Ring of Honor: No company takes a licking and keeps on ticking like ROH

Ring of Honor recently celebrated its 19th Anniversary, which is quite an accomplishment for a small but relatively reputable company.

The reality is that the last couple of years haven’t been easy for ROH, and that’s not just because of the pandemic. Every wrestling company in the world has had the same problems in that regard. Like those companies, ROH has found ways to weather the storm.

In the case of ROH, a series of internal issues and controversies have kept the company from making significant leaps forward. This is a company that many hoped would fill a place similar to what AEW does now. The question is if ROH can find a way to be relevant, again.

ROH builds its name

Philadelphia is a wrestling town through and through. It was the home of the now-defunct but legendary and influential promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling, aka ECW. In the wake of its closure in 2001, Ring of Honor was formed with its first shows happening in 2002.

That first card featured Eddie Guerrero taking on Super Crazy as well as Christopher Daniels, Low Ki, and Daniel Bryan. Just to make sure the event had a nice nostalgic vibe, it even went down in ECW’s old home venue.

Since then, the company has grown by leaps and bounds. It maintains a regular, weekly TV presence. And some of the most notable wrestlers in the last 20 years have worked for ROH. It has perpetually been knocking on the door of being one of the top-tier companies in the US.

The problem has long been that ROH tends to get in its own way. Few wrestling companies are untouched by controversy, but ROH seems to garner more than it should for its size and that has certainly kept it from reaching the next level.

Controversy comes to ROH

The first big ROH controversy went down quite early. Founder Rob Feinstein allegedly tried to solicit sex from a minor on the internet in 2004 and sold off his ownership stake in the company. While this had nothing to do with ROH’s operations, it certainly didn’t help their image.

Later on, 2019 was a rough year for the company. Much of their top talent left Ring of Honor behind to participate in the formation of AEW. On top of that, critics and fans were less than pleased with the title reign of Matt Taven during that time.

Things got worse when Joey Mercury quit the company ostensibly in protest of their creative direction and lack of concussion protocol. This all related to former Women of Honor Champion Kelly Klein who may have been pushed into wrestling with a diagnosed concussion.

Then during the Speaking Out Movement in 2019, then co-booker and wrestler Marty Scurll was accused of taking advantage of an inebriated 16-year-old girl. Scurll and Ring of Honor subsequently parted ways.

As ROH tried to get its feet back under it in 2020, the pandemic hit and shuttered the vast majority of promotions, excluding WWE and AEW. ROH started taping audience-less shows later in 2020 and had started picking up a bit of steam.

Then in April 2021, Monster Factory owner Danny Cage leveled serious accusations relating to his time working with the ROH Dojo and all the dysfunction he saw there. He covered a lot of ground but his comments certainly called out Joey Mercury and Kelly Klein’s version of events.

The path back to prominence

This is by no means a “woe is ROH” post. Some of these issues were beyond their control while others were controversies of their own creation. It’s a long process to rebuild from where they have been for the last couple of years, but it is possible.

A big part of what made ROH interesting was their partnerships and talent-sharing agreements with other promotions. That has included companies like NJPW, PWG, and more. If ROH wants to be a company other promotions want to work with, they need to get their house in order.

Several wrestlers highly identifiable with ROH leaving town for AEW was something they have yet to bounce back from. Fully rebuilding a roster is hard when a pandemic shuts your operations down. Parting ways with Scurll was the right move but it also hurt that process.

It’s important to remember that ROH has incredible talent like Jonathan Gresham, Dalton Castle, EC3, and several more wrestlers on their roster. ROH has all the pieces they need to be in competition with Impact and AEW. They just need to put it all together properly.