Guest Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 Only issue I have with the interim champ thing was that when you beat the true champ, there is no need for the second belt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted April 1, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted April 1, 2022 28 minutes ago, Louch said: Only issue I have with the interim champ thing was that when you beat the true champ, there is no need for the second belt.  Always do this again, chico. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted April 1, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted April 1, 2022 If he's such a fan of traditional southern wrasslin' then why not implement the old 30 day rule like they had in the NWA? You can then have 4 week builds to title defences against mandatory challengers, and if you do want to push a longer feud you can always have the person your champion is feuding with get involved in the finish if need be. They seem quite happy to throw Page into random title defences with little to no build anyway, as demonstrated by his title defence against Dante Martin on Dynamite which was only announced via twitter. Plus they managed to build it into the ongoing Page/Cole feud. There are certainly better ways to book it than "he may be gone for a week or two, better stick the belt on somebody else." A savvy booker could have also played into Deonna's not being able to appear at the show to defend the title as playing into her as a dastardly heel holding the title hostage, and used that to crown a new women's champion. Then you've got a similar situation to what was happening with Bandido and Gresham, and at some point in the future you can book the match to determine the undisputed champion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 25 minutes ago, jazzygeofferz said: A savvy booker could have also played into Deonna's not being able to appear at the show to defend the title as playing into her as a dastardly heel holding the title hostage, and used that to crown a new women's champion. Then you've got a similar situation to what was happening with Bandido and Gresham, and at some point in the future you can book the match to determine the undisputed champion. Where else do you think this is likely to go? It's the whole point of interim champions to eventually clash with the original champion. It'd be a decent selling point to whenever RoH properly restart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted April 1, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted April 1, 2022 3 hours ago, Louch said: Only issue I have with the interim champ thing was that when you beat the true champ, there is no need for the second belt. This is where you get one of the more visible disconnects with the real combat sports that a more "sports-orientated" booker tries to emulate with wrestling: in boxing or MMA, when an interim/"Silver" championship is bestowed on the #1 contender because of the actual champion's absence, that actual champion's next defence when he/she comes back from injury will always be against the interim champion to remove dispute. In wrestling, you could have a full champion come back from absence, and the next opponent they face could easily be someone other than the interim title holder. One interesting thing about interim titles in MMA recently has been the fact that the UFC has over-used them, and in a couple notable cases recently done so for political/negotiation reasons - the most prominent being the UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, who was getting into a wrangle with Dana White over contracts. Even though he hadn't been absent or injured for the requisite period of time, White made the decision to put an interim title on Ciryl Gane, the #1 contender. It reeked of the petulance and pettiness people associate with White, almost reminiscent of McMahon. Which means that's now a potential extra storyline device. Wrestling has used it before, though not particularly frequently, and not quite in the same way (first thing that springs to mind is the CM Punk storyline where he left with the belt and McMahon had that mini tournament to crown another champion). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted April 1, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted April 1, 2022 51 minutes ago, Infinity Land said: Where else do you think this is likely to go? It's the whole point of interim champions to eventually clash with the original champion. It'd be a decent selling point to whenever RoH properly restart. I'm just saying there are better reasons to crown an interim champion than "our actual champion is busy tonight" or better ways to kayfabe it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 3 minutes ago, jazzygeofferz said: I'm just saying there are better reasons to crown an interim champion than "our actual champion is busy tonight" or better ways to kayfabe it. It's not just they're busy that night. RoH don't have any shows booked for after this. They can't really be more specific. The only thing that really exists right now is a match graphic. Why don't we see where things are going? If you don't want to know Impact stuff. Spoiler Last night's Impact that was taped mid march before any Interim Women's match was announced. On the same set of tapings Deonna Purrazzo defends her titles in the Champ Champ Challenge against...Willow Nightingale. This is still to air. Kind of weird for Tony Khan to book Willow in the Interim Title match knowing she was going to lose the next week or so on TV? Could have just had a number one contender's match. Say the Impact TV match was the title shot and be done with it. Unless it's going somewhere.