ROH/NJPW – BORE of the Worlds

I’ve traveled all around the world to watch wrestling, and even went through the extraordinary effort long ago to see ROH’s original Tokyo shows when they used to pair up with Pro-Wrestling NOAH. More recently, I’ve also made the trip to Japan to see the current roster of New Japan Pro-Wrestling wrestlers in their prime, which includes many who will probably be considered some of the greatest wrestlers in Japanese (if not pro-wrestling) history, such as Tanahashi, Okada, Nakamura, Naito, and Ibushi. So if you’d have told me while I was attending those shows that one day I’d live within walking distance of an ROH/NJPW joint show in Toronto and wouldn’t go due to pure lethargy, I’d have thought you were crazy.

Aside from the fact that the piece of shit Ted Reeve Arena is one of the most heinous venues you’d ever pay money to see a pro-wrestling event, and the thought of just sitting or standing in that place makes me ill, I just couldn’t see putting myself through the mental torture of another one of these wheel-spinning, frustrating Ring of Honor shows that continues to do nothing interesting every year with some of the world’s best wrestlers.

With this year’s latest Ring of Honor / New Japan Pro-Wrestling crossover tour “War of the Worlds” currently underway, let’s take a moment to evaluate just what a monumental waste of time the entire thing has been for the past four years.

Before some of the more positive readers tune out or get angry, I will say that there has been a lot of good matches throughout the years, fine matches even… no problem. If you like watching good matches, if that’s your thing, then I assume you like all wrestling all the time, and that’s cool. I like wrestling. And I’ve sat through a ton of terrible wrestling, plenty worse than I’ve seen on these various ROH/NJPW shows.

But me personally, I want more than just shows that are collections of good matches. I’m not that kind of fan. In fact, I’d categorize myself as a pure Ring of Honor fan, one who’s sensibility towards pro-wrestling is encapsulated by what ROH was doing for around their first ten years, but in particular during the original Ring of Honor / Pro-Wrestling NOAH crossover, when both those companies were arguably the peak of the global pro-wrestling industry.

And, sure, no one is accusing the ROH of the past four years of having that roster or creative energy of that original era, but there was hope that connecting with the New Japan of 2014… 20-fucking-14 NJPW… would have resulting in something more than just “good matches”.

Here was the problem:

1 – No Storylines

Throughout all the years now of the ROH / NJPW working relationship, has there been even one storyline based on the wrestlers crossing over from the two companies?

I would have thought that the opportunity to use this whole unique established roster of stars with all these excellent physical appearances and built-in backstories, would have been an instant home run for ROH to do something interesting over such an extended period of time. For a rare, fleeting moment, ROH in its prime was this weird nexus of TNA, NOAH, Dragon Gate, CZW and CHIKARA mingling with some of the ROH regulars in a way that felt so vibrant and fresh, and yet Ring of Honor today can’t really put together one clear storyline or interesting match-up after 4 years of collaborating with New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Obviously, it would have been cool to have had a basic ROH vs. NJPW series of shows, and yet this never really materialized. The idea that you have this one very faux-athletic competition style show mixing with this American pro-wrestling pseudo-indy is very fertile ground for storytelling, both in the mix of size/scope between the NJPW shows in Japan and the venues in America, and yet the prestige that it holds for NJPW to have a regular presence in America regardless. There are dynamics here that could have led to some strong narrative opportunities.

ROH only put together these constant cards of middling matches, where top NJPW stars took on mid-card ROH wrestlers and then a whole lot of tag team-ing. For whatever the behind-the-scenes reason there was for having to put together so many years of uninspiring matches, at the very least there could have been some recognition, storyline-wise, as to what was happening here.

Instead, I think the idea was to kind of use the appearance of NJPW stars to push forward ROH-proper storylines. The problem is, when you’re wasting the chance to have, say, Okada or Nakamura challenging Jay Briscoe for the ROH Title for the sake of something like this:

… well, ugh.

2 – No Marquee Matches

For every underwhelming Nakamura vs. Kevin Steen, there was a better-than-expected Okada vs. Moose, but ultimately none of these matches did much for creating a buzz or excitement about these Ring of Honor shows.

Whereas the old ROH found ways to build up to crossover matches that felt like huge dream matches, such as Kobashi vs. Joe, Low Ki vs. KENTA, Morishima vs. Danielson, all these War of the Worlds-era matches just bleed into one another, and attract the same fans who would have watched these shows without any New Japan imports.

A lot of it has to do with the idea that those few wrestlers left that we associate(d) to ROH are feel somewhat inconsequential. Jay Lethal, Roderick Strong, The Briscoes, Cole & O’Riley, all have their moments, but ROH has truly failed to create an atmosphere for any of them where a Lethal vs. Naito or Strong vs. Nakamura can truly be promoted as a legit dream match.

