Ring Of Honor on Sinclair Broadcasting Network

The first episode of Ring Of Honor television debuted on Sinclair stations last weekend and they also unveiled the new company website along with options on how to view the weekly television show online. The television show is decently produced, has great in ring action and easily understandable storylines. The largest fault I found with the weekly television show was the ringside fan interviews, these were ill timed and fit awkwardly into an otherwise jam packed 1 hour show.

Majority of the discussion about ROH in the wrestling world has been on the sustainability and success of this new product. Sinclair Broadcasting covers 24% of American households with a total of 57 stations. This method of distribution is similar to the territory days when syndication ruled the roost, in fact, this is how I was able to enjoy ECW, Smoky Mountain Wrestling and Memphis' USWA in Detroit on WADL. These shows were all shown on a rather unwatched UHF station and the only way to know they were on was through extremely sparse commercials (lucky for me I was a Shop At Home sports card show addict so WADL and Mr. Don West were staples of my childhood).

WWE Network, a recipe for disaster?

The greatest minds in the history of wrestling have always stated that the industry is cyclical, which means the current state of the business is said to be normal. I personally do not believe this is the case and that there will not be another peak similar to the era's surrounding Hogan and Austin in the future. My reasoning behind this? Even during the previous seemingly successful times, the attendance and employment levels of professional wrestling in America have consistently went downhill since the 1980's. 

In the mid 1980's and before, the territory system ruled North America and ensured that regional territories were able to run shows on a monthly and weekly basis throughout their designated area. An excellent example of this would be the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis which ran weekly shows that often sold out a venue with the capacity of 10,085. These weekly shows were supplemented by "spot shows" in other medium to large venues throughout the Tennessee and Kentucky areas. While I do not have easy access to attendance figures, it would not be a stretch to state that the Memphis Territory in the 70's and 80's would draw about the same number of fans yearly as the WWE does today.

WWE perpetually insults their fans, why?

Something that you hear many professional wrestlers talk about is their hatred of the internet. The first computer I ever purchased was in 1998, two years after I started actively following wrestling. Before this period, the only way to find news about wrestling for a 12 year old kid would be calling ridiculously expensive "hotlines" that were operated by convicted pedophiles (just Google "ML Curly" some time), so the availability of wrestling news on the internet was an epiphany on so many levels.

Being able to live through the internet's influence on business has been a practice of joy and pure hatred. To be fair, the internet is one of the causes of the most successful period in North American professional wrestling. Over the past 15 (or so) years, both the WWE and TNA head offices, as well as on air and off air talent, have made extremely harsh statements about "internet fans" and the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community for those who don't speak wrestling nerd). Most of the recent comments have originated from Michael Cole and are made on the company's most popular show. This is baffling to me, as it goes against every established business practice to insult a customer repeatedly in such a brash and annoying way.