What's up everyone and welcome to this special edition of McPinions, where I will give you some facts and news, with some opinions on top. This time around, I'll be looking at the ROH-H2 situation, which was escalated this week due to Court Bauers emails leaking here on the DOI site.

As everyone who's been following this story knows, ROH and H2 are both holding shows on 8/28 in Braintree, Massachusetts. The shows are 3 miles apart from another and at the same time. Obviously, these shows are going to split the fans, and both promotions will lose potential dollars. The wrestlers will also get fucked, as they won't be able to do a doubleshot and increasing their income. And for most of these guys, who are from the NY/NJ/PA area, a couple of extra dollars goes a long way, considering the show is 5 hours away for most people. Of course the fans lose out as well, because instead of making a day of the huge event and being able to take in everything, they are forced to choose what line-up they like better.

Both sides have claimed that they booked the 8/28 show first. ROH says they booked it in February after their Boston area show there. H2 said it was booked around that time also, and even sent Steve D'Angelis to go down to ECWA's Super 8 and book the Havana Pitbulls for the show back in early April. To me, it doesn't matter who booked it first, and it's not an issue of that, because I don't think one company wanted to compete against the other, especially only 3 miles away. Obviously when each side booked the date, they didn't realize that the other intended to run on 8/28 either. I don't think either side blatantly booked on that day.

Discussions from ROH and H2 were going on all week, before ROH's 7/17 show. The DOI recieved emails from H2 Owner, Court Bauer, proving that he was in talks with ROH. Court also sent us transcripts of these emails, to make available to the public. To read that whole entire story, please click: ROH/H2 Emails Story.
There we saw proof of H2 offering a free building, wrestlers, equipment and other things necessarry to run a wrestling show. Once I read the emails, I asked Court if that was everything. He said it was. When I asked where the situation was left off at, he said that it was open ended. Gabe Sapolsky of ROH said that Court left off the last email, which made Gabe look bad. Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com went on The Masked Maniac's hotline this past Tuesday, and confirmed that another email did exist, and explained what it said. I've now seen the email myself, and here is went down.

Gabes final email to Court, which will not be printed here, due to ROH wanting this story to fade away (Which I'll explain later), was sent on 7/8/2004. Gabe pretty much told Court Bauer and H2wrestling, that he wanted to see how H2's 7/31 event went before committing to anything. It seems that is not the answer Court Bauer wanted, hence the email story going public. After talking with Gabe, he said that he was interested 100% in working something out, before everything went public, and wanted to see what H2 did on 7/31. Gabe said he would've told H2wrestling his decision about doing a doubleshot or some other sort of agreement by 8/2, the Monday after H2's show. On H2's side, they wanted to make a deal sooner than later, so they could announce it at their 7/31 show. Now due to lack of trust, we might not see an agreement, as Courts actions did not improve an already rocky relationship with ROH.

Now looking at the situation, I do hope something can happen so everyone wins on 8/28. Now knowing about the final email, I can see why ROH would be hesitant with H2Wrestling. After all, one of the owners of H2, Teddy Hart has been tearing apart Gabe and ROH every interview he's done. If Gabe hears so much bad things about him coming from Teddy Hart in every interview he does, why would he want to do business with a company that Teddy Hart owns and represents? Personally, I don't care what Teddy says, as I do find him entertaining in and out of the ring, but Teddy is seemingly trying to hurt ROH's business.

Another factor by looking at everything is Gabe and ROH wanting to wait until H2 ran their first show. While Court Bauer is liked by the people who know him, he doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to pulling off shows. With MLW cancelling a few shows here and there, and with H2's first show cancelled, it's understandable to see why ROH would be cautious with them. Add in that Court, as part of MLW, did try to run shows the day before ROH shows in the same building, earlier this year, ROH has no reason to trust him. Court is one of the best hype machines in wrestling, but he needs to show he's more than the hype, and that is why ROH wanted to wait.

Court Bauer has said that an outside promotion tampered with H2's first date, on 6/26, leading to the cancellation in Somersville. Court has yet to show proof of who did it, and I'm sure the fans want to know as well. Personally, I don't think Gabe did it, because I don't think ROH nor Gabe, are looking for another ROH vs XPW war, because these wars are silly and hurt the business more than help it. The rumors are circulating that Gabe was the one who cancelled H2's show, but from what I've heard, the rumor started by someone within H2. (Not Court or Teddy)You have to take the rumor with a grain of salt and I wouldn't put any stock in it until it's been confirmed by H2 publically. I'm sure everyone wants to know who was the one who fucked around with H2, so hopefully we'll find out sooner than later.

