WWE News: Ring of Honor Upsets WWE Due To Better Attendance
After Ring of Honor’s All Star Extravaganza VII drew more fans than an NXT live event during Night of Champions weekend last month, WWE was reportedly upset to learn that, according to Daily Wrestling News.
While the report says that NXT and ROH hosted shows in Dallas, Texas, that weekend, both promotions actually hosted the events in San Antonio, Texas on Sept. 19 last month. Both promotions hosted their respective events by trotting out all of their big names and according to several fan reports, both events were generally well-received.
Per a fan recap on Wrestling Inc, the NXT live event was headlined by NXT World champion Finn Balor defending his title against Tyler Breeze in the main event. In what many would label a co-main event, Samoa Joe took on Baron Corbin in a rematch for NXT Takeover: Brooklyn.
The rest of the matches on the card were:
- Apollo Crews vs. Solomon Crow
- Carmella vs. Alexa Bliss
- NXT Tag Team Championship: The Vaudevillains (c) vs. Chad Gable and Jason Jordan.
- NXT Women’s Championship Triple Threat Match: Bayley (c) vs. Emma vs. Dana Brooke
- Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady vs. Blake and Murphy
- Bull Dempsey vs. Tye Dillinger
As for the ROH All Star Extravaganza VII, the company posted the full results of the show on their website. The show was largely based around dual champion Jay Lethal defending both his ROH World Television and World championships. Also, four of ROH’s top performers competed in a fatal-four way to determine a No.1 contender, the Young Bucks were in action, and more.
Below are all the matches that took place:
- ROH World Television championship: Jay Lethal w/ Truth Martini vs. Bobby Fish
- Dalton Castle vs. Silas Young (If Castle wins, Young must join The Boys. If Silas wins, he gets The Boys)
- Briscoes Open Challege: Mark and Jay Briscoe vs. All-Night Express (Rhett Titus and Kenny King) — Return of ANX
- No Disqualification: Moose w/Stokley Hathaway vs. Cedric Alexander w/Veda Scott
- Best of 5 Series Match 3: ACH vs. #rebron Matt Sydal
- ROH World Tag Team Championship: The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett) w/Maria Kanellis vs. The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson)
- No. 1 Contender Fatal-Four Way: AJ Styles vs. Roderick Strong vs. Michael Elgin vs. Adam Cole
- ROH World Championship: Jay Lethal w/ Truth Martini vs. Kyle O’Reilly
From a quick glance, a few things stick out. For starters, both promotions hosted eight matches and three title matches on the evening. However, ROH obviously had many more recognizable and popular names on the independent circuit on their show. While NXT did feature Balor, Joe and Crews — ROH boasted names such as Styles, The Young Bucks, Jay Lethal and several other of their mainstays and veterans.
The Daily Wrestling News report says that WWE “lost a little face” because there are still several ROH performers they have their eye on. However, many of them have elected to re-sign with ROH rather than testing the open market and potentially making a jump to WWE.
One name that was rumored to be on WWE’s radar was Jay Lethal, as Inquisitr reported recently. But in an interview with Channel Guide Magazine, Lethal downplayed the rumors, stating that while he’d love to explore a WWE opportunity in the future — given the proper timing — he’s just happy to be where is.
“I’ll say also if that is true, I’m honored. To be wanted in professional wrestling, that’s all a wrestler can really ask for. Just to be wanted, it’s a great feeling. So if that’s true, I’m honored. I haven’t heard anything about that myself. Would you work for WWE? I’ve answered this question before. To me the answer is still the same.”
Other current ROH wrestlers connected with WWE in the past include The Briscoes, Adam Cole, Moose, and more. But as previously stated, they are all currently under contract to ROH and will not be jumping ship anytime soon. That fact, partnered with ROH drawing a better crowd on the same night WWE ran in the area likely did not sit well within WWE.
ROH has been quite the feeder system for WWE in the past decade, producing names such as Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, CM Punk and others. However, with WWE’s burgeoning partnership with EVOLVE, that promotion could see itself produce talent for WWE, similar to how ROH did in the past.
[Images via Ring of Honor, Mark Suleymanov/Inquisitr]
