BALTIMORE, Md. — Ring of Honor held a press conference today to share details of its new television deal — through its new owner — and to hype the stacked Best In The World 2011 iPPV Sunday afternoon.
The press conference, hosted by announcer Kevin Kelly, was held at the Channel 45 studios in Baltimore, near the headquarters of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the new owners of Ring of Honor.
Besides a new logo, the company announced a September 24th start date for its new TV show on 35 Sinclair affiliates around the United States, reaching an estimated 22% of the markets in the country.
Missing key cities such as New York City and Philadelphia, COO Joe Koff confirmed that ROH will be attempting to further grow its audience in other locations.
Jim Cornette, ROH’s Executive Producer, stressed that ROH will be a company of young, up-and-coming wrestlers, building up new stars.
On the hunt for new talent, Cornette described the search. “We are looking at independents and other place like Ohio Valley. If we have to look for talent in Bolivia, we will.”
Details of actually taping the TV shows was not announced, but a Cornette confirmed that taping in a studio “is being looked at.”
Former owner Cary Silkin was in attendance, and will stay involved, and Gary Juster was introduced as the man who would be looking after ROH’s live shows; he served a similar role with WCW in the past.
As for the Best in the World iPPV, it airs from the The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, with an early 4 p.m. ET start on Sunday.
The main event pits the ROH World champion, Eddie Edwards, against his American Wolves tag team partner, Davey Richards.
Both were at the press conference, and Richards talked about their history as the American Wolves and said he will win the belt Sunday or he will quit.
“I am tired of you treating me like your younger brother,” spat back Edwards, as they posed with the title.
The ROH World Tag Team Title Four Way Elimination Match has the champions, Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin), defending against The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli), The All Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King) and Jay & Mark Briscoe.
Hero and Castagnoli were not present but left a message saying they will win the titles on Sunday, the same promise made by the All Night Express, who were there.
Next the Briscoes went to say a few words but were cut off by Cornette and Kelly, and the champs got to speak, with Benjamin and Haas talking about how proud they were of being the tag champs.
The Briscoes said they were being “disrespected” and a pull-apart brawl began, before being broken up by Delirious and others. After the mini-angle, other talent from the roster was introduced, including Michael Elgin with Truth Martini, Ernesto Osiris, Prince Nana, Mia Yim, Rhino, and El Generico.
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Lewis Curry is a lifetime Baltimore, Maryland resident and made his biggest splash with SLAM! Wrestling by uncovering a former Intercontinental champion: Ahmed Johnson: Found! He can be emailed at loner64@hotmail.com.