Another piece of information in this story is that H2 said there is no way they can move their show time. They would need ROH to run at 2PM. Both promotions are flying in guys from all over the world, with the intention of having everyone in the building approximately at 6 PM. Flights would need to be changed. ROH, who has the bigger proven fanbase, and despite getting a free ring, building and other things, would take a loss in changing flights around. With the ROH guys living in Pennsylvania, it would also mean a way early drive, or a Friday night drive to Boston, which would incur more costs for overnight stay. While I don't think this issue is over a hotel room, I can see why ROH would be hesitant. After all the first H2 show was cancelled. What would happen if H2 cancelled their 8/28 show, and ROH committed to the building a 2 PM start? If H2 cancelled, it doesn't necessarily mean ROH would full that night spot. Also, the fans would be fucked and would be sitting around Boston 6 hours too early. Obviously these were all concerns ROH were facing.

H2, who has many TV deals signed, could not budge their 7:45 PM start time, due to fly-ins, and TV Taping set-ups that would be required. With these lengthy set-ups, ROH would've had to run at 2 PM, and not a minute late. H2 would definitley benefit if ROH did do this deal, as most fans would most likely stay to see H2 after catching ROH. But for now, this all looks moot.

So where does this leave us at for 8/28? Obviously Gabe rightfully believes that his trust was violated with Court. Court is frustrated because ROH doesn't want to do a doubleshot under Courts own terms. This is the wrestling business, and anything can happen. Right now the chances of seeing a double shot are very low. In ROH's eyes, how can they trust someone that has tried to steal ROH buildings, cancelled shows (which led to ROH having to pay wrestlers more and incurring more flight costs) but most importantly, put their conversations on the internet? In H2's eyes, they feel that they offered everything they could've to Gabe. H2 knows in their own mind what they are capable of and the impact they are looking to make. Unfortunately, it hasn't been done yet, so potential business deals will have to wait until an actual product to come off. The saddest thing about this is that if H2 does have a fantastic show and blows away everyone, that ROH would've most likely done the double shot.

Lastly, a huge factor, which did not affect ROH's decision at all about the doubleshot, has came public yesterday. Good old Rob Feinstein, who seemingly will always turn up whenever some controversy with ROH goes down, has been rumored by Teddy Hart, in a recent interview with Trash Talking Radio, to be at H2's 7/31 debut show. Pretend that ROH/H2 are on good terms and are open ended about the double shot. If RF does show up, as Teddy hinted, can you really see ROH wanting to work with them? ROH just had a successful show this past Saturday and looks to have finally distanced themselves from RF. Can you really see ROH wanting to do any business with anything related to RF? Whether or not RF is guilty of a crime, which he is not, (remember RF was never charged. For a full column about RF/ROH please read: RF/ROH Assessment ) ROH wants nothing to do with RF, and rightfully so.

Please remember that the RF appearance at H2 is only speculation and rumor, so don't take it as the truth. Of course, whether it's true or false, it does add more intrigue to H2's 7/31 show. Maybe the Fun Athletic Guy is geared for a comeback?

***UPDATE 7/22 8:35 PM***:
In a recent discussion with the DOI, Court Bauer of H2Wrestling wants it to be known that Rob Feinstein and Bret Hart, as speculated on this site and other wrestling websites, WILL NOT BE appearing in any shape or form on H2's 7/31 and 8/28 shows.

The rumors, which started in a recent interview that Teddy Hart did, were unfounded and had no truth to them. Hart's comments did not reflect H2 Wrestling as a whole.

Neither Bret Hart or Rob Feinstein were even contacted about coming in by H2Wrestling for either show and as of right now, H2 has no plans into bringing either man into the promotion.

So in conclusion, the fans are going to have to chose on 8/28 which show to go to. Like others, I'm taking the wait and see approach, as I want to see how H2 does on 7/31. Both shows will stack the deck on 8/28, you can believe that. Maybe the best solution to this whole problem, if neither side can change their start time is this: Buy one general admission ticket to either show, and for an extra 10 bucks, recieve a free tape of the show you missed for free. Mike Johnson, who runs the bustrips is going to find himself in a spot too. His best bet is to take everyone to both shows and let the people who go on the bus go to whatever show they want, since they'll both end at approximately the same time and are in the same area.

Hopefully some agreement can be worked out, positively. No one wants to see either show cancelled, and no one wants to see another internet/territory war between two promotions people want to see, so here's to wishing both promotions the best of luck on 8/28.

For more on ROH go to: www.rohwrestling.com
For more on H2Wrestling go to: www.h2wrestling.com

ROH runs this Saturday and Sunday with their Death before Dishonor Weekend.
H2 debuts on 7/31.

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com