History YMMV / RingOfHonor

* FanMyopia: There has been a strong case for dispute against Ring of Honor's status as United States's "third major promotion" for most of its existence. While there are no other major landmarks in the immediate 50 states, territorial companies such as WWC in Puerto Rico have demonstrated the ability to draw larger crowds and when WWC was in its downward spirals, it was largely due to those audiences moving over to the International Wrestling Association (the World Wrestling League, IWA's figurative successor, has also drawn impressively). ROH does have a claim all the same (their championship belts have been defended in front comparable crowds in joint ventures, single ventures once AWE convinced ROH to step its game up, and they have at times surpassed them in television distribution), just not an undisputed one.

** Sinclair investing zero money, thus making everything in ROH (right down to the crooked ring ropes) look cheap.

** The Sinclair group that bought out ROH is often reviled (especially in TV news circles); see above for why.

* BizarroEpisode: ''A Night of Hoopla'', hosted in a bar by Wrestling/TruthMartini. Two nights of reclamation were needed to get things back in line.
* BaseBreakingCharacter:

** The Top Prospect Tournament. Its purpose is obviously to showcase whom ROH thinks has the most future potential at the moment and some fans accept that, except that being presented as a wrestling tournament, other fans ignore this premise and just want to see who they consider the best wrestlers ''right now'' win, as seen in Wrestling/MattTaven over [=TaDarius=] Thomas, Donovan Dijak over Will Ferrara and Wrestling/LioRush over Brian Fury.
** The introduction of the Six Man belts. There have been faint cries for them since 2004 but they came in 2016, after a year of much louder cries for a WOH belt. Speculation around six man belts leaned toward them being tools to further shill [[Wrestling/BulletClub Elite!Bullet Club]], The Cabinet and or more CMLL guests, giving the broken bases of those topics something else to argue about, as well as drawing comparisons to New Japan's NEVER experiment. This all quieted down a bit, as it went to The Kingdom rather than the Club, The Cabinet became DarkerAndEdgier, the matches of CMLL's luchadors were received fairly well and none were the following champions, who turned out to be an unexpected contender in Bully Ray, with the Briscoes, and unlikely underdogs in The Boys, with Wrestling/DaltonCastle.

* BrokenBase

* CreatorsPet
** The Carnage Crew. Nearly everyone flipped their shit when they beat Whitmer and Jacobs for the Tag Team Titles.
** Better people were available but Mike Hogewood did commentary on 100 HD Net shows because he was friends with people who worked for HD Net and ROH didn't want to offend them by dropping him.
** "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett goes here in most eyes, especially when he is feuding with Christopher Daniels and Eddie Edwards for the Television Championship. He even received a "YOU CAN'T WRESTLE" chant at ''Tag Title Classic II''. However, with his gimmick, it ''works'' for him.
** Matt Taven has been the beneficiary of a slow, steady push from pretty much day one, when he won the 2013 Top Prospect Tournament and the ROH Television title in rapid succession. Over time, he's become the leader and long-term centerpiece of the Kingdom faction, had a constant stream of various title reigns, including a period where he was a champion in ROH and CMLL at the same time, successfully defended those titles against various opponents who were bigger stars than him, and starting in fall 2018, he got the latest iteration of the "I'm the real ROH World Champion, I made my own belt to prove it" storyline, which typically precedes winning the ROH World Championship for real--and actually winning the title at the G1 Supercard, joining Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels as the only other ROH Grand Slam Champion in history. Despite all this, he's never really caught on with the fans, either as someone they LoveToHate or a cool heel, and while he doesn't have full-blown XPacHeat, the response to his entry into the main-event picture has been more apathetic than anything else.
** Since the very beginning of Women of Honor, Wrestling/KellyKlein has been the anointed "Guy" of sorts, in spite of having a fairly lukewarm reception with the fans in comparison to nearly everybody else.

** The Carnage Crew. Nearly everyone flipped shit when they beat Whitmer and Jacobs for the Tag Team Titles.

* EarWorm
** "FOREVER! And EVER! FOREVER!"
** "H-O-T! Say it! H-O-T! Louder!"
** "Moose! Moose! Moose! Moose!"
** "Whoop Whoop!"
** "REACH FOR THE SKY BOYS!"

** It used to be a meme to take a picture of a crowd watching an ROH event and then try to find the lone woman in it, ala ''Where's Waldo''. The female minority did notice, however, and strove to make themselves seen and heard until it was {{discredited|meme}}.
** The ROH fan base had a reputation for open misogyny towards female wrestlers, the list of those actually received well by ROH crowds being a short one. SHIMMER didn't improve said reputation immediately, but did end up leaving ROH with audience who not only appreciate but ''demand'' women's matches. With a vocal fistful of fans who complain when a women's match is free for anyone with internet access rather than on pay per view![[note]]Since anywhere from 1/10 to 1/2 of an ROH crowd is at a merchandise table during dark matches, especially those they know can be seen later. A subset of fans is willing to pay money to make other fans watch a certain way![[/note]]

** The Kingdom get loads of it, especially among the SmartMark crowd.

** Davey Richards when he was in the No Remorse Corps. (See ButtMonkey on the main page.)

** For those that did not immediately hate The Age of the Fall, the sight of Jimmy Jacobs in his nice white suit covered in blood was both awesome and surreal. Unfortunately, ROH didn't do much to capitalize on all the hype put into The Age of the Fall afterward, and it became like an emo version of the [=nWo=] before dwindling down to three official members — Jacobs, [=MsChif=], and [[Wrestling/LukeHarper Brodie Lee]].

** Michael Elgin, ironically, became more of one the better he got. Mainly because 'better' doesn't necessarily mean 'best' and some people wouldn't care for his style even if done to perfection.
** The Young Bucks are either a great tag team who should be champions forever or the most annoying pair ever who should only get beat by other tag teams. Riding the Bullet Club's popularity skewed the base heavily in favor of the Bucks, though.
** Everyone agrees Bobby Fish is a good wrestler and he has credentials no one can deny, but some people just find his work in the ring to be bland. On the microphone his {{hipster}} like {{trolling|creator}} is amusing to some, just plain annoying to others.

** The discussion of Mike Bennett and whether or not he was a "star". Despite all the abuse he got during his runs from the fan base, people arguing he was mistreated by the company started derailing various topics after he left for TNA(where he ''was'' better received, to be fair).
** Cody's debut didn't leave much impression on fans, and the purists remained largely apathetic as he was pushed ahead of up and comers(ex Lio Rush, Keith Lee), stronger technicians(ex Silas Young, Dalton Castle) and several foreign wrestlers interested in the World Title(no less than Hiroshi Tanahashi!) but Bullet Club fans came to adore him after he joined the group, to the point they drowned out cheers for ''Christopher Daniels'' with their Cody support.
* BizarroEpisode: ''A Night of Hoopla'', hosted in a bar by Truth Martini. Two nights of reclamation were needed to get things back in line.

** When Bryan Danielson mentioned Alex Shelley's past in CZW, before he could get to his point he was drowned out by a mix of cheers and boos, which lead to a dueling chant of "C-Z-Dub!"-"Sucks!"
** Dave Prazak or Kevin Kelly, who is the better commentator?

** There are convincing arguments that both ROH and SHIMMER are in better financial positions since their relationship wound down. However, there was much backlash when ROH's female roster was [[TheSmurfettePrinciple reduced to one]]. ROH would take actions to address the resulting complaints, but those efforts are themselves subject of debate.
** The Top Prospect Tournament. Its purpose is obviously to showcase whom ROH thinks has the most future potential at the moment and some fans accept that, except that being presented as a wrestling tournament, other fans ignore this premise and just want to see who they consider the best wrestlers ''right now'' win, as seen in Matt Taven over [=TaDarius=] Thomas, Donovan Dijak over Will Ferrara and Lio Rush over Brian Fury.
** The introduction of the Six Man belts. There have been faint cries for them since 2004 but they came in 2016, after a year of much louder cries for a WOH belt. Speculation around six man belts leaned toward them being tools to further shill Bullet Club The Elite, The Cabinet and or more CMLL guests, giving the broken bases of those topics something else to argue about, as well as drawing comparisons to New Japan's NEVER experiment. This all quieted down a bit, as it went to The Kingdom rather than the Club, The Cabinet became DarkerAndEdgier, the matches of CMLL's luchadors were received fairly well and none were the following champions, who turned out to be an unexpected contender in Bully Ray, with the Briscoes, and unlikely underdogs in The Boys, with Dalton Castle.

* DracoInLeatherPants
** Even when [[Wrestling/NelsonErazo Homicide]] attempted to murder Colt Cabana, he was still treated as a hero in NYC.

** The Bullet Club were basically baby faces after the first ''Global Wars'' and ''War Of The Worlds'' events but headed into this territory after the 2016 ''Global Wars'', as pro ROH Styles and sympathetic Anderson were gone, with the rest of the group dedicated to making Adam Cole champion by any means necessary. But being Adam Cole and Bullet Club, they have to work extra hard to get booed. And even when the rest of Bullet Club started to remember why Cole had been their perennial enemy when Styles was around they didn't exactly scale back their shenanigans.

** Ebessan/Kikutaro, we're still not quite sure what he was but the crowds loved him.
** After handling an unruly fan who tried to take a swing at Austin Aries, referee Paul Turner has been cheered mightily, especially in New York.
** Delirious, a jobber who was kept around by fan demand due to a well worked gimmick, eventually becoming world title contender before settling into the mid card.
** Necro Butcher got an unexpected amount of cheers for being in The Age of the Fall and generally not being of the mold [=ROHbots=] usually prefer their wrestlers to be in, since he was better known as an [[GarbageWrestler [=ultraviolent=] deathmatch wrestler]] as opposed to the scientific wrestlers and high-flyers.
** Wrestling/KevinSteen as well. Packaged Piledrived Steve Corino, Jimmy Jacobs, and El Generico onto the injured reserve list, has been on a one-man crusade against Wrestling/JimCornette (and ROH in general as long as he was running it), convinced Corino and Jacobs to forgo their redemption quests and join him in forming a self-professed army of evil, shown absolutely no remorse for his actions even as they threatened the company...and [[MisaimedFandom the ROH fans]] [[RootingForTheEmpire cheer him]] [[DracoInLeatherPants like crazy]].

** Michael Elgin: Went from simply being a guy with a few impressive power moves to having a huge following after having a match of the year candidate with Davey Richards.
** Solo Darling was presented as another meal for Kelly Klein but was kept around when their match rapidly became the most viewed video on ROH's Website/YouTube channel, prior to the blanket pro wrestling restriction anyway, and the most popular WOH video by far.
** On the website, the acceptance of rookie Lio Rush by the notorious crowds of Philadelphia was stated to be a relieving surprise. There were some grumblings when he got a world title shot at Jay Lethal but none in Dallas Texas, where the match took place...besides those [[FandomRivalry from the CZW show]].

** Even when Homicide attempted to murder Colt Cabana, he was still treated as a hero in NYC.

* AccidentalInnuendo: During the Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger vs. Dalton Castle [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsNKASm3-Fg match]] at ''ROH Reloaded Tour 2016'', September 24, 2016, Liger had commandeered Castle's entourage The Boys and they were fanning him in the ring, leading to...

* MST3KMantra: Prince Nana claimed to be the iron-fisted ruler of Ghana. [[BlatantLies Obviously false]], and the Mantra is even more necessary to understand why a wealthy and evil African head of state would be managing a stable in an American independent wrestling promotion.

Brad Dykens' [[http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/information/dvds/roh/glory-by-honor-6-n2/ review]] of the [=DVD=] for ''ROH Glory By Honor VI Night 2'' called Wrestling/SaraDelRey "devilishly sexy."
* FanMyopia: There has been a strong case for dispute against Ring of Honor's status as United States's "third major promotion" for most of its existence. While there are no other major landmarks in the immediate 50 states, territorial companies such as WWC in Puerto Rico have demonstrated the ability to draw larger crowds and when WWC was in its downward spirals, it was largely due to those audiences moving over to the International Wrestling Association (the World Wrestling League, IWA's figurative successor, has also drawn impressively). ROH does have a claim all the same (their championship belts have been defended in front comparable crowds in joint ventures and they have at times surpassed them in television distribution), just not an undisputed one.

** Matt Cross. ROH fans are known for their loyalty to alumni, Cross got pretty much none of it. Though he would partially redeem himself to some with his "Son of Havoc" gimmick he used as part of a trio [[Wrestling/LuchaUnderground elsewhere]].

** Since the very beginning of Women of Honor, Kelly Klein has been the anointed "Guy" of sorts, in spite of having a fairly lukewarm reception with the fans in comparison to nearly everybody else.

** ROH's most profitable venue is Ontario, not Canada as a whole, as they didn't do to well in Quebec despite getting the Super Smash Bros on the under card and sticking their [[Wrestling/ElGenerico two]] prominent [[Wrestling/KevinSteen French Canadian]] wrestlers in two back to back main events, but Ontario specifically, particularly Toronto.

** There are convincing arguments that both ROH and SHIMMER are in better financial positions since their relationship wound down. However, there was much InternetBackdraft when ROH's female roster was [[TheSmurfettePrinciple reduced to one]]. ROH would take actions to address the resulting complaints, but those efforts are themselves subject of debate.

* InternetBackdraft: Preston City had featured ROH a few times before, so its fans were not happy to see the second night of the ''Reach For The Sky'' tour was the same night as a PCW event.

** "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett, simply thought to not be "good enough" for the promotion. ''Then'' he won the first "Top Prospect" Tournament. Add Matt Taven, the second "Top Prospect" Tournament winner to the equation and you get the Kingdom, one of the most hated stables in recent memory. Not even the awesomeness of [[EnsembleDarkhorse Adam Cole]] could save them from the vitriol of the [=RoHbots=]. Instead of downplaying the team, they started becoming more prominent, ripping off the [[Wrestling/MattHardy Hardy]] [[Wrestling/JeffHardy Boyz]] moves and even going to Japan and ''winning'' the [[Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships]]. [[InternetBackdraft Guess what the fan reaction was.]]

** As soon as he became the new Crown Jewel of the Embassy, you could feel the badass being sucked out of the Necro Butcher.

** Solo Darling was presented as another meal for Kelly Klein but was kept around when their match rapidly became the most viewed video on ROH's youtube channel, prior to the blanket pro wrestling restriction anyway, and the most popular WOH video by far.

** When she first debuted, the commentators immediately identified CM Punk's girlfriend as Daffney from Wrestling/{{WCW}} and had to correct themselves when Punk introduced her as Lucy. TNA would later reveal Daffney's different gimmicks were the result of multiple personality disorder.

** "Hania didn't see the 2012 Homecoming attack on the Briscoes, though Jay deserved it for grabbing Saturyne."[[note]]Tamara McNeill dropped the Saturyne gimmick after she left Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}} following ''Aniversario: Never Compromise'' on June 2, 2013, which was the night of the shutdown, and never looked back, using the Hania the Howling Huntress gimmick until she retired in 2018.[[/note]]

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Many long term fans were skeptical enough about a large corporation buying Ring Of Honor but the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Broadcast_Group Sinclair Broadcast Group]] was a turn off for other reasons, given their reputation and their actions (see the linked entery from Wiki/TheOtherWiki). There's a ''reason'' they're called "The Heathens of Hunt Valley".

** While Project 161 was greatly hyped and sold in a way that blurred kayfabe before the big reveal, The Age of the Fall seemed to devolve into just another "gothic" group that happened to wrestle while talking big about their agenda, decrying the health care situation in America. Part of the problem with ''that'' was that [=ROHbots=] seem more likely to be liberal (in the American political sense) so the crowd could ''agree'' with them. Necro Butcher seemed to be ''more'' left-wing (seriously), and as fans chatted before and after the show with his charming wife...

** Necro Butcher got an unexpected amount of cheers for being in The Age of the Fall and generally not being of the mold [=ROHbots=] usually prefer their wrestlers to be in.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff
** BJ Whitmer to Puerto Ricans, after he, Homicide and Mafia were part of ROH's vanguard during the ROH vs IWA PR angle.
** Puerto Rican fans also hold up Steve Corino and Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team as legends.
** When CM Punk and Samoa Joe took their World Title series to the UK it set records for the highest attendance ratings of any independent show in the country and the highest ringside gross of any pro wrestling show in Europe.

** During the Colt Cabana/Homicide feud, Cabana referred to Homicide as "Wrestling/{{Konnan}}'s bitch." When he said this, it was based on such an unpublicized real-life connection that it had a ViewersAreGeniuses vibe. A few months later, Homicide began wrestling for Wrestling/{{TNA}} with Konnan as his manager, making the burn much funnier in retrospect.

** "Hania didn't see the 2012 Homecoming attack on the Briscoes, though Jay deserved it for grabbing Saturyne."

** The first three goals of Ring of Honor upon its creation: replace ECW since it has no new videos to sell, find the best wrestlers in the world, pander to the hardcore wrestling fan. Not hardcore in the {{garbage wrestling}} sense but hardcore in that they miss the hour long bouts such as Wrestling/PedroMorales vs Wrestling/BrunoSammartino or Wrestling/JerryLawler vs Wrestling/HarleyRace, when ref bumps were still rare, when there was strict punishment of disqualifications, active enforcement of clean finishes, ability of wrestlers to see each other's recorded locker room misadventures, male managers and of course a pure wrestling championship belt. The only thing ROH lacked was a two out of three falls enforcement, it pandered to "purist" fans who wanted to see wrestling presented the way a plausible sport would. There is some deviation from this path though, thanks to crossover with the comedy oriented Wrestling/{{Chikara}} and the proud garbage wrestling CZW. It's never completely gotten back on track since Generation Next's chaotic formation, really.

** The promotion itself is this to the original Wrestling/{{ECW}}, only without the {{garbage wrestling}} gimmick of the latter. Well, it was the best RF could do but some people never let it go.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: People who remembered were not amused to see Prince Nana's offer to Caprice Coleman never being followed up on in favor of Coleman become the manager of Kenny King and Rhett Titus.

** Friendly with AJPW, NJPW, NOAH. CMLL fans are generally positive when talent bounces between it and ROH though they don't pay it as much attention and some have mixed feelings about wrestlers associated with ROH also popping up in CMLL's main rival, AAA.

** Matt Taven has been the beneficiary of a slow, steady push from pretty much day one, when he won the 2013 Top Prospect Tournament and the ROH Television title in rapid succession. Over time, he's become the leader and long-term centerpiece of the Kingdom faction, had a constant stream of various title reigns, including a period where he was a champion in ROH and CMLL at the same time, successfully defended those titles against various opponents who were bigger stars than him, and starting in fall 2018, he got the latest iteration of the "I'm the real ROH World Champion, I made my own belt to prove it" storyline, which typically precedes winning the ROH World Championship for real--and if he does so, he'll join Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels as the only other ROH Grand Slam Champion in history. Despite all this, he's never really caught on with the fans, either as someone they LoveToHate or a cool heel, and while he doesn't have full-blown XPacHeat, the response to his entry into the main-event picture has been more apathetic than anything else.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming
** After a year long feud in which Homicide's constant abuse seemed to be breaking down Colt Cabana, he decisively defeated his tormentor at ''Better Than Our Best''. Homicide himself stopped fellow Rottweilers Ricky Reyes and Julius Smokes from enacting retribution on Cabana following, and apologized. It was the first time Colt Cabana seemed happy in ''months''.
** Jesse Sorensen didn't have the best match at ''Glory By Honor XII'', nor the best showing considering he lost, but he got a standing ovation nonetheless, because all the crowd cared about was the fact he had returned to wrestling.

* CrackIsCheaper
** Special K is a mockery of this concept, meant to piss off Ring of Honor's blue collar/9 to 5 audience by blowing their cash on drugs and "ruining" the shows they paid to see. The Carnage Crew, by contrast, were supposed to appeal to the blue collar mindset...
** Also mocked by Necro Butcher, who says he'd prefer to be paid for his autographs in weed.

* HypeBacklash
** [[Wrestling/SethRollins Tyler Black]] suffered from this. After being clearly groomed as "the guy" for the entirety of 2008 and 2009, Black lost a lot of his luster by the time he became ROH champion in 2010.
** Ring of Honor itself, with a good bit of HypeAversion. While certainly a good promotion, and arguably better than both WWE and TNA, its fans never stop singing its praises while endlessly bashing either WWE or TNA, sometimes without real reason.

* BaseBreaker
** Gabe Sapolsky wasn't all that beloved during ROH's early years, especially in his commentary role. As a booker, one point was his known dislike of Low Ki, which either pointed to his professionalism by still making Ki the first singles champion or his inability to stop his emotions from getting in the way of business with Ki's Rottweilers heel turn and [[BadassDecay resulting irrelevance]]. Sapolsky's post ROH ventures having a tendency to burn out splintered up the base again.
** Another splinter on Sapolsky is a debate on whether he grew into a great booker during ROH's most troubling years and kept the company going or if his booking really wasn't that good and the credit should go to the talent who believed in ROH enough to continue stepping up their game for it. Since neither party in particular is really asking for the credit it really goes back to Sapolsky's departure and whether he should have been kept or not.