Joe Koff, the CEO of Ring of Honor, did a media conference call today, discussing the problems on Saturday night with Border Wars from Toronto.
He termed the night the highest of highs, based on the live show, and lowest of lows, at the same time. He noted the problem was an issue because the server was overloaded with so many people trying to log in. He said that they should have known and have no excuses, they just had never been tested at that level before. He said it was impossible to do a test with that volume of people all logging in late.
As noted, anyone who had problems can get the next iPPV on 6/24 if they ordered this one, as well as access to the replays of this show. He said the company has not made many refunds but had a lot of people watch the show on Sunday.
He said there is no blame to be passed, "We should have been better prepared. We weren't. We're working to make sure this doesn't happen again. We're sorry. It's technology. Every PPV we've done has had some kind of technical something, it's not down to a science, we just didn't get it. We're proud of what we've done and proud of what we've achieved other than Saturday night's snafu. The experience we're giving the fans has been such a positive."
Much of the talk had to do with the future of the promotion. Nothing concrete was said, other than they were attempting to break into new non-Sinclair markets with more syndication in year two, as well as saying they are looking at upgrading the TV in HD in 2013. He termed ratings and iPPV buys as above expectations.
He said nobody should be writing about the demise of ROH, but the upgrades never happen as fast as you'd like him to.
When asked about a Clash of Champions style special (a live free television card), he said it's something to consider down the road but wouldn't happen this year. He noted the big issue that many of the stations are network affiliates and thus have their own programming.
He also noted that when it comes to television, many of the highest rated markets air the show 11 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday night or later. That actually makes sense because the strongest stations they are on would be the ones with major network affiliation, and those stations wouldn't be airing the shows in prime time.
He was mostly praising the staff and apologizing for the problems and hoping by June that the people who are mad are willing to give them another try.
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