The Rise, Fall And Rise Again Of Ring Of Honor

There are tons of examples to pick from such as Samoa Joe’s historic ROH World Championship reign and feud with CM Punk, resulting in two hour-long draws, the latter of which being ROH’s first five-star match. You also had the original Summer of Punk where CM Punk tricked the ROH fans into thinking he had signed with WWE, only to win the ROH World Title and sign his real WWE contract on the belt. Samoa Joe faced Japanese icon Kenta Kobashi in one of the best matches to ever take place on American soil, Bryan Danielson ran the gauntlet as ROH World Champion having matches with Nigel McGuinness, Homicide, KENTA, and Takeshi Morishima, and as the years started to go by, you could make the argument that ROH was the best wrestling promotion in America.

The roster would be everchanging, with CM Punk departing for WWE in 2005, Samoa Joe leaving for TNA in 2007, and a bevy of talented wrestlers joining the company during the 2000s. While ROH started with a roster of the independent circuit’s top performers, they were soon joined by many more stars like Homicide, Nigel McGuinness, Austin Aries, Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards. Additionally, the roster was further bolstered by ROH’s working relationship with Pro Wrestling NOAH, the top promotion in Japan at the time. It was this partnership that allowed top stars KENTA, Morishima and Kenta Kobashi to compete for ROH in their aforementioned matches with Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe.

When you consider that at the time if you didn’t look like John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton or Brock Lesnar you were unlikely to get the call from the big dub, Ring of Honor existing to give wrestlers like Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, and CM Punk a platform not only endeared them to fans of the wrestling business, but it allowed them to take this collection of tremendous performers who didn’t fit the corporate mold and put on some of the best shows of the era.

• Ring of Honor
• Bryan Danielson
• Samoa Joe
• ROH

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