Your Favorite Time Period for ROH

[goodhelmet]

So, with recent talk about how this board is Indy Unfriendly, I wanted to create a topic on the biggest Indy of all. Before, Loss, Tim Cooke and myself started going crazy with bulk buys, creating collector boards, and amassing huge amounts of old school goodness, it was ROH in 2004 that kept my interest in wrestling alive. I was fascinated by the entire Feinstein fallout but it was around the same time that the product really picked up and they started dropping all of these awesome match-ups out of the blue. Samoa Joe was on fire as champ. Joe-Punk still held up for me a couple of years ago when I watched some stuff with Johnny P. The Joe-Aries match felt like a big deal. Liger coming to the U.S. felt like a big deal. The Chicago Street Fight was a big deal to me. Low-Ki and Homicide looked legit. Foley, Steamboat and the MX made cameos. Man, I love me some 2004 ROH.

[Steenalized]

05-07, basically from Punk's feud with Rave until a little after the CZW feud ended. That was the peak of my ROH fandom, though I was big into collecting the shows from before that too. Never really got into the earliest shows as the production felt pretty rare and the talent hadn't quite come together.

[Venegas]

2004.

 

I haven't seen much 2004 ROH in awhile, and my views on wrestling have drastically changed since, but although I may have a different opinion on some of the matches that I thought highly of, the booking and structure of the product may have been the best for a US company since the 80s.

[Coffey]

2005. Pretty sure that was the last live show I went to as well. The roster was awesome. Samoa Joe was on fire back then too. I also really liked the James Gibson run. I was a big fan of The Embassy, Austin Aries, a lot of people. They were stacked & fun back then. Samoa Joe Vs. Kenta Kobashi was huge for me.

[southofheavy]

2004 - 2008. I was reading about them for a while before 2004, but I know Midnight Express Reunion was the first DVD I bought. All the hype on Danielson, Joe, Punk, Generation Next, and Low Ki was just too much. The following summer, I moved just north of Detroit and literally months after that, RoH was running at a venue that was about a fifteen minute walk from my house. I went to every single show they had there, I think. That was some of the most fun I ever had as a wrestling fan. The roster was absolutely killer back then, and outside of a few missteps, the booking was so on point.

 

I really, really wish there was another super indy around now, touring and kicking that much ass.

[fakeplastictrees]

ROH is responsible for keeping me going as far as interest in pro wrestling is considered. WWE 2002 did its best to kill my interest. It was nice around 2004 or so that TNA and ROH introduced me to wrestlers and a style of wrestling I had never seen. Styles, Sabin, London, Red, SATS, etc. all great acts that got me interested again. As for the high points? 2005-2007 for me. More on WHY later.

[WingedEagle]

I want to say 04-06 or so, basically the years I was in law school as most of that time was a blur but I was all about ROH at that time. Hopped aboard the Joe bandwagon as soon as I found about it, went crazy for Joe/Kobashi and then petered out a bit as he slowly became a TNA exclusive. Punk was interesting for a bit on his way out, but Danielson was the glue that kept me staying current and going to shows after Joe's run. I lost a lot of interest when he took a long break after dropping the title to Homicide -- even though that night was awesome -- and then fell off pretty heavily as things moved into Age of the Fall, Tyler Black and that new era. Just didn't click for me.

[Matt D]

There was something pretty special about seeing it in 02-03 when local indies would generally bring in a guy like Beefcake like it was a big deal, and suddenly you had all these guys you only read about on the internet or saw in ".rm" files or whatever, guys like Daniels and Red and the SAT and Low Ki and Styles. It felt almost like the internet wrestling geek version of when Vince suddenly had all these guys on his roster in 85.

[jushin muta liger]

Late 2005 to 2007 was my favorite time period of ROH. I thought it was masterful how Danielson's title reign was built for him along with creating feuds and new challengers along the way. From building up KENTA, making Nigel a star, the CZW feud with Hero terrorizing the company with Claudio turning on ROH to having Homicide be the savior for ROH, Danielson dropping the belt to Homicide and then that transitioned into Morishima's reign. I thought the company was just on fire and without that period, they not have gone to PPV or HDnet.

[Childs]

Yeah, for me it was late 2005 through the end of 2007. The ROH of that period is probably more responsible than anything for causing me to dive down the rabbit hole of unhinged wrestling fandom. I'd read the Torch on and off and had always held a latent curiosity about the Japanese product. But when I started reading the raves about Joe/Danielson/Styles, etc., I finally bought a few indy DVDs. And when I dug those, I decided to bite the bullet and investigate what these Kobashi and Misawa dudes were all about. That led to DVDVR and Goodhelmet and the whole nine.

