Yesterday, HDNet sent an official offer to Ring of Honor for a proposed one-hour weekly TV show. This is the first TV offer the promotion has ever received. As of now there is no word on the details of the deal or even if Ring of Honor has accepted the offer.

Credit: Wrestlingobserver.com

Although I don't get the channel I hope this means good things for them in the future.

I doubt this does much for them. If anything I think it could kill the company if they're paying for the television slot. I think this just has failure written all over it. The product isn't geared towards television at all. And if they started gearing it for television the fans would revolt.

I will say in their favor. Having Adam Pearce with the book probably gives them a better shot then Gabe would've. Gabe would've arrogantly tried to put the current RoH product on tv and then wondered why it didn't take off. At least this way Pearce might work better angles for television and use DQs and count outs to make the shows more episodic.

I'm sure Cary is smart enough not to sign a bad TV deal in the tradition of ECW on TNN. ROH hasn't accepted the other yet, so it would seem they are putting a lot of thought into this.

When was the last time you watched any ROH, Mad Dog? A big portion of the reason why Pearce came on board was to start tweaking the company into working for television, because it's something that Cary has been wanting. I agree that they would need to be careful how they go about structuring any TV shows in such a way that the live audiences don't shit all over it.

I watch bits and pieces as I find them. The show to me needs a lot of production overhauls to be viable on tv. I think the shows would work with a feature level main event and then a few squash matches. Clip jobs would be a bad idea though.

The issue I see is you can't just put random stuff they do now on television and call it a television show. They need stuff shot for television to make it work. I think that's a lot of effort to go to for a company that's in bad financial straits. Maybe axe PPV in favor of this and whore the shit out of DVDs.

Have you seen any of the clips from the about-to-air Rising Above pay-per-view? They rented some camera equipment and the footage looks tremendous (easily better than the NWA Showcase from last year, in the least). Cary was so pleased with how the show looked, they went out and purchased new cameras.

I'm sure they would do specific storylines, etc that are mainly for television, since they already do that for the pay-per-views.

Actually, they paid for a production company to come in and film it. Then they bought equipment on par with what the production company used.

That isn't too different from what I said, was it? If I have some holes in my memory, I apologize :blink:

You said that they rented it, I just clarified. That's all

Ah. I suppose it makes sense they'd need a different team to tape it as well, since there's all sorts of fancy crane shots from the preview footage I've seen.

So how would you guys format the show?

I'd stick with a longer main event and then fill the rest of the show with squash matches and angles with the better talkers. I think you need to alter some pushes and get guys like Pearce and Albright with big roles for the tv show. Either way. Show the stars beating up on nobodies and let the main events show off a bit but don't give it all away for free.

If RoH was smart they would also offer some subscription plan for fans that don't have this channel. Maybe an On Demand thing for 99 cents an episode or something.

I think it would be cool if they offered some sort of package DVD deal for their shows. Like if you pay x amount of dollars a month they'll send you the shows at the end of the month so you can catch up. I'd be up for something like that. You could even put bonus matches and whatnot on the discs and they'd be something people would want, easily.

OVW and NWA Anarchy have or had similar subscription deals in the past. You pay for say a year and then get the next DVD or VHS when it was full. I think OVW currently has a deal where you buy the disc and then can put two episodes on it.

Also, just a plain "watch the episode online for a dollar" would work for them.

You mean like this but for tv?

It would need to be much more affordable but yes, that would suffice.

Hey WMD, you could perform some ROH entrance music. Perhaps Grizzley Redwood needs a nice folk tune to enter to before chopping down his opponents.

I'm psyched that they are using Sterling James Keenan again. Rowe, you seem to closely follow their product....has he wrestled for them a lot or just spots here and there?

It's been mainly spots here and there. For whatever reason, he never seems to stick, maybe things will be different with Pearce in charge.

Haha...you know what? I might submit a little something to them just for giggles. I'll let you know what happens.

I think Pierce would eat a guy like him right up.

The guy plays a great heel that's for sure.

Awesome, it would be great if something amounted from it.

I still haven't seen enough of him to really have an opinion. What do you think of Bison Smith? He debuted with ROH recently and Pearce is pushing him as a monster, having him powerbomb Danielson on the floor and such. It seemed like he was getting over on the recent Video Wire too.

Sounds like another case of Mike Adamle-syndrome.

Anyone else watching this?

Nope, I don't get HDnet. I'll be looking for it on the viral video sites.

Decent show. It's not WWE style, which is postive #1. The show starts with the two announcers, Dave Prazak and some other dude, standing in front of a green screen background. The non-Prazak announcer's style is reminiscent of Tony Schiavone, but he has potential. Before every match, there's a "Smacktalk" segment with the wrestler's cutting a promo. During introductions, there's a screen that pops up that shows you some facts about the wrestlers.

The matches were actually interesting, though the crowd seemed to say otherwise. The matches were longer than a WWE/TNA shows matches, as there were only 3 on the show.

Lots of potential, really.

From what I gathered from numerous feedback, the sound from the crowd was turned down due to their often crass chants, etc. Or maybe the crowd actually was dead, and they're not thrilled with the direction of the promotion. Or a mixture of both.

My bad, 4 matches. I forgot about Albright vs. Rhett Titus

This has actually made me wanna check out some ROH recently. I really like Bison and I think him playing the monster heel is a great idea for him.

Ok, this is officially my favorite wrestling show now. I've watched the last 3 weeks, and it really is an entertaining wrestling show. Gotta give it up for Pierce, his ability to book an hour long tv show is pretty strong.

I've seen the last two episodes (look for reviews on da main page) and I'm full agreement with WMD. This show is off to a killer start. The Black/Danielson match this week was the best television match I've seen in ages.

I've had several friends I've told about the show that LOVE it. Not even Smarks, just marks who actually enjoy the wrestling part of a wrestling show. This show has become the alternative to WWE that TNA wishes it could be

EDIT: I'll admit, that as annoying as Hogewood can be as an announcer, he's really improving, and growing on me. The announcing in general is far superior to TNA

Hogewood used to announce ACC basketball games on the local channels here all the time. He was really good at that, and actually brought some humor to the job occasionally. To me, he is clearly out of his element, but has the talent to make it work. Prazak bores me.

And yeah Swigg, the big surprise to me is that it isn't smarky at all. It's totally an old school wrestling program, with enough talent to do it well.

I watched a few of these and I have to admit they've made the most out of an hour a week. The wrestling is solid, the production is where RoH should've been years ago and it's not smarky at all. I might have to give them a chance again since they seem to have addressed a lot of my complaints.

I think he's perfect for the job. He brings a big professional element to the booth for RoH and that's something I've thought they've lacked from day one. He also brings you back to the real old school sportscaster types that did wrestling on the side. Give him six months and I think he could be the best announcer on television.

I'm trying to work through all of them on youtube.

I agree. I think he is really trying, and unlike Don West his enthusiasm adds to the product.

I have to say, though, that Saturday's episode was disappointing. First dull episode they've put out.

I din't think it was bad at all. A few things that were so-so-ish, but overall, I found it entertaining.

I didn't think it was bad, just not as good as the rest. It's still above anything WWE & TNA have put out.

And I'll admit, I really don't like Roderick Strong, and that probably played a part in my lack of interest

I find Roderick to be quite bland myself, so i can sympathize. One thing to keep in mind, is this is the only TV wrestling I am presently watching, so sitting through an hour of it isn't hard at all. I fi were still trying to keep up with the WWE show and TNA I'd probably be less forgiving.