One thing that has been almost entirely absent from ROH in the past few years (especially on the house show DVDs) is backstage promos, and I think this has been a huge detriment to the product. Backstage promos are quick and easy to shoot, and can do a lot to give us a reason to care about a random match. Even just a few backstage promos on the show or three leading up to a minor title shot can do a lot to make it feel much more important than it is (and if you have any doubts about this, this technique worked for Brent Albright!).

Backstage promos would also give the Will Ferraras and Donovan Dijaks of the world (not to mention every non-Veda Woman of Honor) some much-needed personality. Even a guy like Adam Page would be helped out tremendously by this. Without this, these guys are never going to get the chance to get over to the point where they can be important role-playing undercard characters that people actually care about- something that ROH used to be full of, and that other promotions (CHIKARA in particular) have used so successfully to keep the fans invested in the show even when the big names aren't on.

In addition to this, backstage promos would help rectify one of the biggest weakness ROH has had in the past few years (though this year in particular): there has been a lot of telling going on, but nowhere near enough showing. Imagine how much better it would have made stories like Elgin's babyface turn, or Silas being pissed that Ferrara spoiled his return to his hometown, or whatever it is that happened with ACH and Sydal if we had backstage promos (or segments where one person interrupts another guy's promo to talk to him) to show us what is happening rather than the announcers just telling us something we haven't seen any evidence of. How many matches would have felt just that much bigger or how many storylines would have felt more coherent if we had gotten a promo like the Briscoes saying "ANX, when you answered our open challenge at the PPV, we weren't ready for you and you won, but now, in Kalamazoo, we're on even footing, and now that we've had time to prepare, we're going to beat you!" Hell... we haven't even gotten one freakin' promo from Dalton Castle to show us how sad he is now that he has lost the Boys.

Backstage promos would also go a long way towards improving the announcing, simply by giving Kelly and Corino something useful to talk about. They will usually just kind of say things that seem to be needless insider and contrary to what we've seen ("ACH is cocky and rubs people in the locker room the wrong way" even though he has been portrayed as a complete and total babyface), and it confuses me as to whether this is kayfabe or not- should I be expecting an ACH heel turn or something? Giving them something to talk about would help avoid this. It would also give them more credibility when they say things like "Sydal has been a mentor in the locker room" or "the young guys look up to Caprice Coleman" or stuff like that when we've actually seen evidence of this.

100% agree. I understand they're trying to run all promos for TV to build up PPVs now, but there are many stories that feel super disconnected because of the lack of promos, or how long does it take to address them after whatever event happens. There are a bunch of stories that i agree may not require a lot of promo work, like Roddy vs Fish, it's just a challenge, but something like Dalton vs Silas should be getting a lot more promos or vignettes from both guys, i'm glad we got some from Fish, but pretty much nothing from Castle.

cero2k wrote:100% agree. I understand they're trying to run all promos for TV to build up PPVs now, but there are many stories that feel super disconnected because of the lack of promos, or how long does it take to address them after whatever event happens. There are a bunch of stories that i agree may not require a lot of promo work, like Roddy vs Fish, it's just a challenge, but something like Dalton vs Silas should be getting a lot more promos or vignettes from both guys, i'm glad we got some from Fish, but pretty much nothing from Castle.

They could also be using these to create little stories for the house shows that make things feel more important and also different. What builds the match up better? To have Cedric ruin Jay Briscoe's match against Moose in Atlanta, then have it announced that they are booked against each other in Chicago because Jay was unhappy with this? Or to do a backstage segment later in the night in Atlanta where Nigel McGuinness is making some announcement and then have Jay come up to Nigel and DEMAND that Nigel give him a match with Cedric because Cedric ruined his match with Moose? (Not to mention the fact that doing this would also build up to a Jay vs. Moose rematch, which we never got but would have been a great way to build Moose up for Elgin at Final Battle (this could have easily been done either in Florida or Nashville or the California/Lockport weekend). And you don't even have to tape the promo in Atlanta if Nigel isn't going to be there. You could even tape it backstage at the TV tapings the previous weekend.