With the birth of AEW, Ring of Honor is probably the company that has lost the most, talent wise. In a matter of a few months, they lost a plethora of wrestlers, and most importantly, the most attractive ones. Despite a solid roster, with Jeff Cobb, Matt Taven, The Briscoes, Jonathan Gresham, Dalton Castle or Bandido, Ring of Honor is for the moment unable to bring the audience back to it.
Fact is the recent events, with Enzo and Cass invading the G1 Supercard show at the MSG in New York during Mania week, or the recent fan incident involving Bully Ray at an ROH house show in Portland, have been tarnishing the Honor the company have pride in defending. A few fresh faces within the hottest free agents in the business could be an opportunity for the company to rebound and, maybe, regain that Honor.
Eli Drake
Eli Drake was a surprise Impact Wrestling release in April. Some saw the social media drama Drake had stirred with his criticism of intergender wrestling as a sign it was a work. This wasn’t the case. He’s gone from the company.
Regardless, ‘The Greatest Orator In Professional Wrestling’ is a talented guy who could be an asset for any personality-driven product. Drake’s character work and promos are so strong that they almost negate a very ordinary in-ring game, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see ROH snap him up once the Impact non-compete drama is resolved.
Drake doesn’t have the potential to be a World Champion there, he is meant to become ROH World Champion. He’s a true leader, what the company needs more than anything. Against Matt Taven or Dalton Castle, he could reach new heights Ring of Honor fans have never seen before.
Aussie Open
Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis are easily one of the best tag teams in the world today. In promotions across the U.K., such as PROGRESS, Defiant and RevPro, they’ve held gold and put on some absolutely incredible matches. Aussie Open are simply incapable of having a bad match, and are just as skilled with comedy wrestling as they are with good old tag team wrestling.
Fletcher brings the speed, Davis brings the power, and their blend of styles leads to some brilliant, fluid combination moves. They are the classic big-guy/small-guy combination, and they combine great personality with incredible chemistry, and over the past year, they’ve grown together to become the best tag team in Europe.
It’s only a matter of time until some big promotion snatches them up, as they are ready-made to be on TV and seeing them matched up against the likes of The Briscoes or The Motor City Machine Guns.
Mercedes Martinez
Of course, she’s best known for competing in both Mae Young Classic tournaments, but Mercedes Martinez is an independent free agent, and a fantastic wrestler. Mercedes is a skilled ring veteran with so much passion and dedication to the craft of pro wrestling. Striking, brawling, technical, she’s proficient in it all.
Stuck as an independent female wrestler for nineteen years now, this role produced very little opportunities up until a few years ago. And it’s because of the hard work of people like Mercedes during the last twenty years that have helped to get Western women’s wrestling to the place that is today, especially outside of WWE.
To compete for that long just shows how dedicated she is, and the quality of her work inside of the ring is the ultimate payoff for that. So why not coming to Ring of Honor and shaking the WOH division by becoming the new Champion?
Joe Hendry
After being released recently by IMPACT Wrestling, Joe Hendry is now a free agent. One of the most charismatic independent talents out there, he’s funny, he’s a great singer, he’s creative, he’s a solid pro wrestler, he’s a successful amateur wrestler, he’s been on TV, he’s good looking, he’s faced some of the biggest names in wrestling.
Hendry’s very easy to hate for all the reasons above, but also very easy to love, mostly for his reliability as a grappler which has gained him the opportunity to wrestle against the likes of Kurt Angle, Cody Rhodes and more, as well as be featured on international television shows.
Hendry is now back in the UK, wrestling for many different companies there. He was a part of World of Sports Wrestling revival last year. But Hendry on ROH would make some sense as he already wrestled at ROH Reach For The Sky Tour events in 2016. And he’s fitting the Code of Honour perfectly.
Darius Lockhart
At just 23 years old, Darius Lockhart is applying his craft around the world. He was spotted on CZW last year, but also on Rev Pro or IPW:UK, among many other promotions in the UK. With a strong social message and a high level of ability, Lockhart is a seriously promising talent that is a couple of years away from being a major star.
Lockhart clearly favours technical wrestling, which he is definitely skilled at, yet he is also an all-around grappler proficient at many styles, mat-based, back-and-forth brawl or exciting spot fest. Darius Lockhart has the potential to be a top star wherever he chooses to go.
So “The Revolutionary” would find in ROH a perfect place to master his craft and gain some TV time to spread his message, ” thrive within the world of sports entertainment, aiming to use his platform in order to evoke change on a social and political level, spreading a positive message of hope and resiliency against hate.”
Pics courtesy of ROH, Impact Wrestling, WWE, Viral Pro Wrestling, WCPW and PROGRESS.