Hitting Below the Beltway 09.23.07: Making the jump from ROH to WWE

But are the wrestlers who leave ROH for WWE better off? This is a hard question to answer without knowing the wrestlers personally. Since I’ve never spoke to him, I can’t tell you if leaving ROH for WWE has made Paul London’s life happier and more fulfilling. Without knowing the wrestlers personally, you can’t say whether giving up the opportunity to have longer matches and do as many high flying moves as you want is a worthwhile sacrifice to be performing on the largest stage the wrestling industry has to offer.

So let’s examine this purely from a career perspective. Are the wrestlers who’ve left Indy glory behind to take their shot at the big show finding success in the WWE? Or are they discovering that it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond.

CM Punk – Punk is the easiest of all the ROH graduates to assess. Punk has shot through the ranks in WWE about as fast as one possibly can without be 6’5″ with biceps the size of my chest. Punk started out his WWE career in OWV feuding with Ken Doane and Brent Albright a.k.a. Gunner Scott. It’s interesting to examine the paths of the three men who made OWV one of the most entertaining promotions for several months. After getting a brief main event push as the star of the Spirit Squad (which as actually pretty entertaining until they spent every week getting annihilated by DX), Kenny has fallen off the map. It’s a hard fall from being in main event program with HHH and Shawn Michaels to alternating between being Victoria’s bitch and Chuck Palumbo’s person jobber. It’s like if Brangelina got divorced and decided to give Rosie O’Donnell and Gordon Ramsey joint custody of Maddox; it’s going to be rough on the kid. Albright/Scott was released after a brief stint on Smackdown! as Chris Benoit’s protégé. Now he’s in Indy’s where he’s playing second fiddle to Adam Pearce in ROH’s sixth hottest stable.

Clearly, Punk has emerged as the star out of the former Holy Trinity of the WWE minor leagues. He teamed with DX and the Hardy Boyz at Survivor Series last year and out-popped them all. It’s pretty badass a guy who’s only been in the company a few months is getting bigger cheers than four of the most popular stars WWE has on their roster (I watch the opening of that match every few month just because seeing Punk getting bigger cheers than HHH makes me happy in my special area). After coming up short against John Morrison month after month, Punk finally won the ECW championship thanks to the WWE being forced to actually enforce their wellness policy. While WWE hasn’t let him cut the promos he’s capable of, he’s still gotten over huge. And even if the eventual Punk vs. Umaga match isn’t exactly going to be the five star classic we’ve come to expect when Punk encounters large Samoan men, he’s putting on solid matches.
So I’m going to say Punk made the right choice in moving on to WWE. He’s getting a big push, he’s over and he’s a champion. Plus, he’s hooking up with Maria. If that’s not worth selling out to a big corporation for, I don’t know what is.

Paul London and Brian Kendrick – Since these to guys were in very similar situations in ROH and have been paired together since they got started in WWE, I’m going to put them together. These guys have been bright spots on WWE programming the last few years, both as singles wrestlers and as a tag team. Spanky’s rap battle with John Cena is some of the best comedy WWE has been able to come up with recently (without a single midget or poop joke!). And London’s feud with Billy Kidman was best thing going on WWE TV until they decided to pull the plug on the whole thing and put the belt on Spike Dudley.

I have to say I’m surprised at how successful London and Kendrick have been as a tag team. Obviously, putting two of the most exciting wrestlers together should lead to good matches. But I didn’t think that WWE would actually let two smaller guys win as many matches as the two of them have. Londrick defeated MNM for the titles Judgment Day 2006 and then went on to title reign of nearly a year. While they lost a ridiculous number of matches considering how long they were titles they still had very solid run including victories over William Regal and Dave Taylor, MNM, the Hardy Boyz and Deuce and Domino. After losing the titles to Deuce and Domino they were moved to Raw and where up until the most recent episode, they’ve looked pretty strong. It’s too bad they decided to have HHH annihilate Londrick for no reason because pairing them with Trips could have been comedy gold. Remember the great segment of Edge and Christian pestering Trips and Kurt Angle (Streamers and kazoos rule! Long the stream! Long live the zoo!)? Imagine having London and Kendrick asking HHH to settle their argument over who rules more: Pirates or Ninjas. Hilarity would undoubtedly ensue. Still, in spite of their recent burial, London and Kendrick have had a good run in WWE. They had a long tag team title run and London had a run with the CW belt. Even if WWE doesn’t care about the tag division or the cruisers, that’s still pretty good.