And on the other hand, unlike the old ROH that used its connection with NOAH / Dragon Gate to help establish newer guys like Davey Richards, Claudio Castagnoli and El Generico, many of the newer ROH guys during this current era, like Moose, ACH, or Michael Bennet were eventually fazed out of the company, and thus a match like this was pretty pointless:

“The match-up that everybody’s been buzzing about!” LOL!

3 – ROH Titles are Meaningless

If you’ve had access to some of the greatest wrestlers of all time, like Tanahashi, Nakamura, Okada and possibly even Naito and Shibata, not to mention Kojima, Tenzan and Liger, you’d think these guys would be getting some serious title matches in Ring of Honor. And I don’t just mean that pointless Cole vs. Liger ROH Title Match at the first War of the Worlds show in New York, but matches that meant something and where no one could predict the winner long in advance. Maybe Liger challenges Lethal for the TV title at that show, while that Tanahashi/Bennett match gets changed into a Cole title defense? I don’t know… but do something with that belt!

OK, sure, let’s buy into the argument that the NJPW office doesn’t want Tanahashi to lose to Cole, and for whatever reason ROH doesn’t think one of the best main event wrestlers in history should hold their world title for a while, then the existence of this show now historically devalues the symbolic nature of the ROH “World” Title. They let the IWGP Title main even the show in a 3-way with champion AJ Styles, former champion Okada, and the only full-time ROH wrestler at the time, Elign, who took the pin. Then Adam Cole comes out to declares himself the best champion afterwards and attacks them, a moment that doesn’t lead to anything later. All while they had Tanahahsi and Nakamura on the undercard in matches with guys completely out of title contention. The ROH Title just looks like something no one wants.

On top of that, ROH pushes the New Japan Bullet Club to the moon constantly, a faction made up of basically tag team wrestlers, who have main event-ed so many of these joint NJPW shows, and yet none of the main Bullet Club members held the ROH tag titles throughout this time.

4 – Oh yeah, the Bullet Club

Speaking of the Bullet Club, there is nothing more 2015 ROH than them loving the Bullet Club.

Let’s just remember that the Bullet Club is part of New Japan’s co-opting of Dragon Gate’s pretty revolutionary re-writing of the pro-wresting storytelling handbook, by relying on team-like factions to drive their stories rather than the traditional face/heel dynamic. Only NJPW does this without any of the drama that goes with Dragon Gate, instead making these factions very loose and established by casual and impromptu backstage bits rather than any real in-ring, scripted storylines. Thus, the Bullet Club, being mainly “foreigners” were able to just say whatever they wanted backstage in these “hilarious” promos that gained popularity with a growing segment of foreigner fans who were just happy to hear any kind of English on these shows.

What followed was a whole lot of terrible promos that play into the worst appetites of US indy fans by making repetitive, cheap heat jokes and hot-shot-ing long established mainstream pop-getting signals, like that cringe-worthy use of nWo mannerisms.

The fact that ROH, so desperate for any kind of attention, latched on to the Bullet Club at the sake of better NJPW wrestlers and potential stories they could have built around them, illustrates just the pure laziness of the “Bore” of the Worlds era. Repeatedly booking spot-fest multi-man Bullet Club matches as main events on these crossover tours makes ROH just fall in line with the entire 4-star homogenization of the pro-wrestling “industry” today. ROH did nothing to really establish any unique story or purpose for the Bullet Club, until the very recent Adam Cole/Kenny Omega leadership dispute, which, much like so many other aspects of ROH these days, feels like something that’s just going to fade away without any resolution.

Conclusion

Look, I want to like ROH. I continue to mildly invest in their “products”, I watch (often skim) their show every week, and there’s nothing I wanted more than some awesome ROH / NJPW shows.

But I gotta say it, I don’t know what Ring of Honor is supposed to be about anymore? WWE, well, I can begrudgingly understand what they’re up to, they’ve conned us all into their long-term capitalist goals, and they say up front how they’re an “entertainment” company (and soon they’re just gonna have to change that to being a “company” only), so okay, WWE isn’t really about anything anymore, fine. But what is ROH supposed to be?

Do they have a real identity? Are they building towards anything specifically? Will they ever again be the trend-setting, revolutionary company they once were, and had the opportunity to be again in this partnership with New Japan?

And if the rumours are true, and this tour could be the end of the ROH/NJPW collaboration, then I hope ROH reflects on the experience of booking these shows, what they could have done better, and all the great matches they left on the table.

Because, these days, the list of great wrestlers who are just quietly disappearing from ROH is growing longer than that once cool list of headline-making farewell matches. And if this is the last weekend we see Tanahashi, Naito, Goto, and KUSHIDA, it would have been nicer to see them go out like Punk, Danielson, Joe, and Steen, rather than Lee, Rush, ACH and Dijak.

So “War of the Worlds”, hmmm… not quite sure what the “War” was ever about, aside from my personal battle to motivate myself to see these shows. Here’s hoping they go out with a bang and not a whimper… someone wake me up if it’s any good.