 

But I'm not sure any of that happens if ROH didn't generate serious buzz in 2005. It was just a fun product to follow in those years, with the great working stars and the aforementioned story lines. I went to a bunch of shows in '06 and '07 and saw the best live wrestling I'd caught since the heyday of Crockett running Baltimore. It's a time I have a lot of affection for, even if it's not the wrestling I'm most apt to revisit.

[KrisZ]

2002-03 ROH was my favorite because it didn't take itself so GOD DAMN SERIOUSLY like it did when Gabe took over control. RF may have been a pedophile jerk but he at least maintained a fun promotion with some personality.

[Mr. Lacelle]

I'm partial to 2014 cause it's the first time I've been able to watchi t in real time and not just via tapes. It's on TV and I pvr it and watch it. I love that it's just an hour and they cycle guys on so you don't get sick of seeing the same faces. Plus The Briscoes are just the best thing going in wrestling today.

[Timbo Slice]

The Reborn shows in 2004 really got me into the product. That Chicago Street Fight is one of my favorite ROH matches ever, too. I think they did a lot from there until about 07-08 to be level with WWE, who had lost their way in producing a good product in many ways. Once they decided to get a bit too big for their britches, they lost me, but ROH helped me stay interested in wrestling for a while.

[tigerpride]

2003 to 2007. Then my interest in going to ROH shows faded as I realised we would spend the entire show debating movies. Nigel losing to Jerry Lynn was the final straw

[Cox]

There was a period from late 2003 to around 2007 where I couldn't even imagine missing a major ROH show. I hit all of the New Jersey shows, most of the Philly and New York shows, and they were almost always a good time. And even when things did fall flat during the Gabe era, like shit like the NO REMORSE CORPSE, you could at least make fun of it, and there was still decent wrestling somewhere on the undercard. Nowadays, I can't even remember the last ROH show I went to...I think maybe the first HDnet TV tapings, whenever they were? ROH could run a show down the street from where I live now and I don't think I'd go. I have less than no interest in them as they currently exist.

[Graham Crackers]

2006-2007 is the peak in my opinion. ROH vs CZW is a feud I still go back to when I'm in the right mood.

[soup23]

2002-2006 right to the end of Homicide getting the belt was the peak for me. The combination of meeting my wife and falling out of indy wrestling after being invested for 5 years made me trail off in 2007.

[Petey]

This thread has me feeling nostalgic. I was a huge ROH fan from 04-08ish (I started to lose interest when Gabe got fired and then I met a girl and totally stopped following). 2005 and 2006 were my two absolute favorite years. 05 was when they had their deepest roster and 06 with the CZW feud and Homicide's title chase was the company's creative peak. 04 was an important year since if ROH didn't have such a quality year, the RF thing might have prevented them from seeing 05. 07 is when the talent pool started to dry up and by 08, it seemed like Gabe was just burnt out.

[Hobbes]

I feel while ROH may have been deeper and more great matches in the year or two that came after, it's 2004 that was really my favorite year. The first shows post RF all the way through to Final Battle just had the feeling of a company on the rise, going hand in hand with the feeling that Joe was becoming king of the indies. Styles and Daniels being forced out helped freshen things up and the shows were still infrequent enough that pretty much every one felt like an event.

[Jesse Ewiak]

Speaking purely, I guess, as somebody who really couldn't afford the DVD's via normal means, but still cared about staying up with ROH storylines to stay up with the shows I did manage to acquire, I really stopped caring about checking DVDVR to get live reports/results somewhere in the end of Nigel's reign. Whether it was too many shows, no connection to the newer guys, or a dearth of good booking, it simply didn't matter to me anymore.

[Johnny Sorrow]

My first ROH show was the Rexplex one with Joe/ Briscoe in the cage and I was hooked. I went to a shitload of shows with the last one being COD in Phily in 2006 , a few weeks before I moved to Colorado. I rarely bought the DVD's , and I usually would only buy the shows I was at, with a few others here and there. I was all about the live experience and those shows were almost always fucking fun. Shit, I was at the Philly Tent Show, had an awesome time watching wrestling outside on a lovely Summer night...and then came home to read clowns on the net trip over themselves to bash ROH because they had to run a tent show. It was bizarre .

