News From ROH’s 12th Anniversary Weekend; Attendance Figures, HonorCon, NJPW, More

– ROH’s 12th Anniversary Show on Friday night drew around 1,100 people, no information on how many paid is available at this time. The HonorCon event the following day was attended by over 500 people with a lot of them having paid for the VIP wristbands ROH was selling for $59.99. The TV taping drew approximately 600 people.

– ROH booker Delirious featured for the announcement and was recognized as a senior member of staff. Delirious wore a suit and when asked to speak did so only in his style of tongue, which is jiberish, staying in-character throughout.

– Internally ROH were visibly delighted with how the HonorCon event turned out and how much excitement was created from the New Japan Pro Wrestling crossover announcement. Cary Silkin, former owner of Ring of Honor and current ambassador was saying to people who spoke to him how happy he was with the entire weekend and how bright the future looks for the company.

– The other announcements made were that ROH are in negotiations with action figure and trading card companies about releasing products. ROH has a trading card set released by Filsinger Games, who are now also releasing a set of trading cards for Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE and have previously done so for CHIKARA and TNA.

And that they will be hosting a Future of Honor show in the coming months, where they plan to showcase the best young talent in the world of professional wrestling. ROH released contact information for wrestlers who feel up to the task of performing on the shows during the announcement which they will advertise in due course. The shows are expected to feature the young talent on the main roster, the trainees from the DOH Dojo and select talent from the independent scene.

– Mr. Naoki Sugabayashi, the Chairman of New Japan Pro Wrestling was on-hand to announce the crossover with ROH COO Joe Koff. Sugabayashi was also joined by his translator, Tiger Hattori, who during his time in Japanese wrestling has worked as a manager, color commentator and is the current head referee of New Japan Pro Wrestling. The Chairman of NJPW spoke of his delight at working with Ring of Honor.

– NJPW star Takaaki Watanabe featured at the TV taping and is expected to feature for ROH in the coming months as part of his excursion in the United States. NJPW send several stars to various American promotions in-order to learn new styles, examples of this include Okada and Naito, who featured for TNA a few years ago during their working relationship.

– The names announced thus far for the ROH/NJPW crossover include IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Kota Ibushi, “The King of Strong Style” Shinsuke Nakamura, Jushin “Thunder” Liger who will be returning to the promotion, as will KUSHIDA, and tag team Gedo and Jado who are the bookers of NJPW.

Dave Meltzer of The Observer reported that other names are expected to feature, specifically those who have featured for ROH in the past year such as The Young Bucks, The Forever Hooligans and Karl Anderson.

– Cliff Compton suffered a concussion in his match against Kevin Steen at the 12th Anniversary Show and didn’t compete at the following days TV taping. He did feature however, but not in a physical manner.

(Partial Source: The Wrestling Observer)