Ring of Honor

The Ring of Honor (ROH) is an independent professional wrestling promotion created in 2002. It is one of the leading US Independent companies and usually holds two or three shows every month. Annual shows include the Anniversary Show, Death Before Dishonor, Glory By Honor, Round Robin Challenge and Final Battle.

Unlike World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which mostly focuses on physical appearance, microphone skills, gimmicks, and characters, Ring of Honor showcases technical matches with smaller but very skilled performers.

Matches tend to be longer than those of larger promotions, and focus on the athletic abilities of the wrestlers.

Ring of Honor has developed a loyal fan base in the Northeast and around the country.

Roster

Wrestlers who currently compete or used to compete for ROH include Samoa Joe, Low Ki, American Dragon, CM Punk, Colt Cabana, Homicide, Alex Shelley, James Gibson, Spanky, Nigel McGuinness, Jack Evans, Chad Collyer, BJ Whitmer, Austin Aries and more.

Legendary performers Mick Foley, Ricky Steamboat, Jim Cornette and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan have also made regular appearances in non-wrestling roles.

ROH are also involved in talent trading with a major promotion in the UK, Frontier Wrestling Alliance (FWA) gaining superstars like Doug Williams and Jonny Storm they are also involved in cross-promotional shows like Frontiers of Honor.

International wrestling superstars such as Terry Funk, Keiji Mutoh, Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Kaz Hayashi, Eddie Guerrero, Shinjiro Ohtani and 2 Cold Scorpio have also made appearances in ROH at one point or another.

Events

2003

• Final Battle Convention Card @ Philadelphia, PA 12/27/03
• War of the Wire @ Framingham, MA 11/29/03
• The Conclusion @ Fairfield, CT 11/28/03
• Main Event Spectacles @ Elizabeth, NJ 11/1/03
• Empire State Showdown @ Spencerport, NY 10/25/03
• Tradition Continues @ Glen Burnie, MD 10/16/03
• Glory By Honor 2 @ Philadelphia, PA 9/20/03
• Beating The Odds @ Wakefield, MA 9/6/03
• Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies @ Fairfield, CT 8/16/03
• Wrath of the Racket @ Dayton, OH 8/9/03
• Death Before Dishonor @ Elizabeth, NJ 7/19/03
• Wrestlerave '03 @ Philadelphia, PA 6/28/03
• Night of the Grudges @ Cambridge, MA 6/14/03
• Do or Die @ Philadelphia, PA 5/31/03
• ROH/FWA Frontiers of Honor @ London, England 5/17/03
• Round Robin Challenge II @ West Mifflin, PA 4/26/03
• The Epic Encounter @ Philadelphia, PA 4/12/03
• Night of the Champions @ Philadelphia, PA 3/22/03
• Expect the Unexpected @ Cambridge, MA 3/13/03
• One Year Anniversary Show @ Queens, NY 2/8/03
• Revenge on the Prophecy @ West Mifflin, PA 1/11/03

2002

• Final Battle 2002 @ Philadelphia, PA 12/28/02
• Night of the Butcher @ Philadelphia, PA 12/7/02
• Scramble Madness @ Wakefield, MA 11/16/02
• All-Star Extravaganza @ Philadelphia, PA 11/9/02
• Glory By Honor @ Philadelphia, PA 10/5/02
• Unscripted @ Philadelphia, PA 9/21/02
• Honor Invades Boston @ Wakefield, MA 8/24/02
• Crowning a Champion @ Philadelphia, PA 7/27/02
• Road to the Title @ Philadelphia, PA 6/22/02
• Night of Appreciation @ Philadelphia, PA 4/27/02
• The Round Robin Challenge @ Philadelphia, PA 3/30/02
• The Era of Honor Begins @ Philadelphia, PA 2/23/02

Famous matches

(Not the greatest matches are listed, but more the matches that made people take notice of ROH)

• Low Ki vs American Dragon vs Christopher Daniels @ Era of Honor Begins - Feb. 23 '02
• Low Ki vs Spanky vs Doug Williams vs Christopher Daniels (One hour Iron Man Match to crown the first ROH Champion) @ Crowning a Champion - Jul. 27 '02
• Paul London vs Michael Shane (Street Fight) @ Unscripted - Sep. 21 '02
• American Dragon vs Paul London (2/3 Falls Match) @ Epic Encounter - Apr. 12 '03
• A.J. Styles vs Paul London (#1 Contender's Match) @ Night of Grudges - Jun. 14 '03
• Tag Team Scramble Cage Match @ Main Event Spectacles - Nov. 1 '03
• Samoa Joe vs C.M Punk - These two have had three amazing matches against each other, two resulted in one hour draws and the third went to then ROH Champion Samoa Joe
• Austin Aries vs American Dragon (2/3 Falls Match that went for 73 minutes) @ Testing the Limit - Aug. 7 '04
• Samoa Joe vs Austin Aries (ROH Title Match in which Joe's 21 month reign finally ends) @ Final Battle 2004 - Dec. 26 '04
• EbbasanJack vs Samoe Joe - @ ROH Hot Showdown at the Barn - March 04 '05
• Mike Quackenbush vs Jolly Roger (eye patch vs bald spot match) - Honor invades Chikara

Titles

ROH Heavyweight Championship

For a more comprehensive listing, see List of ROH Heavyweight Champions.

