HonorClub: December 2022 Review
During the post-show media scrum that followed Ring of Honor Final Battle 2022 Tony Khan announced that the new weekly ROH show would be aired on the newly re-launched HonorClub streaming platform. While it has to be considered a pretty big disappointment that he was not able to strike a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, it did give me an idea for a blog post. So with this post I will take the plunge and see what HonorClub currently has to offer!
The newly re-launched HonorClub is here and although the weekly show hasn't started yet there is tons of Ring of Honor content to watch. The service costs $9.99 USD a month and it seems like the only way to pay for the monthly subscription service is by credit card. There is no free trial period so the card you enter will be charged immediately for the month. Ring of Honor pay-per-views will appear on HonorClub ninety days after they air live and will still have to be bought separately.
The service itself works great although little details are still missing. For example, when you click the "More Info" button after selecting a show to watch a blank text area pops up. I was happy with the sign up process and there are no annoying password rules when creating an account. Functionality like the ability to search for shows or wrestlers works as expected.
I believe the first Ring of Honor PPV I ever bought was Final Battle 2016 so I watched some of that show to test out HonorClub. When watching the video through a browser I did not notice any buffering. Though of course a lot of the materials available to watch on HonorClub weren't exactly recorded on 70mm film the streaming itself works without a hitch.
I also tried out the Android app and tested the service on a TV using my Chromecast. Everything there worked smoothly and I tried watching some early ROH matches. The only issue with a lot of those old matches on HonorClub is the silence that happens during the entrances. Not much you can do about that I guess but it's not a great experience.
As of December 2022 I'd only recommend HonorClub for people who really want to check out some classic Ring of Honor wrestling. The service works great but until the weekly show starts in early 2023 it is a tough sell. There was also talk of partnerships with NJPW and other promotions from Tony Khan during the media scrum following Final Battle so maybe HonorClub will become a streaming service worth subscribing to next year.
Thanks for reading!
This work by Thomas Lloyd is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
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