James Gibson – James Gibson is in a very different position than Punk or Londrick. He hasn’t gotten a big push and he certainly hasn’t won any gold. Him and Kid Kash were a pretty good team, but Kash had to go and blow that by running his mouth like he always does. Since then the biggest thing he’s done is repeatedly getting made to look like a fool in his feud with a leprechaun, but at least he’s getting on TV. After watching his incredible match with Roderick Strong at Unforgettable (the most underrated match in ROH history in my opinion) its kind of sad watching him job to the Little Bastard.

While, he hasn’t had much success in the ring Gibson recently was promoted to working as a road agent. Don’t underestimate what a huge deal that is. Being hired for a behind the scenes position means that Gibson is no longer an independent contractor, he’s a full-fledged WWE employee. This means he gets a benefits package including healthcare. If there is one thing that is desperately needed in the industry it is health care for the workers. Wrestlers turn to pain killers because they have to work through injuries and can’t get them properly treated without healthcare. Many of the ailments wrestlers suffer from could be greatly alleviated through medical treatments like physical therapy. And while there are plenty of Dr. Astins out there, having pain medication regulated by legitimate doctors in combination with rehabilitation would help the industry it would save lives.

So even if I miss seeing Gibson putting on technical classics in Ring of Honor, I’m still happy with his choice to go to WWE. Him and hopefully his family now have health coverage. His experience and knowledge should make him a good influence on what’s left of WWE’s cruiserweight division.

Colt Cabana – This one is a bit harder to call since he has yet to debut in WWE, but I’m optimistic for Colt’s future. He’s not a monster, but he’s big enough to be a player. He’s a well-rounded guy who can put on technical clinics or hilarious comedy matches. He’s getting a good amount of exposure, even if they’ve decided to make him into Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana. Hopefully, he won’t get stuck with some ridiculous Eugene-esque gimmick, because WWE would really benefit from having some comedy segments that are actually funny.

Ace Steel – Sadly, I don’t see the crazy little troll having as much success in WWE as his students and partners in the Second City Saints. He’s got a lot going against him. At 34 years old so he doesn’t have the upside the Punk and Cabana do and at 5’9″, he doesn’t have the size that Vince craves so desperately. And while I like his crazy promos and I appreciate his willingness to get the crap kicked out him for my entertainment, I’ve never been terribly excited by his matches. He’s a good guy, but I don’t see how this is going to pan out for him. A strange signing for WWE.

Matt Sydal – The most recent ROH veteran to move on to WWE is Matt Sydal. Let me start by saying that I’ve been a big fan of Matt Sydal ever since I saw his match with AJ Styles at the 2004 Ted Petty Invitational. He’s a really exciting wrestler. The most impressive thing I’ve seen about Sydal is that he wrestles a high flying Indy style, but does it without botching half his spots and without randomly throwing a non-sensical flip in between every other move. He performs moves like the shooting star press and the standing moonsault as gracefully and as accurately as anybody in the business.

While I respect him for taking a chance and following his dream, I don’t see much of an opportunity for Sydal to shine in WWE. No one is going to care how gorgeous his shooting star press is if he’s banned from using it. While Sydal can actually work a smart match, his big spots are a huge part of his appeal. London and Kendrick have both found success in WWE with severely restricted movesets, but they’ve definitely been held back from what they could have accomplished.

In addition to having his best moves taken away from him Sydal is also going to be held back by his severe lack of size. Even in Ring of Honor against guys like Christopher Daniels, AJ Styles and Roderick Strong he constantly had to work the big man – small man match and those guys would definitely be on the smallish size in WWE. At 5’9″ and MAYBE 180 lbs he’s going to look like a little kid next to just about everybody other than Rey Mysterio. It doesn’t help that Sydal looks like your typical 15 year old Abercrombie and Fitch shopper or that when he talks he sounds like he should be inviting the other kids over have pizza, tell ghost stories and play ninja turtles. It’s going to be very hard to make Sydal seem like a real threat to any of the big hosses in the E.

Final Analysis – As it turns out the outlook for former Ring of Honor stars is a lot better than I had originally imagined. Of the big names who’ve left for WWE, three are or have recently been champions, one is steadily rising in OVW and one is doing well in a behind the scenes role. The biggest factor in making it in WWE for former ROHers, and for all wrestlers, is size. Punk, Cabana, London and Kendrick are all big enough to at least be believably competitive with the guys in WWE. Unfortunately, Steel and Sydal only have the size to be cruiserweights at best (Yes, they’re bigger than Rey, but he was one in a million phenomenon and mediocre champion).