Colt Cabana finishes run with Ring of Honor

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Josh Nason | @joshnason | Dec 14, 2019 9:38 am


First reported by POST Wrestling's John Pollock, Colt Cabana has wrapped up his run with Ring of Honor at Friday's Final Battle pay-per-view.

According to Pollock, it was known since September that Cabana wouldn't be returning. We can confirm that Cabana never had an official contract with the company and was on a handshake deal. He was offered a new deal, but chose to turn it down.

At Final Battle in Baltimore, the 39-year-old faced, and lost to, fellow veteran Alex Shelley for the first time in an angle set up on the pre-show.

This was Cabana's third run with ROH as he was a big part of the company from 2002 through 2007, feuding (and later teaming) with CM Punk, Nigel McGuinness, Austin Aries, and Daniel Bryan. He held ROH's tag titles twice with Punk and left the company to sign with WWE.

He returned to ROH in 2009 and worked there regularly through 2011 along with other promotions, and returned again in 2016 as a wrestler/commentator, trending more toward the latter in recent years.

Cabana is the NWA National champion and will defend the title Saturday against Ricky Starks and Aron Stevens at the brand's first-ever PPV. It's expected he will be part of their subsequent Sunday and Monday TV tapings for Power.

[Big Red Machine]

Shane Taylor appears to be on his way out as well, according to a Tweet from him.

[cero2k]

Shane Taylor appears to be on his way out as well, according to a Tweet from him.

Shane Taylor has been saying for a while that he was leaving. a lot of people gave ROH shit for not re-signing two of their current champions.

Given the push in AAA and the AEW/AAA connection, or even having Andrade in WWE, ANNNDD SURELY after losing to fucking PCO. I have to imagine that RUSH is on his way out too.

ROH is gonna lose a lot of people in 2020 apparently, their relationship with NJPW seems almost dead now that there is zero presence in wrestle Kingdom and there is no Honor Rising tour. If they don't restructure soon, we won't get a Final Battle 2020.

[Big Red Machine]

Shane Taylor appears to be on his way out as well, according to a Tweet from him.

Shane Taylor has been saying for a while that he was leaving. a lot of people gave ROH shit for not re-signing two of their current champions.
While he had been improving a lot, I think Taylor was really more of a morale loss than anything else. He should not have been TV champion when given so many of the other options in the company (Shelley, Hendry, Dragon Lee, Flip, Scurll, Tracy, Haskins, and most of all BANDIDO), but the issue is more that here is a guy who finally puts the work in and improves to the point where he is close to becoming a passable ROH caliber worker when given the chance and has developed into a very good promo... and then they don't resign him after the best run of his career.

Given the push in AAA and the AEW/AAA connection, or even having Andrade in WWE, ANNNDD SURELY after losing to fucking PCO. I have to imagine that RUSH is on his way out too.

I don't think so. Reports were that Rush was very happy working ROH because it gave him some place that he and Dragon Lee could work together and RUsh apparently really doesn't like working NJPW. If he goes to AEW, he can't work with Dragon Lee anymore.

ROH is gonna lose a lot of people in 2020 apparently, their relationship with NJPW seems almost dead now that there is zero presence in wrestle Kingdom and there is no Honor Rising tour. If they don't restructure soon, we won't get a Final Battle 2020.
ROH has had a shocking amount of people really develop this year (Woods, Taylor, Marseglia), plus they've started using Haskins and Williams better, Bateman is coming in. I don't think ROH will be in danger of failing so much as be in danger of becoming another TV-style promotion that is mostly fine at what they do but just doesn't have the star power or top-level quality to get any attention.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have a lot of trust in the roster, but not the decision-makers

[cero2k]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have a lot of trust in the roster, but not the decision-makers

that's been 15 years of TNA, 20 years of WWE, it's the same story always. Talent is always competent enough, but booking sucks. You're right that the talent is there, let's see how much people can get invested in guys like Vincent and Bateman and Maria Maniac in the long term.
I haven't read your review, but to me Bully vs Haskins was all about Bully showing off. I'm not sold on PCO winning, I know people LOVE him, but he's a freak show, and this is the type of thing old TNA or an indie promotion would do.

[Big Red Machine]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have a lot of trust in the roster, but not the decision-makers

that's been 15 years of TNA, 20 years of WWE, it's the same story always. Talent is always competent enough, but booking sucks. You're right that the talent is there, let's see how much people can get invested in guys like Vincent and Bateman and Maria Maniac in the long term.
I haven't read your review, but to me Bully vs Haskins was all about Bully showing off. I'm not sold on PCO winning, I know people LOVE him, but he's a freak show, and this is the type of thing old TNA or an indie promotion would do.

WWE has had some darn good times in there (I think mid-2013 until early 2015 was pretty great and I very much enjoyed a lot of 2005, plus I"m sure there are other things when I wasn't watching WWE).
What I'm saying, though, is that I think the eventual success of guys like Taylor, Marseglia, Taven that we've seen over the past year or so, plus someone like Gresham finally being used well is the sort of thing that had been missing over the past few years. There was along period of time where it felt like 99% of the guys they brought in either just plain weren't talented enough (Bouncers, New Kingdom, Sumie, Taylor, Josh Woods) or that no matter how good someone was in the ring, the creative end would always totally let them down (Rush, Dijak, Ciampa, Cedric, Sydal, ACH, Jay White, Tenille Dashwood, Gresham). I think that the recent successes with Marseglia and Taylor- who many fans were saying "why is this guy even on the roster) will give people a reason to get more invested and give more of a chance to the likes of Flip, Bateman, Tasha Steelz, Josh Woods, etc.

