Survival of the Fittest 2015 Hype Thread

[Big Red Machine]

Night 1 - 11/13 Milwaukee, WI and Night 2 - 11/14 Hopkins, MN
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST is back for 2015! The Ring of Honor tradition returns November 13th in Milwaukee, WI and November 14th in Hopkins, MI. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST is one of the most grueling tournaments in all of professional wrestling, where the winner has to endure two nights of competition against the top ROH stars. The prize? A future ROH World Championship opportunity!

Past winners of this prestigious tournament include Delirious, Roderick Strong, "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin, Adam Cole, and the current ROH World and Television Champion Jay Lethal. This year, the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST field will be comprised of 18 of the biggest stars in Ring of Honor. On November 13th in Milwaukee, the first round of matches will consist of:

- Two 4-Corner Survival Matches
- Two Triple Threat Matches
- Two Singles Matches

One winner from each match Milwaukee, WI will advance to the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 6-Man Elimination Match the following night on November 14th in Hopkins, MN!

ROH Head Matchmaker Nigel McGuinness has confirmed the first nine ROH stars signed to compete in SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 2015:

- MARK BRISCOE
- JAY BRISCOE
- "UNBREAKABLE" MICHAEL ELGIN
- ACH
- MATT SYDAL
- MOOSE
- RAYMOND ROWE
- HANSON
- DALTON CASTLE

ROHWrestling.com will have all the latest updates on other athletes and matches slated for the huge two-night event. Don't miss your chance to witness ROH history as we crown this year's SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST winner!

[Big Red Machine]

Yeah... I really don't like this. Why are some matches singles, some matches triple threat, and some matches four-ways? Why should some people have a more difficult road to qualify than others? That seems unfair. And the worst part is that I'm sure Delirious thinks he is being clever by booking these triple threats and four corner survivals so that he can put guys like Moose or Lethal or AJ into the tournament without actually having to beat them... except that it hurts the tournament to do it this way. This is Ring of Honor. It doesn't seem very honorable to give certain wrestlers a big advantage.

The other thing that bugs me is that there are EIGHTEEN wrestlers in this year's tournament. There should only be twelve! This whole two-night Survival of the Fittest concept needs to go. Gabe has flat-out admitted that SOTF was designed (and kept around) in part as a way to do a show while only booking 16 wrestlers instead of the usual 18-22 so he could keep expenses down for at leas this one show. Now obviously ROH isn't in dire financial straights or anything, but it's not like Sinclair is pumping money into them, so any money they save on a show is essentially money they have made that they can apply to other things like signing new guys or getting better production equipment. What Delirious is doing by not only doing SOTF as a two-night show is just the complete and total opposite of that, and the way Delirious does things just makes the tournament feel weaker and less special (and makes night 1 MUCH harder to sell because all it is is a bunch of qualifiers).

[cero2k]

yeah, trying to get more people in the show and paychecks to all their guys.

[Big Red Machine]

yeah, trying to get more people in the show and paychecks to all their guys.

But when almost all of your guys can go work for someone else for a night, that doesn't matter. Most promoters out there would love to have a Daniels or Kaz or... ACH? or some other guys who aren't under contract on their show for a night, so it's not like these guys won't get paid. I'd bet even Will Ferrara or Caprice Coleman would be able to find some sort of work that night. Hell, if they wanted to be really nice they'd give PWG a heads up and say "we're running with a limited roster on this date, so if you want to ensure some of our guys that you want to use will be on your show, do your show on this date."

[Big Red Machine]

First qualifier (aside from ACH vs. Sydal) is Hanson vs. Kenny King vs. Daniels vs. Mark Briscoe.

[Big Red Machine]

The other Four Corner Survival SOTF qualifier will be Raymond Rowe vs. Rhett Titus vs. Kazarian vs. Jay Briscoe.

Which means that Delirious' idea for these matches was just to take the tag team division and put one partner from each team in each match. The problem is that while Delirious probably thinks he's being really clever, to me it's just stupid and lazy. I'd bet anything that we're going to see these four teams face off at Final Battle (possibly for #1 contendership), and instead of building an actual story to make an interesting feud, Delirious' excuse will just be "oh look! They've faced off against each other a couple of times recently. That means they're feuding!"
(And to add more fuel to this theory, check out the following:
At the PPV, we got ANX vs. Briscoes
We're getting a rematch of that match in Kalamazoo
This week on TV, we're getting ANX vs. Addiction
In Dayton we're getting Briscoes vs. War Machine
In California, we were supposed to get Bucks vs. Briscoes, which wound up being changed to Briscoes vs. Addiction, which was originally scheduled for the next night in Lockport.

