Can Someone Tell Me The Point of ROH on Honor Club?

[clifford]

From a 'you need to watch it to keep up with ROH' standpoint.

All the ROH champions appear on AEW tv.

Most of the title matches (and title changes) happen on AEW tv or PPV.

Even no.1 contenders matches happen on AEW tv now.

All the ROH PPVs mostly feature non-Honor Club talent and matches thrown together last minute that aren't built up on the tv show.

Genuinely, can someone who watches the weekly show explain why it's needed to keep up with ROH?

[CeilingFan]

I was enthusiastic about the relaunch of ROH, but now I agree that it is pointless.

[Facetious]

It's been a huge flop. It feels like they just put AEW Dark under a new banner. I saw a stat that shows the ROH tag titles have been defended 10 times since the ladder match earlier in the year and TWO of them have been in ROH. The rest has been on AEW PPV and TV.

Athena and the cast of characters around her have been fun, but not for the monthly price tag.

[Deleted]

The world and pure titles if anything should have been assimilated into AEW ala the FTW belt and that is it...It's been a major disappointment for a long time ROH fan

[doomish]

Hell, at this point, could someone tell me the point of ROH? What a massive fumble by TK.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

Tony doesn't want to shut the ROH brand down but couldn't get a WBD TV contract for ROH and Honor Club doesn't make enough to financially justify the cost of separate tapings and thus limits how much the roster can be used to work big matches on these tapings when it's mainly there for AEW.

[KME]

Oct 7, 2023 9:38:49 GMT -5 doomish said:

Hell, at this point, could someone tell me the point of ROH? What a massive fumble by TK.

I doubt he regrets buying it even if just for the video library and the chance for some talent to try some new things (which has paid off big time for Athena). Two of my favourite moments of the year involved Eddie winning the ROH World Title and Cole/MJF competing for the ROH Tag Titles at Wembley, and The Briscoe/FTR Matches and some of the PPVs have been outstanding too so from a personal point of view I'm glad he bought it, but I've never really thought about getting Honor Club, which I guess is the problem because most people feel the same, it doesn't really look worth a purchase from the outside looking in.

[dpg]

I don't think there was a plan for RoH when it was bought. Then it was moved into a holding pattern when Warner said they weren't interested in a show for it, where it has remained. I subscribe to Impact on youtube where I get the weekly show, monthly big shows, some indie events, bug PPVs on delay and some other bits and pieces. Impact plus has all that and the back catalogue. Honor club get the weekly show, the back catalogue and not much else?

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Who the hell knows. Honestly they should have made it an AEW "network" and then have ROH tv be the new weekly thing and then I could see a point

[HMARK Center]

It's a fun show. Athena vs. Leyla Hirsch opened this week and was an absolute banger.

Unfortunately, without PPVs/separate major cards being included on Honor Club, it's tough to justify subscribing for many people, since you're basically getting a weekly show and what's available in the archives.

Given some of the shifts lately, who's holding some of the belts now, etc., I do wonder if there's a shift coming soon that likely coincides with whatever the new TV/streaming deal with Max is going to be.

[Cyno]

It feels like ROH's future is in limbo while AEW's future in terms of streaming and TV is being decided. Warner having no interest in any ROH programming was a pretty big blow to their revival.

That said, I don't think Tony Khan regrets the decision. Without buying ROH, there is no All In at Wembley Stadium or All In 2018 DVD release as ROH had the rights to the name. It also means having access to a huge archive of matches involving current AEW wrestlers. Unfortunately, ROH's days were numbered once the RSN bubble burst. And I'd still rather have Khan as custodian of the company's IP than for WWE to add it to its hoard of defunct promotion archives like it's Smaug, only to use it for some revisionist history documentary.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

Another factor is AEW now being WBD exclusive which removed Dark as an option for getting talent reps and trying new folks out. It also removed the possibility of an AEW/ROH dual streaming service (although I'm not sure that would be too profitable. So ROH now allows talent to still get those Dark esque reps but with more name/name matches with some storylines behind it like Leyla/Athena.

[schizo]

Can’t, because their is none

[Cry Me a Wiggle]

As I said elsewhere, I’m fine with it as a zombie promotion because it’s more than WCW got after the WWF bought the IP. It’s not ideal, but I appreciate that Khan is a fan who respects the legacy of the promotion he purchased.

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

I mean, it's a great show featuring wrestlers who would otherwise be doing nothing?

[Zone Was Wrong]

Oct 7, 2023 15:33:39 GMT -5 carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) said:

I mean, it's a great show featuring wrestlers who would otherwise be doing nothing?

Pretty much my response. It gets people reps and a way to try things out before getting on AEW programming. It's much like nxt or Dark in that regard. I enjoy the hell out of it.

[thirteen3]

Like all wrestling, to extract money from marks.

[kingoftheindies]

It's clearly become more or less developmental for a lot of young talent/people working on new gimmicks while also giving some big names who aren't doing anything big on AEW something to do.

Unless the question is why on Honor Club? I still think Tony miscalculated how much interest WBD would have in ROH as a brand so he decided to just put the show on Honor Club so that they didn't have so much ROH focus on Dynamite

[Celexa Bliss 54]

Without ROH, you'd probably either have more talent sitting at home doing nothing, or budget cuts, neither of which is ideal. They had to ditch Dark and Elevation due to the exclusivity clause in the last WBD contract. So ROH fills that void, while allowing them to brand it under a different name. Plus it gives them a chance to test talent out in proper storylines, in addition to matches. Athena's been killing it, The Righteous got over (pre-WrestleDream lol) and it helped Shane Taylor out. It's far from being pointless. Like, I don't subscribe to Honor Club and have no plans to do so, but I can understand the purpose of the show existing.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Oct 7, 2023 15:33:39 GMT -5 carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) said:

I mean, it's a great show featuring wrestlers who would otherwise be doing nothing?

This really should be the cut and dry response instead of the thread essentially creating yet another open season for several users to say "ROH is pointless and sucks", which is tiring at this point.

Like we get it, you don't like the direction of the brand and don't want to invest time into it or Honor Club... but it's really disheartening to see almost every time it's brought up, people have to just be like "It's pointless, might as well kill it" or something like the show serves zero purpose, while it in the end actually serves several whether it in the end moves up and gets a deal or not.