ROH Ring Announcer Bobby Cruise Talks ROH Sale, Wrestlers Reactions & More
ROH Ring Announcer Bobby Cruise was recently on Busted Open with hosts Doug Mortman and Dave LaGreca which airs Mondays and Wednesdays from 2-4 PM ET on Sirius 92 and XM 207. Here are some highlights:
Where can people see ROH now that they're owned by Sinclair broadcasting group: "There's been some concern already and I have my concerns as well. Hearing rumors of maybe a new TV deal, it was rumors of Versus, which would have obviously given us a lot more clearance than we had with HDNet. But thinking about it and talking with some other people who have more experience with this stuff... Versus could have ended up just like HDNet did basically and we could have been cancelled after two years. We're not going to get cancelled with the channels were going to be on. They own the content, this is a content based deal. There's gonna be 58 markets... 58 stations that Sinclair services right now, they'll be announcing what stations will be carrying the new Ring of Honor weekly TV series. You guys have some concerns it's not (gonna be on in) New York, I have some concerns its not (on in) Providence or Boston up by me. The birthplace of Ring of Honor, Philly. I know there's gonna be a little bit of backlash there.
"The plan is as far as I know, and I don't know much, is to get this thing going, and then by 2012, maybe look to syndicate it and kind of go the old time wrestling stuff that was on Saturday nights or something like that on broadcast channels. They are really, really going to concentrate on internet based things. They are really going to concentrate on getting this program, in its entirety, on the internet for people to see. They know what they're doing, there's no doubt about it. It's gonna be a work in progress, but I think you're gonna like the results in the end."
Locker room reaction on Saturday after hearing the news about the sale of ROH: "We didn't know what was going on, and to get this kind of thrown at us, it's not a huge cable station like maybe some people were hoping for, but in the long run this should end up being better for us as a company and better for the talent. They own the content, they are going to push this, its on their own stations. They have a multi year plan for Ring of Honor.
"You mentioned before?.are they going to change things? We've been told they're not going to change a thing. Jim Cornette announced to the live audience in Chicago on Saturday, 'I'm going to tell you right now what's going to change about the in ring product with Ring of Honor', and he said absolutely nothing. And that's the plan. They like Ring of Honor as it is. They purchased the company as it is. They just want to give it more exposure on their TV station. The name's not changing, the talent's not changing... Jesus, I'm not even changing."
On the biggest complaint being the production of the ROH TV show on HDNet: "Absolutely, and I can say that with confidence because that came up in our talent meeting on Saturday. As far as capturing that Ring of Honor atmosphere, it was not happening on our TV show. It's kind of like there was no crowd there in Philadelphia sometimes. They are going to concentrate on getting that ROH atmosphere... getting that across to the fans and making sure it comes across on the TV broadcast. We are running our first TV taping August 13th in Chicago at the Frontier Fieldhouse, one of our biggest buildings for many years. But I can pretty much say with certainty, when people walk in to that building on August 13th, its not going to look like any other Ring of Honor show that's been there before.
The long delay between the tapings and when the shows will be aired: "I think the initial plan is that window is gonna be cut in half. We would go to Philadelphia to tape in March and it would still be airing in late May. I believe the plan now is to tape once a month instead of taping once every other month or once every other month plus. Were going to tape once a month so that window will be a lot smaller so stuff will be a lot fresher."