I agree about PCO, but at the same time he is SOOOO good at the gimmick with the way he sells that if you eliminated all of the dumb "short-circuiting" and Destro stuff, I think he would actually make a perfect world champion for a promotion like CZW, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way at all. You say "indie promotion" like it's inherently a bad thing, but I think there are certain indies where his gimmick would work perfectly due to the identity of that indie.

[Bob-O]

Shane Taylor has been saying for a while that he was leaving. a lot of people gave ROH shit for not re-signing two of their current champions.

Wasn't part of Joey Mercury's meltdown spilling the beans that ROH wasn't going to negotiate with Taylor? It puts a different spin on him saying he was leaving...

[cero2k]

Shane Taylor has been saying for a while that he was leaving. a lot of people gave ROH shit for not re-signing two of their current champions.

Wasn't part of Joey Mercury's meltdown spilling the beans that ROH wasn't going to negotiate with Taylor? It puts a different spin on him saying he was leaving...

i guess it goes hand in hand, he may have said he was leaving because he already knew roh wasn't negotiating.



on a related note, roh hired SLEX, one of my favorite aussie wrestlers

[Big Red Machine]

Shane Taylor has been saying for a while that he was leaving. a lot of people gave ROH shit for not re-signing two of their current champions.

Wasn't part of Joey Mercury's meltdown spilling the beans that ROH wasn't going to negotiate with Taylor? It puts a different spin on him saying he was leaving...

Not sure. Someone claiming to be him just showed up on the ROHWorld forum and Jeff Schwartz (Shane Hagadorn's co-host who was also a fan who ran in ROH circles and is friends with a bunch of the guys from back in the day) has at least hinted that this guy is legit, so I guess I'll find out soon.

[Big Red Machine]

Shane Taylor has been saying for a while that he was leaving. a lot of people gave ROH shit for not re-signing two of their current champions.

Wasn't part of Joey Mercury's meltdown spilling the beans that ROH wasn't going to negotiate with Taylor? It puts a different spin on him saying he was leaving...

i guess it goes hand in hand, he may have said he was leaving because he already knew roh wasn't negotiating.



on a related note, roh hired SLEX, one of my favorite aussie wrestlers

What did you think of his Okada match? I wasn't overly impressed by it.

[Big Red Machine]

So the scuttlebutt coming out of the TV tapings the following are all staying around...

Hidden text.

Rush, Dragon Lee, Marty Scurll


Rush announced himself, Dragon Lee, and Kenny King as a faction and declared war on Villain Enterprises. Rumor is that Marty was offered seven figures to stay and took it.

[cero2k]

What did you think of his Okada match? I wasn't overly impressed by it.

I liked it, that was the first time i had heard of him, so i went in cold to a dude I knew nothing off. I personally liked the Ospreay match at MCW100 more now that I new a little bit of his character. I've heard there's a great SLEX vs Tyler Bate match from 2016 that i haven't watched.

I do think he's super generic looking, so ROH should be the best place for him, especially now that it's becoming a freak show

[Bob-O]

was offered seven figures to stay and took it.

That sounds like a cringe-worthy rumor. The man's in my Top 3 and even I'll admit he's not worth that, I can't see ROH of all places offering up that kind of payday to anyone no matter how desperate they are, unless I'm sorely mistaken about the condition of their brand right now.

Common sense tells me he hung out to do one last round of TV and will be on his way, but I don't know shit lol. Just my gut talking.

[Big Red Machine]

was offered seven figures to stay and took it.

That sounds like a cringe-worthy rumor. The man's in my Top 3 and even I'll admit he's not worth that, I can't see ROH of all places offering up that kind of payday to anyone no matter how desperate they are, unless I'm sorely mistaken about the condition of their brand right now.

Common sense tells me he hung out to do one last round of TV and will be on his way, but I don't know shit lol. Just my gut talking.

Hidden text.

I don't think Scurll is worth that much either, but in this case it's not just about him but also about avoiding the perception that all of the cool kids will go and run to AEW as soon as they can.

I don't think he just stayed around for TV because based on ROH's previous booking patterns, they would have done something to get rid of him like have the rest of VE betray him or have the new Faccion Ingobernable take him out as their opening salvo.

[Bob-O]

was offered seven figures to stay and took it.

That sounds like a cringe-worthy rumor. The man's in my Top 3 and even I'll admit he's not worth that, I can't see ROH of all places offering up that kind of payday to anyone no matter how desperate they are, unless I'm sorely mistaken about the condition of their brand right now.

Common sense tells me he hung out to do one last round of TV and will be on his way, but I don't know shit lol. Just my gut talking.

Hidden text.

I don't think Scurll is worth that much either, but in this case it's not just about him but also about avoiding the perception that all of the cool kids will go and run to AEW as soon as they can.

I don't think he just stayed around for TV because based on ROH's previous booking patterns, they would have done something to get rid of him like have the rest of VE betray him or have the new Faccion Ingobernable take him out as their opening salvo.

I hear you, and it makes sense. From booking trends/history to logic, I agree.

But a SEVEN FIGURE offer from a company that's on blast for paying people barely a living wage wage... I'm not buying it, and I'll believe almost anything. I didn't just believe, I KNEW, CM Punk was debuting for AEW like four different times. Each four of those times was more believable to me than this. That's SO MUCH money...

[cero2k]

Maybe it's like 999,999.0

With a seven figure number they'd be able to sign away people from WWE if they wanted

[Bob-O]

Maybe it's like 999,999.0

With a seven figure number they'd be able to sign away people from WWE if they wanted

I lol'd.

But you're right. If somebody in ROH was willing to greenlight that kind of offer, even stretched out over a few years, I can't believe it'd be to him. Especially with WWE starting to release guys...

[Bob-O]

So, not seven figures, but ROH looking to stay in the game...