In a slow weekend for wrestling news, the biggest story was a low key departure from Ring Of Honor (ROH) management. Longstanding employee Syd Eick announced to the ROH locker room after their Philidelphia house show on Friday night that he was leaving the company, effective immediately. Eick was the sole person left in management who had been with the company from the very beginning and whose power grew to the role of Vice President when founder Rob Feinstein was forced to sell the company to Cary Silkin after being caught in a highly embarrassing Internet sting by Perverted-Justice. He had been responsible for the day to day running of the company for many years before Sinclair Broadcasting took it over late last spring.
Eick was a divisive figure backstage, often playing "bad cop" to Silkin's "good cop", in a role similar to the one WWE's heads of talent relations like J.J. Dillon, Jim Ross and currently John Laurinaitis performed for Vince McMahon. Inevitably then Eick picked up enemies, most notably the talented Austin Aries who acrimoniously left ROH in 2010 and immediately tweeted upon hearing the news:
"@ScrapDaddyAP @BookItGabe @rohcary Just heard some #GREAT news. About damn time someone got smart. #SeeYaPal #CutTheCancerOut"
However, a significant proportion of the existing ROH roster were shocked and disappointed by Eick's announcement, even though the move should have been expected with the fairly recent takeover and the relocation of the promotion's base from Philly to Baltimore.
Whether this is good or bad news is thus hard to tell and largely depends upon who picks up his remaining duties. If they are taken on by a veteran wrestling mind like Jim Cornette or Gary Juster, then it is probably for the better, but if someone is chosen within Sinclair Broadcasting who has no prior experience with the unique wrestling business, then it will be a step backwards.
The other big news from the Philadelphia house show was that ROH kickstarted an interpromotional feud angle (a video of which can be seen after the jump) with CHIKARA by having outsiders Jigsaw and Hallowicked defeat ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes in a non title Proving Ground match. This is to set up a doubleheader dubbed Synergy where both promotions will run shows on April 28th, 2012 in Chicago Ridge, Illinois, which will surely feature a rematch between the two teams for the ROH Tag Team titles amongst other ROH vs. CHIKARA matches. Like the memorable ROH vs. CZW feud this should lead to some hot matches and boost both promotion's attendance for their joint shows. Certainly not a game changer, but a much needed injection of energy and life into ROH, as they struggle to turn increased exposure via television syndication into extra ticket buying fans.
There are 0 Comments. Add Yours.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.