The weekly Ring of Honor Wrestling television program is set to make its Monday night debut this August 17 for HDNet, nine days after concluding its run on Saturdays, in an attempt to broaden its audience beyond its cult base.
Ring of Honor hopes not only to establish itself as the "wrestling" alternative to the more "entertainment" oriented WWE but to also piggyback off the preexisting "WWE Raw" audience. ROH will air in the 8 p.m. EDT slot, the hour before Raw for eastern/central U.S. viewers with a replay at 11 p.m. EDT. For west coasters, that means airings at 5 and 8 p.m. Pacific time.
The initial Monday episode will feature Tyler Black against Nigel McGuinness in a battle of long time Ring of Honor rivals. Kevin Steen will face Eddie Edwards in the promoted semi-main event matchup.
"ROH on HDNet" to make Monday slot debut
Categories: hdnet , pro wrestling , roh , television |
Ring of Honor's HDNet program to move to Monday nights
Categories: hdnet , pro wrestling , roh , television |
Ring of Honor Wrestling's weekly HDNet television program will be moved from Saturday to Monday nights, effective this August 17. Maintaining an 8 p.m. Eastern time slot, "ROH on HDNet" will effectively serve as a surrogate lead-in to "WWE Raw."
The official ROH/HDNet joint press release exclaimed that "pro wrestling returns to Monday night," a spin on the Ring of Honor's attempt to serve a more purist professional wrestling product than the entertainment-oriented Raw.
To be sure, HDNet should get at least a minor increase in the viewership of ROH wrestling from the jump away from Saturdays. However, what remains unaddressed are the continuing issues that HDNet has in securing carriage on the major cable systems. Without such access, the impact of this move will be limited.
Ring of Honor carrier HDNet to be dropped by Time Warner Cable
Categories: hdnet , pro wrestling , roh , television , time warner cable |
Ring of Honor Wrestling carrier HDNet will be dropped from all Time Warner Cable systems by the end of May, reports MultiChannel News.
Time Warner Cable itself confirmed the news in an announcement this week, citing a lack of mass appeal for HDNet's programming. HDNet and its founder Mark Cuban are trying, so far without success, to date to get the decision reversed. Should the decision stand, the loss of Time Warner Cable carriage would be a crippling blow to the fledgling Ring of Honor Wrestling television program.
As noted when this scenario first threatened two months ago, a severance of HDNet by Time Warner Cable combined with HDNet's preexisting lack of Comcast carriage would make ROH's weekly program inaccessible to the vast majority of the promotion's home fanbase.
