I don't know if anyone here even knows what Ring of Honor is, but basically it's the third biggest wrestling promotion in America. It was the last stop for wrestlers like Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, Brian Kendrick, CM Punk, Evan Bourne (Matt Sydal), Christopher Daniels, Paul London, Low-Ki, and Homicide on their way to national fame.

 

 

 

To give you an idea of the basic 'style' of ROH, watch this video:

 

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HDNET FIGHTS ANNOUNCES LONG TERM PARTNERSHIP WITH "RING OF HONOR" WRESTLING

 

New partnership brings unique brand of professional wrestling to HDNet.

 

 

 

DALLAS (January 26, 2009) HDNet Fights today announced a long term partnership with "Ring of Honor Wrestling."

 

 

 

Coming soon, HDNet will debut a new weekly television series, which will bring "Ring of Honor Wrestling" to a national television audience for the very first time. "Ring of Honor Wrestling" and its stars are prominently featured in the recent, critically acclaimed movie "The Wrestler" starring Mickey Rourke.

 

 

 

"'Ring of Honor' is an exciting addition to our programming lineup at HDNet," said Mark Cuban, chairman and co-founder of HDNet. "ROH has developed a cult following thanks to its special brand of professional wrestling and we are pleased to present it for the first time to a mass television audience."

 

 

 

"'Ring of Honor' is proud and excited to enter a partnership with HDNet," said Cary Silkin, president of Ring of Honor. "Our in-ring action is the perfect compliment to HDNet's respected programming and growing statur e in the broadcast industry. It's a match most definitely made for a Main Event."

 

 

 

Founded in 2002, "Ring of Honor" has become one of the most successful and recognized promotions in the world thanks to its focus on authentic professional wrestling. Over the last seven years it has produced some of the biggest stars in the industry, including Samoa Joe and CM Punk, while featuring the best in-ring competition in the world.

 

 

 

The stars of "Ring of Honor" include ROH World Champion Nigel McGuiness, the 3-time reigning Wrestling Observer Newsletter Most Outstanding Wrestler Bryan Danielson, Necro Butcher, Austin Aries, Tyler Black, Jerry Lynn, and Mark and Jay Briscoe.

 

 

 

Air dates and times will be announced at a later date.[hide=About HDNet]HDNet (www.hd.net) provides viewers with the best in original comedy, drama, news, sports and music programming.

 

 

 

HDNet is your exclusive, high definition home for popular, critically acclaimed original programming, including television's only HD news feature programs "HDNet World Report," the Emmy Award winning "Dan Rather Reports," featuring legendary journalist Dan Rather and " NASA on HDNet" (presenting live shuttle launches through 2010). HDNet presents championship sports coverage featuring Major League Soccer, the NASCAR Camping World Series, NASCAR Sprint Cup re-broadcasts, and premiere Mixed Martial Arts from "HDNet Fights;" behind-the-scenes sports news with "Inside MMA;" groundbreaking music programming with the HDNet Concert Series featuring leading artists and bands including Coldplay, Gwen Stefani, John Mayer and more; and entertaining and irreverent lifestyle programming including "Deadline!," "Art Mann Presents," and "Get Out!" HDNet is also the exclusive high definition home to critically acclaimed and award winning programs such as the Emmy Award winning "Arrested Development," "The Black Donnellys," "Dead Like Me," "Smallville" and the hit series "Torchwood."

 

 

 

HDNet Movies features a wide selection of major studio theatrical releases all uncut, unedited, and appearing in their original aspect ratio so that HDNet Movies viewers get the best possible home theater experience.

 

 

 

Only HDNet Movies' exclusive Sneak Previews bring feature films to viewers before they premiere in theaters! Some of the HDNet Movies Sneak Previews have included the Academy Award nominated "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," Toronto Film Festival nominee "Th e War Within," and "Bubble," the first of six movies by acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh and produced exclusively for HDNet Films. Other featured films include "Cashback," written and produced by Sean Ellis, "Broken English," from Zoe Cassavetes, starring Gena Rowlands, Parker Posey, Drea de Matteo and Griffin Dunne, the critically acclaimed "Redacted" directed by Brian De Palma, "Flawless," starring Michael Caine and Demi Moore, "Quid Pro Quo," starring Nick Stahl and Vera Farmiga, "Finding Amanda," starring Matthew Broderick and Brittany Snow, "Red," starring Brian Cox and most recently "Humboldt County," starring Fairuza Balk, Peter Bogdanovich and Frances Conroy and "Special," starring Michael Rapaport. Upcoming Sneak Previews include "Great Buck Howard," starring Colin Hanks, John Malkovich and Tom Hanks, and "Harlem Aria," starring Damon Wayans.

