If WWE was a baseball team, they would certainly be the New York Yankees, as it is the most decorated, heavily publicized, and has the most money to spend.
Whereas Ring of Honor historically is more like the Miami Marlins, who have some major accomplishments (including two World Series titles), but do not have the resources or total number of accolades like the Yankees. What this means is that the Marlins must maximize their assets and build through their farm system and make valuable free agent deals to be competitive.
So while WWE has the ability to throw money and keep pumping talent into their main roster, Ring of Honor needs to make less mistakes and maximize their value. This means Ring of Honor has to create main event talent, and can’t just rely on WWE releasing them.
Yes, once in a while a company as big as WWE does not know what they have in a superstar like Cody, and those are the valued “free agent” moves I was referencing that Ring of Honor (or a team like the Marlins) must make. The issue is a superstar of Cody’s skill set (a true main eventer) is not released frequently, which means elevating upper mid-card wrestlers to the main event scene must be ROH’s biggest focus going forward.
Marty Scurll is the perfect candidate to make the jump up a tier and become the new ROH World Champion. Castle has held the World Championship for over six months, and while that is not a long period of time in wrestling, it is nearing the time where the title should change hands.
The best wrestling credibility enhancers are World Championships, and in this case it will load up an already stacked roster. What makes WWE such a draw, is that there are a lot of superstars that the WWE Universe pays to see.
Next: Page Vs. Martinez Street Fight Announced
What will make ROH grow in the next year is adding to the list of big name draws that they already have, and that starts with making Marty Scurll the new Ring of Honor World Champion.