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 7 hours ago, Infinity Land said: Which is a fairly standard thing to do in other sports This isn’t a sport though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 22 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said: This isn’t a sport though. Yeah, it's not like professional wrestling has ever tried to emulate the presentation of a sport ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 41 minutes ago, Infinity Land said: Yeah, it's not like professional wrestling has ever tried to emulate the presentation of a sport ? It still isn’t a sport. It’s fiction, and thus the writers can create whatever scenarios they wish without having to comply or emulate what happens in actual sport. If Harchester Utd needed a signing outside of sporting parameters they’d invent a parameter. Same goes with little Tone and his interim champ, there’s no need to try and compare scenarios across a sports governing body and a work of fiction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Your Fight Site Posted April 1, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted April 1, 2022 Yet that’s clearly the “feel” they’re going for with the W-L-D records they throw up on screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted April 1, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted April 1, 2022 Sport is still the framework in which wrestling's stories are written, though, however tangentially. I don't have a problem with the interim champion situation, so long as they keep to that precedent - it seems that Tony Khan prefers an interim champion to not having titles defended on big shows, or to stripping someone of the belt for inability to defend, and that's fine if that's the route he goes down every time. It creates an automatic reason for a rematch, and they might add more intrigue to the women's title situation on the show itself. It may be that whoever wins the interim title will appear on AEW while Deonna is on Impact, and they can build to an "interpromotional" match to unify the championships whenever the next ROH show takes place - it's certainly more than Bandido has been doing with his version of the ROH Title. It's really difficult to cast judgement on any of these decisions until we get a clear look at what Tony Khan's ROH looks like - hopefully it's not just AEW-lite, and has enough of a separate identity of its own. The only thing I will say is that, once the titles are unified, it needs to go back to being a single belt. I hate to play the "casual fan" card, but Sammy Guevera carrying two belts for one championship was an awful look, and not something you could satisfactorily explain to a first-time viewer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted April 1, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted April 1, 2022 (edited) 38 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said: It still isn’t a sport. It’s fiction, and thus the writers can create whatever scenarios they wish without having to comply or emulate what happens in actual sport. If Harchester Utd needed a signing outside of sporting parameters they’d invent a parameter. Same goes with little Tone and his interim champ, there’s no need to try and compare scenarios across a sports governing body and a work of fiction. That's just it, though - there may be no need for it, but maybe he wants to do it, as part of his booking direction, i.e. to make it look like a legit combat sport. It's a parameter that's available, and that he wants to use. Edited April 1, 2022 by Carbomb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted April 1, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted April 1, 2022 It’s a world where stakes matter. If people have matches over a briefcase, I don’t see the issue in matches for a belt that’s not the proper belt. It’s a top contenders match with a physical token where the wrestler in line defends it the same way New Japan have the G1 winner defend the WK shot. If “interim champion” is the issue then… semantics. Better that approach than have a match with no stakes, or strip the champion on a whim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 (edited) 40 minutes ago, Your Fight Site said: Yet that’s clearly the “feel” they’re going for with the W-L-D records they throw up on screen. But unlike sport, they aren’t bound by those parameters. Don’t they even reset them?  The way I see it, anyone can get a title shot in wrestling, it’s up to writers to make it credible. Not everyone can get a title shot in sport, many a legal challenge has been taken place for queue jumpers.  My point is it doesn’t matter if little Tone wants an interim champ if the champ is out for a week or for a year, it sets up many potential storylines. My issue is when someone doesn’t like it or criticises it, don’t point to actual sport to try and justify it. I know little Tone is some peoples vicarious Lord and can do no wrong, just don’t take it personally if someone thinks his idea is shit. Let it play out.  EDIT @Carbomb Interim champs are a brilliantly easy way of generating new storylines, agreed. I’m not sure presenting the smarkiest of smarky promotions as a legit sport works. But no doubt I’m just not seeing the meta 4D chess going on maaaan. Edited April 1, 2022 by Keith Houchen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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