 

 

 

Launched in 2001 by Mark Cuban and General Manager Philip Garvin, the HDNet networks are available on AT&T, Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Comcast, DIRECTV, DISH Network, Insight, Mediacom, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and more than 40 NCTC cable affiliate companies. For more information visit http://www.hd.net.[/hide][hide=About Ring of Honor]Ring of Honor Wrestling (www.rohwrestling.com) was created as a response to wrestling fans that appreciated the athleticism and entertainment that the sport can bring. Founded in 2002, Ring of Honor's hard hitting, action packed style has been its hallmark with wrestling fans throughout the world. In its 7 year history, ROH has promoted over 200 live events between 15 states in addition to international events held in Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. Since 2007, Ring of Honor Wrestling has been available on PPV though Direct TV, iN DEMAND, DISH Network and TVN cable systems in the U.S. as well as Viewer's Choice and Bell ExpressVu in Canada.[/hide]

I used to watch wrestling a lot (mostly WWE and UFC), and this looks a lot less fake than that. I was actually convinced halfway through.

So many TNA wrestlers...

The first six episodes were taped this weekend at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia:[hide=Lineup for the six episodes (spoiler free)]Episode 1:

 

- Jerry Lynn vs. Delirious

 

- Kenny King vs. Sami Callahan

 

- Brent Albright vs. "Addicted to Love" Rhett Titus

 

- Tyler Black vs. Jimmy Jacobs

 

 

 

Episode 2:

 

- Kevin Steen vs. Eddie Edwards

 

- Sara Del Ray vs. Daizee Haze

 

- Claudio Castagnoli vs. Alex "Sugarfoot" Payne

 

- ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness vs. Jay Briscoe

 

 

 

Episode 3:

 

- Eric Stevens vs. Sterling James Keenan

 

- The Dark City Fight Club (Cory Chavis and and Jon Davis) vs. Up in Smoke (Cheech and Cloudy)

 

- Chris Hero vs. The Necro Butcher

 

- "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries

 

 

 

Episode 4:

 

- Austin Aries vs. Kenny Omega

 

- Delirious vs. "Dirty" Ernie Osiris

 

- Daizee Haze (with unknown partner) vs. Sara Del Ray (with unknown partner)

 

- Jerry Lynn vs. Brodie Lee

 

 

 

Episode 5:

 

- Rhett Titus and Kenny King vs. Up in Smoke (Cheech and Cloudy)

 

- "The King of Diamonds" Eddie Kingston vs. Sami Callahan

 

- Bobby Dempsey vs. Orange Cassidy

 

- Necro Butcher vs. Jimmy Jacobs

 

- Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brent Albright

 

 

 

Episode 6:

 

- The Dark City Fight Club (Cory Chavis and and Jon Davis) vs. Grizzly Redwood (with unknown partner)

 

- ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness vs. "Sugarfoot" Alex Payne"

 

- Jay Briscoe and Kevin Steen vs. Chris Hero and Eddie Edwards

 

- Tyler Black vs. "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson[/hide]

Unfortunately, Singapore only airs WWE and TNA and I'm not even talking about up-to-date TNA, the ones they air are from 4 years back when their ring was still squared.

 

 

 

I've seen bits and pieces of ROH via youtube before, seems cool but unfortunately I will require some time to get familiar with the names and stars of it. Also, what's this I've been reading online about Bryan Danielson being the best wrestler in the world? Lance Storm has stated that he would go out of retirement should his opponent be the American Dragon.

He actually had a match with Bryan Danielson in 2006, at the ROH show "Better Than Our Best". The Best in the World moniker comes from his reign as ROH World Champion. As a heel champion, he would brag about being the best in the world, and there was an extended storyline where he sent out open contracts all over the world for challengers. Amongst others he wrestled Naomichi Marafuji and KENTA from the Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling NOAH, Sonjay Dutt from TNA (but representing the CZW promotion in the story) and of course Lance Storm.

 

 

 

However, his claim to being the best wrestler in the world is entirely valid, not just empty bragging. He was trained by Shawn Michaels and William Regal, amongst others, and is known to travel all over the world to improve his skills (Japan, Mexico, Canada). Right now he's even training in former UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture's MMA school to add more MMA moves to his playbook. He uses a wide variety of finishers and has been involved in some of the best matches of the past decade. He is probably one of the most skilled technical wrestlers alive today. If you want to look up some of his matches, I can especially recommend any time he has wrestled Nigel McGuinness, the current ROH World Champion with whom he has had an on and off rivalry that stretched over three years. Last year he had a three match series with Austin Aries that's also worth watching, as are his matches with Takeshi Morishima.