WWE News: WWE Still Trying To Bury Ring Of Honor, Convincing Arenas Not To Take Them On?
Ring of Honor is by no means on WWE’s good side these days. WWE blames them for starting the trend of running Indy shows at big WWE events, including WrestleMania. Now WWE is attempting to find numerous ways to “bury” the promotion. We know by now that WWE NXT will be running head to head against ROH in Brooklyn the night before WWE SummerSlam. However, it does not stop there. WWE is also going to run against them in Texas soon as well with the NXT brand on its tour.
While the booking of Japanese wrestling legend Jushin “Thunder” Liger for WWE NXT was seen as a slap in the face of ROH. Liger regularly performed for NJPW, a partner of ROH. He has performed regularly in Japan for years, however. It was a big issue, seeing as this was a move made on purpose by WWE to steer fans away from the ROH show in New York. NJPW won’t always work with ROH, however, and would probably enjoy a healthy relationship with WWE. The booking of Liger was seen as the start of a relationship.
WWE will not be in Japan often, so working with a Japanese partner would be ideal for them. Liger is also free to take bookings where he chooses. ROH is not a WWE partner, and WWE is not a fan of theirs despite the talent they have produced. This hurts ROH, as they are an American company and would have to run shows here.
According to the Wrestling Observer, WWE is contacting arenas to tell them they will promise dates there if they do not book ROH for any shows. This would obviously hurt ROH’s bottom line, as they work arenas all over the country. They are mainly a big part of the northeast in places like New York and Philadelphia. The problem is, WWE is also big in this region and has good relationships with the area partners.
While Liger being booked with NXT was a big double-cross in the eyes of ROH, NJPW is still in a working relationship for now with ROH. They will not be forever, however. NJPW is now an open place for talent from across the world. This has allowed them to bring in some of the best wrestlers in the world. If NJPW had a working deal with WWE, we could see a lot of their talented stars come over for NXT shows, which would be cool to see.
ROH losing a partner and losing places to perform is a goal for WWE. WWE does not want ROH to survive knowing that they have taken money from them in the past. By taking out one of the top Indy companies in the world, they pretty much tell others to not cross them or it could happen to them. So many see this as WWE making an example out of ROH.
[IMG Credit: ROHWrestling.com]
