RF Video and Ring of Honor: SPLIT

[LucharesuFan619 0]

ROH News

 

 

 

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Ring of Honor officially split from R.F. Video as of this afternoon

By Wade Keller, Torch editor

Jun 28, 2004, 6:06 pm

 

 

 

Two sources confirm that this afternoon the ROH-RF split became official. After weeks of negotiations and controversy, Ring of Honor is now a separate entity. Neither side is supposed to comment publicly about the details, but it's expected either or both companies may issue press releases regarding customer-related changes such as new addresses, ordering procedures, and product availability.

 

ROH workers were moving into their new office today. It sounds as if everyone involved with Ring of Honor are excited to be separated from the controversial R.F. Video situation so they can concentrate on wrestling matters and not ownership controversy.

 

If you are a VIP member, but haven't read our in-depth Torch Newsletter "Cover Story" on the situation, you can access it by clicking here.

 

An excerpt (the first fourth of the Cover Story by Torch editor Wade Keller) is included below:

 

Ring of Honor over the last two-plus years has produced some of the best three-hour wrestling events this country has ever seen. They've done so on a budget that is a fraction of TNA's and a miniscule fraction of WWE's and in the process lost a lot of money, as many small businesses do in the early years of operations. Despite the lack of profits to date, the story of the battle over control of that promotion has involved enough passion and drama to seem more like a battle for control of a billion dollar Forbes 500 business.

 

The decision made just over a month ago by ROH investor, and now majority owner, Cary Silken to initiate a split from R.F. Video was prompted by a number of happenings and some ominous rumors. The major incident was a decisive symbolic move by Doug Gentry, the ROH owner on paper at the time, to become roommates with Rob Feinstein again. Longtime Feinstein roommate Gentry had moved out in March after the scandal first broke. Silken and ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky had been concerned about Gentry's longtime friendship with Feinstein and whether that would cause Gentry to hedge on his vow to keep Feinstein out of any business matters in the future. They were right to worry.

 

Gentry assumed control of ROH from Feinstein in early March after the controversial news footage aired of Feinstein apparently attempting to meet up with who he thought was a 14 year old boy he met on the internet. Feinstein ultimately was convinced that for R.F. Video and ROH to survive, he needed to step down as owner of the companies. He apparently did, as all R.F. Video and ROH accounts were transferred into Gentry's name. But Feinstein hoped to return some day. In fact, he secretly planned to return some day, specifically two years later. Since March, Gentry issued and signed all paychecks and he dealt with all creditors. Meanwhile, Feinstein was nowhere to be seen at any ROH shows or the R.F. Video offices according to numerous sources, including outspoken critics of Feinstein who would have blown the whistle if he had ever shown up.

 

Gentry, though, remained friends with Feinstein in subsequent months. At first, he was concerned for Feinstein's well-being. As a longtime best friend, he was a confidant of Feinstein, who went into what sources say was a "deep depression," understandable considering that many aspects of his personal life were exposed in very raw form on the internet and he lost the company he had invested his entire adult life into building. As the months went by, Feinstein emotionally rebounded and began trying to find ways to quickly leverage his way back into the company. Silken and Sapolsky were concerned with Feinstein's initial renewed communications with wrestlers and office staffers via phone and email during April, but as long as he didn't attend any events, didn't work at the office, didn't collect any revenue, and remained silent publicly, they felt they could go on with business as usual. They just told people whom Feinstein had contacted that he was simply having a tough time coming to grips with the fact that his days involved with ROH were over, that he was "in denial," and that he was just looking to stir trouble or find out who his friends were.

 

Throughout the last few months, Silken and Sapolsky knew they eventually had to deal with the R.F. Video situation. While they had control of the ROH end of the company, the R.F. Video situation was of concern. Silken never had anything to do with funding R.F. Video - the parent company and distributor of ROH tapes - but he knew it was indelibly linked to ROH in the minds of wrestlers and customers everywhere. He was assured by Gentry, though, that Feinstein had nothing to do with it and wasn't involved in the business. For nearly two months, there was no evidence contradicting Gentry's assurances.

 

When Silken and Sapolsky found out in late April that Gentry had...

 

- PWTorch.com

 

 

PWInsider.com has also reported it.

[Guest The Last Free Voice]

so now maybe some of the recent RoH bashing ::Coughonebobcough:: will die down.

[Jingus 0]

Why shouldn't ROH have gotten bashed for this? Feinstein was still involved on some level, and ROH office personnel knew it, yet they still lied and claimed that RF was completely out of the picture. There's plenty of fans out there that don't trust ROH like they used to, and I can't really blame them.

[Guest TDinDC1112]

It's not bashing if it's the truth.

[Placebo Effect 0]

I'll still never give ROH a dime of my money after this.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I have nothing but contempt for this company after reading the Observer this week. I find them all to be disgusting individuals because their response to RF still possibly being there was to just not talk to the public anymore and take another 2 months to do anything about. Gabe might not have known but he looks like a major asshole for ripping into people for daring to question him and low and behold it looks like their concerns were valid.

 

RoH will never get a penny from me ever again and a feel bad enough for what money I have paid them.

[Guest Deviant]

So now it's 100% official and can be proven without any doubt that Rob is 100% gone and not profitting in any way and not involved in any way? Beautiful. Back to business as usual then with no more bitching from ROH-haters then? About bloody time.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Why is it RoH hating? The company lied about RF's involvement. So what if he's gone now? It's absolutely disgusting that it took them almost 4 months to do so.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Bottom line is I defended ROH the first time this shit happened and let me tell you......it ain't happening this time. Why are you defending ROH? THEY LIED TO YOU.....THEIR OWN FANS. And not about something trivial like a storyline or backstage antic. They LIED about the fact that a potential child molester owned/worked for their company simply because they knew they wouldn't last if he was staying.

[Silence 0]

ROH has definitely fallen low as far as its company reputation goes after reading this news.

 

With the RF scandal earlier this year, the loss of their regular talent like AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels to TNA or WWE over the years (or because wrestlers like Low-Ki refused to ever work for ROH again because of the RF scandal), Gabe lying to the fans about RF being gone, and the moving of show locations, I can't really see ROH being around next year.