RoH show worth it?

[Thumper Moore III]

So, I’m heading to NYC this summer and it just so happens that RoH is running the Hammerstein Ballroom for Manhattan Mayhem while I’m there. Just soliciting opinions— is it worth it to go? I’m only familiar with a few of the guys currently in RoH (Flip, Marty, and the other BTE guys that haven’t made the jump to AEW yet). How is the overall quality compared to, say, two years ago?

[Skullgore]

First thing to consider is that show is a TV taping. Assuming it hasn’t changed in the past year, they tape four weeks worth of TV plus an episode of Women of Honor. From my experience, it is a lot to sit through. They also charge the same amount as a PPV, which is dumb because the TV tapings are not as well attended. And even for a PPV, it’s quite expensive- I think front row is $100. Maybe NYC would be different because of the sheer volume of people in the area. I’m in the Boston market, though, and every time I’ve been, they offer anyone a chance to sit opposite of the hard cam since they want it to appear as full as they can for TV. Usually there is enough empty space where you can move forward and often get a better seat than what you paid for. I’ve been able to get as close as the second row with the cheapest floor seats you can get. It’s kind of infuriating if you pay the $80 for second row and then see people who paid less get the same seats.

The roster quality has dipped considerably over the past few years. If you are comparing it to your average indy show - you know, the kind that runs high school gyms and armories - the work rate is considerably higher. So, you really don’t get any awful matches, but rarely do they raise to the level of being excellent. ROH now is a shell of what it once was in the days of Daniel Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuinness, Kings of Wrestling, etc. That said, there are still some good workers there. They’ve had to do a lot to try to cover for losing The Elite and other guys who followed them out. I don’t know what they plan to do with Enzo and Big Cass, but I shudder to think about what the future will look like if that’s the kind of direction they’re going to go. I should also note that the G1 Climax will be occurring during that time, so every significant heavyweight from New Japan is automatically unavailable. The New Japan guys are usually the guys I go for. That’s why I’m personally skipping their show in the Boston area the next night. If you got even one NJPW junior heavyweight on that show, consider yourself lucky.

The only other thing to note is that most of the talent is available for a meet and greet autograph session before the show. You have to pay per wrestler, though, and even the cheapest guys start at $20. Anyone that you’d even have a remote familiarity with is going to be at least $30, though.

Overall, the biggest issue is this: are you going to feel you got your money’s worth? With the costs being what they are, I unfortunately feel you won’t. If you have nothing better to do and you don’t care about sitting in the cheap seats, then it might be. There are so many other things to do in NYC, though. I can simply tell you that I have indeed decided to skip their show the following night and that will be the first one I’ve missed in the past several years, so make of that what you will.

[Thumper Moore III]

Thanks for the well thought out reply. I’d be going to NYC with my son, a WWE fan, my wife who watches because I do, and my non-wrestling fan parents, so I’d be running that show solo. Cheapest seats were $70 for the balcony. The only real positive is the chance to see a live event at the Hammerstein, which has so much wrestling history from Raw to ECW.

I’ll probably walk past it, take a picture, and move on.

[Deleted]

I'd go, that's mostly because I just love wrestling, so if I have a chance to go to a show, I'd take it. The roster isn't that good anymore, but, it still sounds fun.