I Was There: ROH Free Enterprise Baltimore

By Ryan Joy
Updated: February 14, 2020
Featured Ticker

Chapter 3

Event

Thank You to ROH for the free front row ticket.

Show #3: ROH Free Enterprise
Location: University of Maryland Baltimore College (UMBC) Event Center
Date: February 10
Headline: PCO and Marty Scurll vs. Nick Aldis and Rush
Miles from Home: 24 Miles

“Honor is Real”

Ring of Honor (ROH) Wrestling held Free Enterprise from the University of Maryland Baltimore College (UMBC) Event Center on February 9th as a free show. That’s right. . .my front row ticket cost me nothing. What’s more is that ROH had a sidewalk sale starting 3 hours before doors where merchandise was going at ridiculously cheap prices. We bought 4 T-shirts, 2 sweatshirts, a Villain foam finger, a peacock fan, a backpack, 3 pins, and a magnet for $60. I checked the ROH shop on-line to find out one of the sweatshirts sells for $50 at regular price, so we felt like pretty much everything else was free. In addition to the sidewalk sale, as an Honor Club member, we had the option of a free meet & greet with Matt Taven and the Briscoes. We declined the meet and greet, so we could have lunch before the show started.

It bears mentioning that I went to Final Battle, the last ROH Pay Per View, at the UMBC Event Center in December with a much smaller crowd. I sat in the front row for that show too. While my ticket to ROH Free Enterprise cost me nothing, my front row ticket to Final Battle was only $90.

Honor Club

I mentioned Honor Club membership above. This is the ROH streaming service, but it also gives you a 15% discount at the ROH store, a 50% discount on ROH Pay Per Views, and early access to ROH live event ticket sales. If you go the VIP route, you get all ROH Pay Per Views for free. I go VIP, which means I pay $119 for an annual subscription instead of $9.99 per month. Do I think Honor Club is worth $120? If you can only have one professional wrestling streaming service, the WWE network is a much better value. However, if you are a big wrestling fan with plans to watch ROH pay per views or go to ROH events, then having an Honor Club subscription makes is well worth it. I used the live event early ticket access to secure front row tickets twice during the last 12 months including this show where the tickets were free.

The Ring of Honor Experience is Real

Since 2002, we have created excellence together.
Passion is real.
Connection is real.
The ROH experience is real.
Welcome to Ring of Honor Wrestling.
Honor is Real.

Ring of Honor Wrestling

The quote above comes from the ROH intro video. It typically comes on before every television, house show, and pay per view. In the 1990’s through 2001, wrestling fans in the United States had three major choices for professional wrestling content. WWE and WCW waged war on national television in a time affectionally known to wrestling fans as “The Monday Night Wars.” In addition, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) ran a niche promotion out of Philadelphia that eventually rose to have a national presence. Despite the critical success of their wrestling content, WCW and ECW failed financially and went out of business in 2001. That left us with one national choice for professional wrestling, Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment.

While WWE became a mega monster of a company that today signs billion dollar television deals with USA and Fox, the closing of WCW and ECW opened the door for a different kind of company. Rob Feinstein of RF Video with Doug Gentry and Gabe Sapolski started ROH in February of 2002. Despite management changes, scandals, and other issues, ROH has persisted for the last 18 years as a second option to the much larger WWE. Interestingly, the historic first main event match on February 23, 2002 was a triple threat match featuring three wrestlers modern fans still love:

Low Ki wrestles for MLW (I saw him at MLW Fightland)
American Dragon, better known as Daniel Bryan or Bryan Danielson, is a main event wrestler for WWE.
Christopher Daniels who is a member of So Cal Uncensored on AEW

“Since 2002, we have created excellence. . .together”

With the exception of two matches, the wrestling on ROH Free Enterprise ranged from average to slightly above average. The Briscoes vs. Flamita and Bandido ended up very good. The Session Moth Martina vs. Sumie Sakai match felt below average, but still fun. Slex and Session Moth Martina made their ROH debuts. While they didn’t become instant hits (like Joe Hendry), they have some additional dates this month to make their mark. Martina’s drunk girl gimmick may turn out to be a slam dunk comedy spot once we see more depth of character. Unfortunately, Slex was just kind of there. He lost to Flip Gordan and they shook hands afterward. Slex faces Marty Scurll in Nashville later this month (February 28th), so we’ll see if he brings anything else to the table.

Ring of Honor didn’t waste my time with anything non-competitive as even the shortest match between Rey Horus and Brody King included offense from both men. A special moment came when Gangrel and the Blue Meanie participated in the Battle Royal. That’s right. . .the Blue Meanie made it onto this show too. Similar to Blue Meanie’s work on the MLW Fightland show, both he and Gangrel succeeded to provide us with nostalgic moments including Gangrel spitting blood in Kenny King’s face and Blue Meanie teaching Brian Milonas and Beer City Bruiser how to dance. Together, that dance team tips the scale somewhere around 1,000 pounds. Watch your toes.

The Main Event: PCO and Marty Scurll vs. Nick Aldis and Rush.

