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| Davey Richards, selling. A very rare photograph indeed. |
On the latest Fair to Flair podcast, the panel and I discussed why we weren't really watching the new ROH show on Sinclair Broadcasting Group stations or in my case, the Internet. I had my own reasons that had nothing to do with how much I liked the show; I've just been hella busy the last two weeks for good reason (hint, it has to do with my newborn son being born). That being said, K. Sawyer Paul, Razor and Jason Mann all agreed that their distaste for the new serial was rooted in ROH having a "lack of color". Without hesitation, I agreed with them.
Things in ROH have seemed a bit drab in the last couple of years. Gone are a lot of the personalities that made it great, although a lot of it wasn't by management's choice. Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, Tyler Black (barf personally, but people loved him) and Claudio Castagnoli all got offers to go on to higher-paying positions. That doesn't explain the exiles of other vibrant personalities from the promotion, such as Austin Aries, Necro Butcher and most bafflingly, Colt Cabana. It also doesn't account for the total dulling of guys who have shown personality in other promotions (or even in ROH circa mid-2009) like Kenny King, Rhett Titus, Adam Cole or Jay Lethal. Does ROH want to come off boring?
That's obviously not the intent. I'm sure they don't want to seem like dullards to the fans they're trying to bring into the fold, and obviously, the wrestling they produce is going to be the big drawing point. I will never bash a company for putting the wrestling at the forefront at all, and honestly, I am one of those weirdos who can watch a wrestling show for the matches and the matches alone. That being said, the experience is that much richer when everything's good, when the story being told is good.
That begs the question whether a company can focus completely on wrestling and still be interesting. If anyone answers "no" to that question, they either don't see the forest for the trees, or they're ignoring the big picture. OF COURSE a wrestling-centered company can have solid storytelling without the trappings of the ADD-addled Crash TV tropes brought in by Vince Russo. Hell, it can be done without the traditional tropes that were used by companies like WWF and the various NWA territories as well. All it needs is a strong narrative and well-developed characters. Yeah, about that...
ROH's characters and stories revolve around weaksauce intangibles like "wanting competition" or "the desire to be the best in the world". There's barely any character motivation outside of wanting to get better. While that can be a great tool for the announcers to use for feud-starting matches (Wrestler X wants to get a bigger share of the purse!), for prolonged feuds, it doesn't jibe.
Hell, the World Champion's character to me comes off as a guy who'd rather be MMA fighting. There was one segment on the old HDNet show that showed Davey Richards sparring with Tony Kozina in martial arts exhibition. No one ran in. No one ruined it. It was just Richards and Kozina hitting each other. What was advanced? What was the point? To show that Richards trained well or knew how to do kicks? He could have done that in a squash match for crying out loud. He basically reminded me of bad e-fed characters from when I used to do fantasy wrestling. Basically, all they'd do is come out and cut promos about how intense they were and how they'd train non-stop and then only stop to eat or bang their supermodel girlfriends. It was the most generic pap that could be trotted out. That's Davey Richards personified to me.
The problem is that outside of El Generico and the Bravado Brothers (and Kevin Steen, who technically isn't on the roster, yeah right), everyone in the company suffers this curse. It's like they're only coloring with the 8-pack of crayons, while WWE and Impact have the 24 pack and Chikara and PWG have the deluxe 128 pack with the sharpener on the back. Although be fair, WWE's and Impact's crayons are broken and mashed and used to color outside the lines, while at least ROH keeps their meager wares in impeccable condition and makes somewhat better use out of them. The point is though that there's at least better characterization going on other promotions. The bigger companies at least have the better array of crayons.
Imagine how much better a picture ROH could color if they just upgraded the number of crayons available to them?
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, Chikara and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography
