Five dollars. It’s a value meal at most fast food joints, a single drink at your average bar, a pack of smokes, or a dessert in a restaurant, and you might be surprised to know what else $5 can get you. There’s a lot of debate among those wrestling fans who frequent sites like Pulse Wrestling regarding free wrestling on television versus paying to watch independent promotions. If you’re the sort of fan who truly believes the wrestling on TV is good enough for you (especially since it’s free) then stop reading here. But if you’ve ever wondered just what’s causing all the hype for those indy feds some writers can’t stop raving about and you don’t have tons of spare cash to toss around, look no further than the frequent sales offered at Ring of Honor’s online store.
TODAY’S ISSUE: Amazing bargains.
Since I was introduced to ROH a little over a year ago, I fell in love with the Internet’s indy darling, and soon discovered a sweet little secret about their vast DVD stockpile – one should never purchase anything from them at full price. Reason being, they literally have a new sale almost every week, with discounts of up to 35% when concurrent sales are combined, not to mention the whopping $5-per-DVD sale they just ran this month. If you make a list of shows you’re interested in and keep your eye open for sales, you’ll always be able to find what you want at less than standard rates (here’s the latest sale, valid for all orders placed on the website through Wednesday, October 1st at 10:00am EST).
And they sell much more than their own DVDs online; in addition to the full catalog of Ring of Honor merchandise, the store also offers DVDs from WWE, TNA, SHIMMER (a women’s promotion closely associated with ROH), Full Impact Pro (ROH’s Florida-based sister promotion), and other various wrestling companies to include the Japanese Pro Wrestling NOAH and Dragon Gate feds, the Straight Shootin’ interview series, and miscellaneous apparel and other goodies like autographed photos, books, and live event tickets.
Paying $20 per show can get a little pricey, so the discerning consumer is wise to stay alert for the frequent sales on the site, and plan accordingly. The last big sale I took advantage of was the $5 extravaganza, in which a vast number of DVDs were each reduced to one single fin. Allow me to introduce you to the most recent phenomenal bargains I purchased, and keep in mind that all the DVDs below were a mere $5 each, plus I used a 15% off code to reduce the shipping cost (all the way over here to South Korea) to almost nothing. Retail is for suckers!
Our Time Is Now: The Best of Generation Next. GenNext was a hot faction of young lions in ROH in 2004-2005, comprised of Alex Shelley with his “talent on loan from God”, the “wrestling machine” Austin Aries (who captured the ROH World Heavyweight Championship from Samoa Joe the night he usurped the leadership of GenNext from Shelley), the “messiah of the backbreaker” Roderick Strong, and “the man who defies gravity”, Jack Evans who was trained in the legendary Hart Family dungeon.
This incredible set chronicles the night GenNext was formed, having hijacked a show intended to allow up-and-comers to showcase their talents and compete for audience votes, but the new stable wasn’t content to wait for their time to shine; they were taking roster spots for themselves right then. After wreaking havoc with the entire card, they made their mark by winning three matches that night and placing the rest of the roster on notice. From that time on, they feuded with the Second City Saints and the Rottweilers, and harassed Ricky the Dragon Steamboat so much that they turned the villainous CM Punk face, and it’s all right here for just $5.
With buckets full of talent and charisma, GenNext’s opening chapters were high-impact, nWo-like chaos, but with better quality wrestling and seven consecutive months of the same lineup with no turns back and forth, solidifying the unit as a force to be reckoned with in ROH. I watched this entire collection in one sitting, but I’m a GenNext fan. Newcomers to the stable (or ROH in general) might need two visits with the brash upstarts to take it all in. Fortunately, the DVD has loads of replay potential and is was well worth the asking price.
The Phenomenon Continues: The Best of AJ Styles, Volume 2. AJ Styles is every bit as phenomenal as his nickname indicates. He can grapple, fly, and strike, and his ring generalship and ability to entertain surpass that of common pro wrestlers by an unlimited factor. If you’re tired of seeing him act like a goof on Thursday nights, his ROH tenure is the good stuff. This particular DVD includes Styles facing off against Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Paul London, Kaz Hayashi, and Jimmy Rave in singles bouts, as well as teaming with Low Ki/Senshi against Christopher Daniels and Xavier, plus teaming with Homicide versus Daniels and Dan Maff. I’d pay $5 for any one of the singles matches between Styles and Dragon, London, or Punk alone, and I can’t wait to crack this one open and get to the phenomenal.
After my first look at Ring of Honor’s sister promotion Full Impact Pro on the Redefined show, I was so impressed that I decided to add more of their stuff to my library and what better opportunity than a $5-per-show sale? I dug through the dozens of discounted FIP shows and found these five beauties:
FIP New Year’s Classic – 7 Jan 05. Featuring Homicide vs. James “Jamie Noble” Gibson for the FIP title, Samoa Joe vs. Roderick Strong, and CM Punk vs. Antonio “MVP” Banks, this show is worth the five bucks regardless of the undercard (ROH and FIP matches routinely bottom out at “good” so it really doesn’t matter what the rest of the card includes). Gibson is far better outside of WWE than TV-only fans could possibly imagine, Joe and Strong will brutalize each other, and Punk can carry anyone to a good match. Plus, a show like this gives viewers an opportunity to get to know some lesser-known talents like Vordell Walker, Jerrelle Clark, and Seth Delay. Who knows? You might stumble upon a favorite to whom you’d never have been exposed otherwise. It’s worth a shot for $5, considering the upper card matches on a show like this will be more than worth the inexpensive price.
FIP With Malice – 25 Mar 05. The main event is CM Punk vs. James Gibson, and that alone was enough for me to quickly click the “add to cart” button as I shopped. But the card also includes Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong in what could only be a romping good time, a personal favorite of mine in Austin Aries defending the ROH World Title (the ROH and FIP championships are often defended on the other promotion’s shows), breakout star Erick Stevens in a tag match, Jimmy Rave, Jared Steel, and Masada, who are all capable hands.
FIP Bring the Pain – 26 Mar 05. CM Punk vs. Bryan Danielson in a 2 out of 3 falls match? Are you kidding me? I’d pay a lot more then $5 just to see this one alone! Another ROH title defense by Aries, another Roderick Strong match, and another Erick Stevens contest round out this card nicely, plus Dave Prazak heels it up in his managerial role as the chairman of DP Associates, a role he doesn’t play in ROH, and the different flavor makes his FIP gimmick fun. What wrestling fan could say no to Punk and Dragon in a multi-fall epic?
FIP Big Year One Bash (Night 1) – 2 Sep 05. The main reason I wanted this show was the ROH World Title bout between James Gibson and Roderick Strong. Having seen a very good match between these two from five months earlier on the Stars of Honor DVD that I reviewed, I was hungry for more. BYOB also includes an FIP title match between Homicide and current ROH kingpin Nigel McGuinness, The Brian Kendrick in his “Spanky” gimmick in two FIP tag title matches (one of which is against Jay Lethal and Jimmy Rave), another pre-MVP Antonio Banks match, and not one, but two Erick Stevens bouts, which means double the fun for this fan. The savings just keep adding up!
FIP Impact of Honor – 10 Jun 06. As the title obviously implies, this is an ROH heavy (or heavier) show, including ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson defending against Colt Cabana (wanna see what SmackDown’s Scotty Goldman can really do?), ROH Tag Team Champions Austin Aries and Roderick Strong putting their gold on the line against “Fast & Furious” Jerrelle Clark and Jay Fury, Davey Richards vs. Dragon Gate’s SHINGO, Erick Stevens, and the usual cast of FIP characters like the Heartbreak Express, the YRR, and Seth Delay. Aries and Dragon alone on a show practically make it worth the full price, much less $5.
The value for your wrestling dollar in the above list is staggering. I spent $35 total for these seven DVDs, less than one monthly WWE or TNA pay-per-view, and got about 21 hours of quality professional wrestling action compared to the 3 hours of run-ins, gimmick matches, backstage ga-ga, “divas”, mindless promos, would-be celebrities, immature comedy, and the occasional good match one might see if one were to chose a “mainstream” ppv over this hearty stack of indy goodness. So I say to you, the curious wrestling fan who, like Neo in The Matrix, knows there must be something more out there but hasn’t seen it yet, keep your eyes peeled for the next big sale at ROH’s online store. Take the red pill, and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
Vin Sanity is not categorized as a psychological disorder… yet.
p.s. – “No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson column (29 Sep 08).
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