Date Won	Champion	Defeated	Location
July 27, 2002	Low Ki	Spanky, Christopher Daniels, and Doug Williams	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania1
September 21, 2002	Xavier	Low Ki	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 22, 2003	Samoa Joe	Xavier	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
December 26, 2004	Austin Aries	Samoa Joe	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
June 18, 2005	CM Punk	Austin Aries	Morristown, New Jersey

Notes

1. Won a 60-minute Iron Man Match to become the first champion.

ROH Pure Championship

For a more comprehensive listing, see List of ROH Pure Champions.

Matches for the Pure Championship are conducted under three simple Pure Rules:

• Each wrestler has three rope breaks to stop submission holds and pinfalls during the match. After a wrestler exhausts his rope breaks, sumbission and pin attempts under the ropes are considered legal.
• There are no closed-fist punches to the face allowed in a Pure match, only open-handed slaps or chops to the face are allowed. Punches to other parts of the body (save for low-blows) are permitted.
• A wrestler is subject to a twenty count by the referee if the wrestler goes to the floor.

Date Won	Champion	Defeated	Location
February 14, 2004	A.J. Styles1	CM Punk2	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
July 17, 2004	Doug Williams	Alex Shelley3	Elizabeth, New Jersey
August 28, 2004	John Walters	Doug Williams	Braintree, Massachusetts
March 5, 2005	Jay Lethal	John Walters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
May 7, 2005	Samoa Joe	Jay Lethal	New York, New York

Notes

1. Title was vacated in April 2004, when Styles commits himself to wrestle for Total Nonstop Action.
2. Defeated CM Punk in a tournament final match to become the first champion.
3. Defeated Alex Shelley in a tournament final to win the vacated title.

ROH Tag-Team Championship

Date Won	Champions	Defeated	Location
September 21, 2002	Christopher Daniels & Donovan Morgan1	American Dragon & Michael Modest	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
March 15, 2003	A.J. Styles & The Amazing Red2	Christopher Daniels & Xavier	Cambridge, Massachusetts
September 20, 2003	Backseat Boyz (Trent Acid & Johnny Kashmere)3	Special K (Izzy & Dixie)	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
October 16, 2003	Special K	Backseat Boyz	Glen Burnie, Maryland
November 1, 2003	The Briscoe Brothers (Mark & Jay)	Special K	Elizabeth, New Jersey
April 24, 2004	Second City Saints (CM Punk & Colt Cabana)	The Briscoe Brothers	Chicago Ridge, Illinois
May 15, 2004	Dan Maff & B.J. Whitmer	Second City Saints	Lexington, Massachusetts4
May 15, 2004	The Briscoe Brothers (2)	Dan Maff & B.J. Whitmer	Lexington, Massachusetts4
May 15, 2004	Second City Saints (2)	The Briscoe Brothers	Lexington, Massachusetts4
August 7, 2004	The Havana Pitbulls (Ricky Reyes & Rocky Romero)	Second City Saints	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
February 19, 2005	Dan Maff & BJ Whitmer (2)5	The Havana Pitbulls	Elizabeth, New Jersey
April 2, 2005	B.J. Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs6	Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal	Asbury Park, New Jersey
July 9, 2005	The Carnage Crew (H.C. Loc & Tony DeVito)	B.J. Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs	New York, New York

July 23 2005 Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer beat The Carnage Crew for da belts.

Notes

1. Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan defeated American Dragon & Michael Modest in a tournament final to become the first champions.
2. Titles stripped on September 20, 2003 because of Amazing Red's knee injury.
3. Last eliminated Special K in a Tag Team Gauntlet match to win the vacant titles.
4. Titles were defended in a Round Robin Tournament match.
5. Titles vacated in March 2005 when Dan Maff leaves professional wrestling.
6. Defeated Samoa Joe & Jay Lethal to win the vacant tag team titles.

ROH wrestling school

The ROH promotion also runs a professional wrestling school called ROH Wrestling School in Bristol, PA. Its current head trainer is Austin Aries. One class of students have already graduated and currently wrestle on the US Independent Circuit. The second class are in training presently.

External links

• Ring Of Honor.net unofficial site
• ROHWrestling.com official site