WWE's Future: A Working Relationship with Ring of Honor

You don't have to be a wrestling fan to know about the WWE. Everybody hears "WWE" and instantly thinks "pro wrestling." No matter what Vince McMahon tries to pitch, it will always be professional wrestling. Vince McMahon's days as the big man in charge, though, might have come to an end.

Triple H, one of the greatest in-ring competitors of all-time, is now the head of day-to-day operations. With that said, "The Game" is a very intelligent man and has a good chance to take the product Vince has given him and take it even farther. 

The WWE has recently reached a high in popularity with all types of fans that they haven't had in many years because it appears the WWE might be pulling away from the "PG" angle just a tad. Now, even if that isn't the goal, the WWE has a great thing going right now. 

The one thing I've noticed lately is that WWE is using a word a lot more now when it seemed not too long ago was about to be removed from the WWE dictionary and that word is: wrestling. Remove the month of July and you'll see that the past two years of WWE have been centered around the word 'entertainment.'

The WWE stands for "World Wrestling Entertainment" (or at least it was), so having both is a key to success, but the WWE needs to stay 50-50 with both. With characters like John Cena, Randy Orton, The Miz, among others; they'll always have entertainment. Lately, though, the WWE has showed it knows wrestling as well.

The recent push of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan showed me that Triple H knows what the fans want, and that's wrestling. Now, we don't want two hours of straight matches, but we definitely don't want one hour and 42 minutes of promos and backstage stuff like TNA. And here lately, the WWE has done a great job finding that middle balance.

Recently, rumors have surfaced about the WWE attempting to create ties with Ring of Honor wrestling, better know as ROH. It all started when CM Punk gave Ring of Honor a direct name-plug during his "shoot" on Monday Night Raw a few weeks ago. 

Triple-H, being the smart man he is, understands that the WWE product can only improve with competition. And you don't have to be a smart person to understand that TNA is not that competitor. Not bashing TNA, but they have a lot of work to do. They are nearly 90-10 entertainment right now, but the only thing is, their storylines aren't entertaining. 

If you remember correctly, back in the 90's, Vince McMahon had a "working relationship" with Extreme Championship Wrestling due to the fact that ECW was not a direct competitor to the WWF/WWE but had probably the most diehard wrestling fan base in professional wrestling history. Slowly after, the WWF became a little more hardcore, and ECW began to have more true wrestling on their shows.

This helped out both companies for the time being and it showed, with many of the ECW fans beginning to show up to WWF shows (E-C-Dub! chants) and ECW shows being sold out and receiving a show on TNN (now Spike).

The die hard wrestling fans, keyword being wrestling fans, now pack arenas to watch ROH and the chants, fan interaction, and pops are very similar to what we seen in the 90's with ECW.  In North America, no wrestling company has more rock-solid credibility than Ring Of Honor. It's not a "kiddie show" and doesn't cater to children like the WWE has here in the last couple of years.

If the WWE is able to form a working relationship with ROH, it could do wonders for both companies. Ring of Honor will gain the fans who don't live on the internet and haven't heard of the organization that will realize that the WWE and TNA aren't the only companies out there. I know this because I personally have introduced many fans to ROH and they've never looked back. 

Ring of Honor is a whole new ball game and, for some, a breath of fresh air for those who just watch WWE and/or TNA. Many great wrestlers such as CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, and many others made a name for themselves in ROH.

As for what the WWE can gain, well right now, many people still look at the WWE as a "kiddie show," but the WWE could receive a new type of reputation and possibly even shift into a new era with the help of Ring of Honor.

Many Ring of Honor wrestlers have made the transition into the WWE a successful one, unlike many ECW wrestlers did in the 90's. And while ECW was based around Hardcore Wrestling, Ring of Honor is based around wrestling. And it appears that the WWE and Triple H might be finally starting to understand that we...want...wresting.