[Petey]

Joe/Briscoe was also my first ROH show! I went to every NYC show from 05-08 except the spot show they had the same day as the first ECW One Night Stand. Also went to the Liger New Jersey show and the few shows they did on Long Island (which even though the shows weren't great, Sports Plus was 10-15 minutes from my house and the idea of ROH running across the street from the shopping mall I killed so much time at as a teenager was the coolest thing to me).

[Johnny P]

I've talked about this stuff with Will and Johnny a bunch (may even be on the Wrestling Across America - Philadelphia pod the three of us did with Blue Meanie, which is a great listen for all the stories everyone tells.

 

Real personal question for me as a fan, or maybe better said I hold early ROH close because I lived it maybe even more than ECW, honestly. I was at the very first show at the Murphy Rec, and all but one show in Philly that first year. I was at the first anniversary in Queens, half drunk w/ my buddy Stevie, convinced for a short time the "riot" was real, and pissed at what I thought were asshole fans for it (some of those workers - Smokes in particular - that portrayed the friends of Homicide, would go to the Philly shows, stand behind the seats in the standing room area, and yell shit during matches LIKE fans in the months leading up to it, which led to me thinking they WERE overly emotionally involved fans, especially when you don't have commentary to inadvertently make it obvious). Got to sit front row for Muta - I think the first Nat. Guard Armory show. I was at that same amazing tent show where we thought ROH was going under, and that show was amazing to be at. Got to take a classically trained dancer from the art school I once attended to Joe vs Kobashi (one of my favorite stories to tell, as she only did it because she and I had a thing, and she ended up loving it for the choreography, and wanted to choreograph a match herself because she saw it as a parallel to stories dance tried to tell). Even got to be there live for both the 100th show (CZW vs ROH) and the COD blow off. Saw Misawa in Philly and in NYC the next night with friends. Flew to Orlando for that year's Mania shows in 2008, and flew back on the red eye to Philly early Sunday morning with Sapolsky and Delirious (which is hilarious in hindsight). Was there for the first HD Net taping, and the NYC farewell to Danielson and Nigel. A million shows in between and even a few after. I'd estimate I've been to over 60 ROH shows in my life, so yeah, there's a personal memory thing there.

 

As far as eras... I loved that first year. I've never been a huge production values guy. I like the nitty gritty and the work. The atmosphere, and that first year felt sooooo different and special. I liked the second year too, as the Joe run started. I'd say 2004 is where I break from consensus, as that summer I went through personal shit and lost some of my connection to the product (stopped going to live shows for a while). 2005 was neat to watch pieces of on DVD, but it isn't for me what it is for others.

 

My personal glory period where I was completely locked into the product was 2006 through Sapolsky's firing in 2008. That breaks from the '04-'06 or '07 narrative many people have, but that's just my personal feeling. Once Sapolsky was let go I went to show for another half a year and then faded out. I have been to shows since '09 sporadically, maybe 4 or 5, the New Japan/ROH in NYC from May of this year being the last one, but I don't have that personal connection to ROH - that involved, first-person, home team feel I had from 2002 to 2008 - anymore. Its not "my" promotion, with "my" guys, or the staff I really knew running/working for it. Still, so many great memories, and I find myself still rooting for them to succeed. (I just realized Dave Musgrave and I went to see a TV taping in August which was actually a really good show. Sorry, Dave. lol)

 

Final side note. Me seeing Joe/Kobashi live ended up sparking an email discussion between myself and longtime Philly fan Gene Boyer way back in mid-'06. I was somewhat familar with Will and Charles then, but that conversation with Gene led to our friendship, my friendship with Will, and eventually too many names to mention from here - and STILL growing. I'm very lucky for all that ROH inadvertently brought me on several different levels, and I am reminded of that when I owe many of you phones calls or emails (Charles, Dylan, Bix, Dave, and there's gotta be a few more. I'm getting there guys! lol)

[Petey]

Being at Joe/Kobashi is still the greatest bell to bell experience I've had as a wrestling fan. I remember walking out after the show with my buddy and it was like nirvana. Couldn't wait for the DVD.

[anarchistxx]

2003-2005. 2006 was really fun but I was burned out on too much wrestling back then and starting to get into other things, so my interest in the product waned. Plus they overreached a bit and the promotions decline coincided with my rapidly decreasing interest.

 

There was a time when ROH was the most exciting promotion on the planet, with everyone rushing to check the results and reports of matches from each show.