Fresh off the big results of Battleground , WWE is now prepping for SummerSlam , but are also already looking ahead to WrestleMania 32 . During WrestleMania weekends, they want full focus on the company and everything wrestling to center around them. Well, every year, Ring of Honor tries to take some of that attention away, and WWE is not taking too kindly to that.
Each and every year, Ring of Honor plans a big event on WrestleMania weekend, and it usually brings in a rather large crowd. WrestleMania 32 is taking place in Dallas this year, and ROH has now set up their two events on that same weekend in Dallas.
According to Pro Wrestling Net , Ring of Honor will run an event on the evening of April 1, 2016, and then another on the afternoon of April 2, 2016. It will be called Supercard of Honor, and be held at the Hyatt Regency Dallas.
This is just not sitting well with WWE, and they’re trying to put a stop to this. Word going around is that WWE isn’t happy about the business that Ring of Honor is taking away from their WrestleMania weekends by putting on events.
Things got started with that when WWE announced that Jushin “Thunder” Liger would be wrestling at NXT Takeover in Brooklyn next month.
That announcement is actually causing a bit of controversy , as revealed by WrestleZone . Jushin “Thunder” Liger is a member of New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), and they have close ties to Ring of Honor. NJPW actually just revealed a big-time talent swap program with numerous promotions, but WWE is not one of them.
Supposedly, big moves were being made backstage regarding the relationship between NXT and ROH, but now it seems that WWE is taking jabs at the latter.
One of the big things that ROH is known for is doing bumps on the ring apron. Well, last night at Battleground , WWE had instructed talent to do more of them, and there were close to a dozen ring apron bumps performed throughout all the matches.
Dave Meltzer has stated that the ring apron bumps, which are done on the hardest part of the ring, are directly related to Ring of Honor . One of the most noticeable last night was the hard DDT given to Roman Reigns by Bray Wyatt .
It really shouldn’t be surprising that Ring of Honor and WWE have a bit of a competition with one another. All you have to do is look at the former ROH talent that is succeeding in WWE right now.
- Seth Rollins — Current WWE champ, former Tag Team champ, former NXT champ
- Sami Zayn — Former NXT champ
- Luke Harper — Former IC champ and member of the Wyatt Family
- Cesaro — Former Tag Team and U.S. champ, one of most popular WWE stars
- Kevin Owens — Former NXT champ and in top feud with John Cena
- Samoa Joe — Future will be huge in WWE
- Daniel Bryan — Former World champ, WWE champ (3), IC champ, Tag Team champ, US champ
That’s not even counting past stars such as CM Punk, but that’s a whole different story.
At many points in the past couple of years, people thought that Ring of Honor and WWE could end up working together as a bit of a super promotion. That hasn’t happened, but the WrestleMania weekend events have continued, and it looks like WWE is not happy with it at all.
[Image via WWE]