Five Reasons To Watch Ring Of Honor

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How Ring Of Honor emphasizes a more grey morality than conventional face/heel dynamics

The binary morality of pro wrestling storytelling is known to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the genre. There are good guys & bad guys. There is a “right” way and a “wrong” way to do things in the world of its stories. There’s the Faces, the people you should cheer, and the Heels, the people you should boo.

I don’t need to tell any wrestling fan of the last 12 years that the ending example of the above writing fell apart as soon as Kayfabe became a thing of the past. Now that finding out how the stories are put together and the people behind the personas is as easy as putting a word into Google, people now cheer/boo on a multitude of reasons. Preference of style, in-ring ability, mic performances, whether they’re a horrible person in the real world etc.

Ring Of Honor tries to combat this. And while it’s definitely not the one-hit kill to find the solution of an easy fix, it has more of an effect than most attempts in recent memory. In ROH, there are very few clean cut “good & bad guys”. Instead, each performer in the promotion is composed of vices and virtues that add up to an individual, three-dimensional character. Much like real life.

There is a litenue of times this has been proven throughout their resurrection from a temporary, quarantine-induced hiatus. But two that stand out to me the most are Shane Taylor Promotions and Brian Johnson’s characters. Both of which were exemplified during the Final Battle PPV.

Shane Taylor Promotions, having been booked in a Six-Man-Title match with the champions of Mexa-Squad. However, the defending title holders were unable to defend due to two of their members, Bandido and Flamita, being constrained by travel regulations. This led to Shane Taylor Promotions being offered a forfeit win of the titles. It takes the trio of Shane Taylor, Moses and Khan less than a second to shoot it down, deeming that while they are brutal and are upfront as can be about doing whatever actions to win gold, they are “not a charity”, in Taylor’s own words.

Meanwhile, Brian Johnson is as loathsome a figure as can be in ROH. When your info-card in your entrance is literally composed of thinly veiled insults towards you, it’s easy for the audience to get the impression of the man Johnson is. This is furthered by Johnson’s insult against his Final Battle opponent, Danhausen, which cross into needlessly transphobic at one point. However, as his constant angered rambling in the match continues, you get a clear picture that Brian is someone stricken with an inferiority complex. This is highlighted to its peak by a pained declaration of how he had been working with ROH for years and was only at his first Final Battle now, where Danhausen debuted the same show. While not understanding in his rage at any point, you can’t help but feel a pang of pity and empathy for the man.

There have been far more performers living up to this realistic style of characters in Ring Of Honor alongside those described. And it shows an ability to evolve in the thinking of the promotions writers. If people are used to and done with the style of binary morality, why don’t we turn it into a spectrum?