[Big Red Machine]

Cole vs. Elgin vs. Moose announced as an SOTF qualifier.

[Big Red Machine]

The other 3-way is Page vs. Silas vs. Castle...


So basically it's just "take two guys who are feuding and then throw in a third guy who is a heel."

[cero2k]

The other 3-way is Page vs. Silas vs. Castle...


So basically it's just "take two guys who are feuding and then throw in a third guy who is a heel."

at least they didn't put a top star in each group that telegraphs who's advancing

[Big Red Machine]

The expected Bullet Club vs. House of Truth match has been announced as the main event of night one... which means that J. Deisel (sorry "Daddiego") will be main eventing an ROH show, and in doing so, will almost certainly become the worst wrestler to ever compete in an ROH main event. At least the spot-monkeys in the giant scramble main event of the One Year Anniversary Show were exciting to watch.

[cero2k]

The expected Bullet Club vs. House of Truth match has been announced as the main event of night one... which means that J. Deisel (sorry "Daddiego") will be main eventing an ROH show, and in doing so, will almost certainly become the worst wrestler to ever compete in an ROH main event. At least the spot-monkeys in the giant scramble main event of the One Year Anniversary Show were exciting to watch.

i'm looking to seeing what him and Dijak can fare when the match gets high paced and against someone like the Bucks. I really really want for the HoT to have a strong tag team in the future

[Big Red Machine]

We've got reDRagon challenging for the tag titles on night one and facing off against Lethal and Dijak on night two. I figure they're almost certainly getting screwed by Cole on night one. Night two is a bit more open, but odds are they're just going to beat Dijak. Fish getting the pin would make sense, assuming they are actually going to give him the rematch for the TV Title he deserves at some point soon.

[cero2k]

We've got reDRagon challenging for the tag titles on night one and facing off against Lethal and Dijak on night two. I figure they're almost certainly getting screwed by Cole on night one. Night two is a bit more open, but odds are they're just going to beat Dijak. Fish getting the pin would make sense, assuming they are actually going to give him the rematch for the TV Title he deserves at some point soon.

well, if we're likely building towards Kyle vs Cole at Final Battle, Fish vs Roddy at FB would be good for both guys

[Big Red Machine]

We've got reDRagon challenging for the tag titles on night one and facing off against Lethal and Dijak on night two. I figure they're almost certainly getting screwed by Cole on night one. Night two is a bit more open, but odds are they're just going to beat Dijak. Fish getting the pin would make sense, assuming they are actually going to give him the rematch for the TV Title he deserves at some point soon.

well, if we're likely building towards Kyle vs Cole at Final Battle, Fish vs Roddy at FB would be good for both guys

It would be, but they haven't actually done much of anything to build in this direction. Fish did beat Roddy in Chicago, though.

[Big Red Machine]

AJ Styles vs. ACH/Sydal loser announced for night two.

[Big Red Machine]

Elgin won, which is 100% the right move, IMO.

Also, apparently Roddy got a concussion on night one and couldn't work the second night. As some people on the ROHWorld forum pointed out, this marks the the third time in under a year (and the second in under a month) that Cedric has given someone a concussion (ACH at the last weekend of shows, and apparently Bobby Fish in PWG last year), and also Sydal came out of their match at the PPV with a bad neck, so... Cedric needs to be more careful.

[cero2k]

Now I'm worried about the big pwg vs Rushmore blowoff

[Big Red Machine]

Now I'm worried about the big pwg vs Rushmore blowoff

This is the blow-off already?

[cero2k]

Now I'm worried about the big pwg vs Rushmore blowoff

This is the blow-off already?

not sure, but it's a 4 on 4 guerrilla warfare. like i mentioned some time ago, i bet they restarted this just to have the 4-on-4 and blow off whatever plan they originally had. i also see Roddy losing the title at the January show

[Big Red Machine]

Now I'm worried about the big pwg vs Rushmore blowoff

This is the blow-off already?

not sure, but it's a 4 on 4 guerrilla warfare. like i mentioned some time ago, i bet they restarted this just to have the 4-on-4 and blow off whatever plan they originally had. i also see Roddy losing the title at the January show

Well... that's sh*tty booking. If you're plans have to change, go with the change, but if you are going to go with something, then GO WITH IT. You don't book a heel mega-stable to have them beaten in four shows.