Ring of Honor Wrestling and TNA Wrestling - The Kenny King Situation or How Ring of Honor is Running Without Honor
I would like to preface this blog entry by saying that I am a fan of Ring of Honor Wrestling. For my money, they are the second best professional wrestling organization in the United States today behind TNA Wrestling. The Ring of Honor show I attended in Greensboro, NC on December 4th was the best wrestling show I attended live in years and is among the highlights of my live show experiences. I have welcomed Ring of Honor into my home every Saturday night since their debut on the Sinclair Broadcast Network affiliate in the Piedmont Triad, WMYV-48, in September 2011. I love Ring of Honor Wrestling. That is why it pains me to write this: Ring of Honor is losing itself by running without honor.
Kenny King was one-half of the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions, the All-Night Express, alongside partner Rhett Titus. King and Titus won the ROH Tag titles at Best in the World 2012 from Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin on June 24th. While this was a huge accomplishment, Kenny King did not set the wrestling world abuzz until a July 5th appearance on TNA Wrestling. Unlike WWE Intercontinental Champion Christian’s appearance at TNA Wrestling’s Slammiversary pay-per-view in June, controversy came with the in-ring return of King to TNA Impact. King wrestled for TNA and Ring of Honor severed all ties with King in the aftermath. The Kenny King Situation became the biggest story in professional wrestling.
While the reality is that the truth will never come to light, this is the Kenny King Situation in a nutshell. Kenny King’s Ring of Honor contract expired in June 2012. While ROH officials and King did not come to an agreement on a new contract, they agreed to continue negotiations while King worked for the company on a pay-per-appearance deal. King also took interviews with other promotions during this time. King, along with Titus, won the ROH world Tag Team titles on June 24th despite King being without a contract. Over the July 4th holiday, King interviewed with TNA Wrestling and received an opportunity to compete in their X-Division title tournament on Impact and the Destination X pay-per-view. King took the opportunity and Ring of Honor announced that King would never work for their company again.
One term that I have read thrown around in this situation is that King and Ring of Honor had a “handshake agreement.” ROH says that King violated this while King says that ROH management wanted to hold him back in his career. In a business where everyone is working for the biggest paycheck and most exposure possible, ROH officials wanted King to honor a handshake instead of a chance at more money and exposure with TNA Wrestling because ROH did not want to pony up the money for a contract King deserved. In 2012, Ring of Honor expected a man to turn down the biggest chance of his career in order to return to a company that was undercutting him with every contract offer they made because of a simple handshake. I find that to be utterly ridiculous. Ring of Honor management looks like blithering idiots with this as their defense. Kenny King saw an opportunity to make more money and perform in front of a global audience weekly. He took it. If Ring of Honor wanted King bad enough, they would have made a contract offer that would have kept King from looking elsewhere instead of shaking his hand.
Ring of Honor now is looking at Kenny King as a Benedict Arnold of sorts because he left the company while one-half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions. King moved on and Ring of Honor will never benefit from King ever again. Kenny King is just another wrestler like current TNA World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries, current WWE Champion CM Punk, or current WWE superstar Daniel Bryan who left Ring of Honor for greener pastures without ROH getting anything in return.
Well, ROH is getting nothing at all except for the profits on these DVDs and dozens more. Ring of Honor owns a vast video library filled with matches featuring some of the biggest names in wrestling today because the majority of those men once called Ring of Honor home. Unlike WWE who refuses to acknowledge anyone not under contract to World Wrestling Entertainment or TNA who does not release DVD sets on former employees, Ring of Honor loves to profit off these men as soon as they become a big name somewhere other than ROH. It is not a bad idea. You have their old matches and own the rights to them. Why not make a profit off their fame in another promotion? It is not necessarily the most honorable practice but it is a successful business practice and that is all that matters. Of course, Ring of Honor is the company that bases itself on HONOR. They believe in a handshake deal in 2012. So, you would think they also believe in promoting their talents and cashing in on the talent they have instead of producing DVDs about people who used to be here, right? You would be wrong.
In 2012 alone, Ring of Honor released DVD sets on Austin Aries, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and even Chris Hero. Hero is currently wasting away in WWE’s developmental territory. ROH, however, saw an excellent opportunity to make some money and they took it. Meanwhile, the current ROH roster continues to go underpaid and under-appreciated. The Young Bucks - Matt and Nick Jackson, The Bravado Brothers - Harlem and Lancelot, and TJ Perkins are among the talents ROH have let stay at home because the company did not want use them. Paying for their appearance and work was not in the best interest of the company. Meanwhile, ROH gladly paid for former WWE and TNA talent like Rhino, Lance Storm, Fit Finlay, and the Headbangers to come into the company in the same time. In addition, Ring of Honor pays for DVD production and promotion for merchandise with the images of men who used to compete here as the future of ROH sits on the sidelines. Of course, as long as a wrestler shakes a member of ROH managements’ hand, these young talents should be thankful to work for ROH and never accept a better opportunity in another promotion. Ring of Honor wants a profit and do not care about their talents getting a profit too.
Ring of Honor is a great wrestling company. They offer some of the best in-ring action in the world. They have a roster second to none. However, Ring of Honor acts like a holier-than-thou company in an industry of charlatans. The reality is that Ring of Honor is just like WWE, TNA, and every other company when it comes to looking out for their own bottom line. Ring of Honor shook Kenny King’s hand and continued to lowball him because they did not believe he would jump ship. They missed keeping one of the most physically gifted in-ring performers today. Their loss is TNA Wrestling’s gain. I hope that Ring of Honor learned one thing from this experience. Honor is only as important as the contract it is wrote on, not the handshake that ended the conversation.
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