Report: Several ROH Talents Working Without Contracts

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.TNAWrestlingNews.com

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Several ROH talents are currently working for the promotion without actual contracts. According to ROH sources, the tag team of War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) and Michael Elgin are currently working for the company without contracts and are instead working under verbal agreements.

War Machine was victorious at last night’s ROH Final Battle event, winning the tag team titles from The Kingdom. Elgin is currently scheduled to face Jay Lethal for the ROH world title at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 10 event on January 4, 2016 at the Tokyo Dome.

[cero2k]

wow, now it baffles me even more the Bucks are not champs

[Big Red Machine]

wow, now it baffles me even more the Bucks are not champs

No. This one is easy to figure out:
1. They signed their contracts right after the October tapings (which they weren't on because they were in Japan), which contained almost all of the build to Final Battle.
2. They want to make it a journey
3. ANX really should have gotten a title shot before anyone else, but Delirious f*cked that up with his booking.
As is now, though, ANX will make good first victims for War Machine. Then they can build to War Machine vs. Briscoes with the building being that War Machine has never beaten the Briscoes (and plus, they're the freakin' Briscoes), which can either be at the Anniversary show or SCOH (if you want to feed a New Japan team to them at the Anniversary Show- I'd have ANX get beaten on TV) Then you can start building the Bucks up to take the belts at BITW.

[cero2k]

3. ANX really should have gotten a title shot before anyone else, but Delirious f*cked that up with his booking.
As is now, though, ANX will make good first victims for War Machine. Then they can build to War Machine vs. Briscoes with the building being that War Machine has never beaten the Briscoes (and plus, they're the freakin' Briscoes), which can either be at the Anniversary show or SCOH (if you want to feed a New Japan team to them at the Anniversary Show- I'd have ANX get beaten on TV) Then you can start building the Bucks up to take the belts at BITW.

This sounds most probable. I wouldn't want to hot potato the titles next year, and i'm not sure what is the status of reDragon's contracts are or whether they will work singles most of the year, but I would book and build up to Briscoes defending the titles against reDragon at least at DBD or even Final Battle and capitalize on the Briscoes being 0-8 against reDragon. However, i do believe the Bucks need a good run this year, even having the small little young bucks take on a heel monster team of War Machine, especially since it must be pretty hard hitting the Meltzer Driver on either Hanson or Rowe. So maybe build Bucks vs War Machine towards Supercard of Honor, build Bucks vs Briscoes at DBD, and Briscoes vs reDragon at Final Battle

[Big Red Machine]

3. ANX really should have gotten a title shot before anyone else, but Delirious f*cked that up with his booking.
As is now, though, ANX will make good first victims for War Machine. Then they can build to War Machine vs. Briscoes with the building being that War Machine has never beaten the Briscoes (and plus, they're the freakin' Briscoes), which can either be at the Anniversary show or SCOH (if you want to feed a New Japan team to them at the Anniversary Show- I'd have ANX get beaten on TV) Then you can start building the Bucks up to take the belts at BITW.

This sounds most probable. I wouldn't want to hot potato the titles next year, and i'm not sure what is the status of reDragon's contracts are or whether they will work singles most of the year, but I would book and build up to Briscoes defending the titles against reDragon at least at DBD or even Final Battle and capitalize on the Briscoes being 0-8 against reDragon. However, i do believe the Bucks need a good run this year, even having the small little young bucks take on a heel monster team of War Machine, especially since it must be pretty hard hitting the Meltzer Driver on either Hanson or Rowe. So maybe build Bucks vs War Machine towards Supercard of Honor, build Bucks vs Briscoes at DBD, and Briscoes vs reDragon at Final Battle

The thing with War Machine is that they are ass-kicking monster babyfaces who are super over with the crowd and are in their first run as tag champs. Their reign needs to be good and long (six months at the very least) in order to avoid damaging them. You could build the Bucks as small babyfaces, but I think that turning War Machine heel would be both difficult and undesirable. Monster babyfaces work best either in feuds with monster heels, other babyfaces, or dog and pony show heels.
I also get the impression that the Bucks do not want to be portrayed as underdog babyfaces because then they wouldn't be able to do all of their suck its and would have to tone down their cool moves or save them or spots where it makes sense. Basically... underdog babyfaces have to structure their matches in a way that the Bucks really don't like.

I didn't realize that reDRagon are 0-8 against the Briscoes, but that would also be a great thing to build a story around. What I'd like to see for 2016 is reDRagon shifting into the role the Brisoes have had for the past three years where they are mainly used as singles guy, but who have the tag team credibility to be easily inserted into the title picture or used to put over a contender you are building when need be, and I'd like to see the Briscoes slide back into the tag team division.

[cero2k]

I didn't realize that reDRagon are 0-8 against the Briscoes, but that would also be a great thing to build a story around. What I'd like to see for 2016 is reDRagon shifting into the role the Brisoes have had for the past three years where they are mainly used as singles guy, but who have the tag team credibility to be easily inserted into the title picture or used to put over a contender you are building when need be, and I'd like to see the Briscoes slide back into the tag team division.

this are my hopes for both teams too. I think it's been a long time since the Briscoes were considered the best team in the world and 2016 should try to rebuild that, especially now that the Briscoes are entering the NJPW market. And I'd love to see Fish and O'Reilly work all year a singles, and if we put the titles on the Briscoes towards the end of the year/journey, Fish and O'Reilly can simply come out and say, 'You have never been able to defeat reDragon, and come Final Battle, we want our titles back"

[Big Red Machine]

I didn't realize that reDRagon are 0-8 against the Briscoes, but that would also be a great thing to build a story around. What I'd like to see for 2016 is reDRagon shifting into the role the Brisoes have had for the past three years where they are mainly used as singles guy, but who have the tag team credibility to be easily inserted into the title picture or used to put over a contender you are building when need be, and I'd like to see the Briscoes slide back into the tag team division.

this are my hopes for both teams too. I think it's been a long time since the Briscoes were considered the best team in the world and 2016 should try to rebuild that, especially now that the Briscoes are entering the NJPW market. And I'd love to see Fish and O'Reilly work all year a singles, and if we put the titles on the Briscoes towards the end of the year/journey, Fish and O'Reilly can simply come out and say, 'You have never been able to defeat reDragon, and come Final Battle, we want our titles back"

It depends how far they want to push Kyle by that point, but rather than do that at Final Battle, I'd probably save reDRagon challenging the Briscoes for early 2017. I think you can get a good 3-6 months out of Briscoes vs. War Machine by itself.