The ROH World Champion pinned the NWA World Champion setting up a match between the two of them at Supercard of Honor in April. This is just good booking, and I love it.
PCO debuted in 1987 and worked at WrestleMania 10 as one half of the Quebecers. After hopping around a bit, he retired in 2011. After a five year hiatus, he returned in 2016 as PCO and the character got noticed. He is now 52 years old and the ROH World Champion. He wrestles a brutal style, so if PCO is on the list of people you want to see wrestle . . . be quick about it. This is a moment in time and it certainly won’t last forever.
Nick Aldis is the “Real World’s Champion,” and whenever he comes around, it is a big fight feel. He carries the NWA promotion right now as they build stars around him. Seeing the NWA World’s Champion also feels like a privilege.
Marty Scurll is my favorite personality in all of wrestling. Most people clamored for him to join AEW or NXT when his contract recently ended. As part of his new deal, he leads the booking for ROH. That man’s creativity pushing an entire company could be great for the business. Time will tell.
Rush is a bad ass and one of the original members of Los Ingobernables (along with Andrade from WWE). Despite wrestling on top, I think his star is still rising.

A great experience for Chapter 3.

ROH Free Enterprise Results:

Follow the Links for More Details on the ROH Free Enterprise Matches:

Recommendations

Do a Little Homework

Ring of Honor has good wrestling and interesting characters. The crowd has a lot of fun, so make sure you know the characters ahead of time. This allows you to participate with the rest of the fandom. You could actually just watch this show to learn all the characters. After watching just one show, you’ll be swaying with the Joe Hendry song, shouting woop woop as Villain Enterprises makes their entrance, and shouting “I ain’t got no teeth” with the Beer City Bruiser. Even if you don’t have time to do the homework, you’ll catch on to all these things and more.

Tickets

Ring of Honor has produced and provided a platform for some of the biggest stars in today’s wrestling. The WWE and AEW rosters are full of ROH alumni, and I’m not talking about the bottom of the card at those promotions. Indeed, the Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Daniel Bryan, the entire Undisputed Era, Tommaso Ciampa, and a lot of others all spent time in Ring of Honor. In fairness to the wrestling landscape as a whole though, Ring of Honor is going through a period of rebuilding. ROH has an entire program called Future of Honor committed to identifying and building young talent. During this rebuilding period, they still have top stars including Marty Scurll and the Briscoes, and they supplement their stars with cross-promotion relationships with New Japan and NWA.

I bring all this up because you can get really good tickets to see top talent for very reasonable prices. I mean, I sat front row for free at this show. You can’t bank on that, but if you’re not used to buying front row tickets, give ROH front row tickets a look before automatically deciding against it. My Final Battle Ticket (ROH’s biggest show of the year) cost $90, which is a price you pay for bad tickets at a WWE show. My advice is to know the date and time that tickets go on sale, so you can buy your tickets as early as possible. Remember that if you’re an Honor Club member, you’ll likely get a promotional code and early access. My rule of thumb is front row, maybe second row, but I would rather sit in the stands then third or fourth row on the floor. If you sit third row, chances are just too good that someone tall sits in front of you.

Merchandise:

The UMBC Event Center only has one spot for merchandise, and it is right in front of you when you walk through the door. The show you go to probably won’t have the sidewalk sale, so prepare to spend around $30 for a tee shirt. I didn’t think the lines were too bad and certainly nothing like an AEW show.

Parking

I have been to three ROH shows at UMBC, and I have never paid for parking. Arrive at the venue about 15 minutes before the doors open, and you’ll most likely find a free spot across the street. I always do.

Eat (and drink)

I would typically recommend a pizza place, but I haven’t found a good one close by. Instead, I recommend the Guinness Open Gate Brewery which is about 10 minutes away from the UMBC Event Center. You probably recognize the name Guinness from the really dark Irish beer poured from a nitro tap at the bar. Yep. . . same one. In fact, Guinness only has six breweries world-wide and this is the only one in the United States (original in Dublin, three in Africa, and one in Malaysia). I heard it said on a podcast recently that to understand the Guinness Open Gate Brewery, you just need to imagine what it might be like if your favorite craft brewery suddenly got bank rolled by Guinness. Guinness says they are combining 260 years of Guinness brewing experience with American beer creativity. Since I live close by, I’ve been to Guinness about a dozen times over the last couple of years.

They have the traditional Guinness Drought along with 10-15 experimental beers on tap at any given time. If you like beer, there is something here for you. As far as food goes, they have a bar food menu and a full restaurant. The restaurant can fill up, so I recommend a reservation. If crunched for time, the bar food menu is limited but good tasting. You’ll have better quality food here then at UMBC.

Venue for ROH Free Enterprise- UMBC Event Center

The UMBC Event Center is a standard basketball arena. Nothing special, but Ring of Honor seems to always run this building. I enjoy the fact that UMBC’s location outside Baltimore means I don’t have to deal with the city.

I forgot to take a picture, so this came from UMBC’s website.

View From My Seat for ROH Free Enterprise

Pretty tough to beat.

ROH Free Enterprise: My Instagram

The mandatory countdown posts before every show, and some photos of the Briscoes, Bandido, Brody King, Marty Scurll, Nick Aldis, PCO, and Rush. Follow my Instagram and Twitter to see even more.