NEW ROH Champion!!!!

[King Cucaracha 0]

Joe was the face of the company and was so for a long time too, similar to RVD's TV Title reign. Having the belt during a time the company was getting more recognition helped him to get noticed and move on.

 

Punk as ROH Champion is pretty much an afterthought. As ROH Champions go, there's almost three tiers- Joe and Danielson were great champions who's reigns benefitted the company and got them strong recognition. Ki, Aries, Gibson and Morishima were all good champions but didn't really do much that was ground-breaking. Homicide, Punk and Xavier were just major disappointments.

[bob_barron 0]

I wouldn't really call Xavier's run a major disappointment. It got the Prophecy over, he always got insane heel heat, and he really helped get London over. It was just a shame after he lost the title, he never could stay healthy for them to do anything with him.

[Hawk 34 0]

Homicide got a gold watch title reign and losing the title to Morishima with absolutely no build (as well as right after Morishima lost his debut match) was a horrible conclusion to such an epic march towards the title match with Danielson. Xavier? I never had an opinion because that reign was never focused on him. However, I wouldn't call Punk's title reign an afterthought. It's still a well regarded period but that's more because of Punk's turn and the follow-up, rather then the title reign itself which wasn't all that horrible. Low Ki should be on the disappointment tier.

[bob_barron 0]

Low Ki only had one title defence. What was he supposed to do with it?

 

Gibson's reign sucked, as I don't think the Northeast crowd ever truly connected with him, and he had that debacle in Connecticut

[Hawk 34 0]

Low Ki only had one title defence. What was he supposed to do with it?

 

Gibson's reign sucked, as I don't think the Northeast crowd ever truly connected with him, and he had that debacle in Connecticut

 

That's why I thought it was a disappointment. The angle and execution was great but I've always wished Low Ki had a slightly extended run with the title.

[Youth N Asia 0]

They didn't do any favors by putting the title on Xavier, just seems like they did it cause they could

[King Cucaracha 0]

I almost forgot about Ki completely when coming up with everyone who's held the belt so far. So I guess you could make the arguement either way.

 

With Xavier, I think he was the wrong guy really. I don't remember much of what he actually did as champion vividly, but putting the belt on him was a step backwards. He seemed to do well enough in front of the live crowd at the time. But he did nothing for ROH outwardly in the wrestling business, at a time where they were just arriving in the wrestling business, like Joe did and like Low-Ki probably would.

 

As far as Gibson goes, I think he was already on the way out when he won the belt which didn't help. They played it off, IIRC, as "I'll defend the belt until I lose it and then I'll go back to WWE". So basically they couldn't do too much with him except get a few more matches done.

 

It'll be interesting to see where Nigel's reign ranks when it's done with. Certainly up until a few months ago it was verging on Homicide levels of disappointment. Now, admittedly I don't have as strong an interest in ROH as I used to, but he seems to have turned the corner a little.

[bob_barron 0]

Nigel's heel turn has saved his title reign. I'm the biggest Nigel fan of all time, but after Final Battle it was a disaster. But now the fans hate him, and get into the reign.

[Hawk 34 0]

That's true. Now, he has to be a face against Adam Pearce. Hopefully that won't mess up the momentum of his title reign.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

So what happened with this Vic Viper bs?