The obligatory multi-man chaos has arrived
Tony Khan and Scott D'Amore are doing the thing again. We are officially on the road to ROH x MLP Global Wars Canada, and the booking sheet just got its obligatory dose of pure, unadulterated chaos.
BodySlam.net broke the news this morning that a Six-Pack Scramble has been officially added to the card. It is the exact kind of match announcement that makes total sense on paper, but also highlights exactly what Ring of Honor has become in 2026.
If you have watched any Ring of Honor programming over the last couple of years, you know exactly what a Six-Pack Scramble entails. It is the modern equivalent of tossing all your action figures down the stairs at the same time. Six guys, one ring, zero tags required, and a referee who is mostly there for cardio.
It is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. The live audience in Canada is going to lose their minds when four guys hit simultaneous dives to the outside. But let's be entirely honest here: it is also incredibly lazy booking.
The Global Wars nostalgia play
When Scott D'Amore brought back the Maple Leaf Pro banner, the immediate question was how it would survive in a market completely dominated by WWE and AEW. The answer, clearly, was alliance.
Aligning with Tony Khan to revive the "Global Wars" IP is a smart business move. It taps into the nostalgia of the old Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling supershows from a decade ago. Those old Global Wars shows felt important. They felt like genuine cross-promotional dream cards.
This current iteration, while fun, often feels more like a super-sized episode of ROH on HonorClub with a Canadian coat of paint. Adding a Six-Pack Scramble to the mix does not exactly elevate the prestige of the event.
It is the classic "get everybody on the card" maneuver. You have a locker room full of incredibly talented guys who do not have a storyline, so you throw them into a multi-man scramble and tell them to get their spots in.
It works because the talent level is absurd. You put six independent standouts in a ring and give them 15 minutes, and they are going to tear the house down. But it does absolutely nothing to build long-term stars.
The mechanics of a spot-fest
Let's break down the mechanics of the Scramble. It usually starts with a brief stare-down, followed immediately by four guys rolling to the outside. The remaining two have a rapid-fire sequence, ending in a stalemate. Then someone else jumps in.
It is a formula. A very entertaining formula, but a formula nonetheless. The pacing is always breakneck.
Moves that would be match-enders on a regular television episode are treated as transition spots. A devastating piledriver gets broken up at two, and the guy who took it is back on his feet hitting a springboard cutter thirty seconds later.
This is the fundamental problem with Ring of Honor's current presentation. The athletic standard is off the charts, but the psychology is completely disjointed. The Six-Pack Scramble is the most egregious example of this.
Who actually benefits from winning these matches? Historically, the winner gets a fleeting moment of momentum that rarely translates into a sustained push.
They might get a shot at the ROH World Television Championship three weeks later, lose in a competitive twelve-minute match, and rotate right back into the midcard void.
The saving grace of Canadian talent
The saving grace for this specific scramble is the involvement of Maple Leaf Pro. D'Amore has a keen eye for talent, particularly in the Canadian independent scene.
This match is a prime opportunity to showcase guys who might not usually get the Ring of Honor spotlight. Imagine throwing two or three rising Canadian stars into the mix with a couple of established ROH workhorses. That creates a fascinating dynamic.
The crowd will organically back the hometown heroes, giving the match an emotional anchor that these scrambles usually lack. If you just throw six ROH roster members in there, the crowd will politely golf-clap the high spots.
If you throw in a highly touted prospect from the Ontario indies and let him go toe-to-toe with an established veteran, suddenly the match means something. That is the tightrope D'Amore and Khan have to walk with this entire Global Wars concept.
It cannot just be Ring of Honor invading Canada. It has to be a true showcase of what Maple Leaf Pro brings to the table.
The scramble format, for all its flaws, does allow for quick introductions. A casual fan might not know who a specific MLP talent is when the bell rings, but if that talent hits a spectacular dive or pulls off a unique submission sequence, they will know them by the end.
Roster bloat and the easy button
But let's circle back to the criticism. Why are we relying on car-crash matches to fill out these supercards? Ring of Honor's roster is simply too big.
Tony Khan has accumulated an insane amount of talent, and there is nowhere near enough television time to develop meaningful feuds for all of them. The scramble match is a symptom of this roster bloat.
Instead of building a heated, three-month rivalry between two rising stars that culminates in a singles match at Global Wars, we get six guys thrown together with no build. It is instant gratification over long-term storytelling.
The irony is that Ring of Honor built its entire legacy on the exact opposite philosophy. The original ROH was defined by deeply personal feuds, strict rules, and a focus on in-ring logic. The Code of Honor meant something.
Now, we have six guys ignoring tag rules and spamming Canadian Destroyers for a cheap pop. It is not necessarily bad wrestling, but it is a massive departure from the identity of the brand.
In the early 2000s, Ring of Honor revolutionized the multi-man match. The Special K scrambles were legendary. But they felt innovative. They were introducing a style of wrestling that North American audiences simply were not seeing on mainstream television.
Today, that style has been co-opted by everyone. You can see a six-man spot-fest on any random episode of AEW Dynamite or even WWE speed matches. The novelty has completely worn off.
When the novelty is gone, you have to replace it with substance. You have to replace it with narrative weight. And that is exactly what is missing from these announcements.
Looking at the calendar
Look at the calendar. We are rapidly approaching a massive stretch for the wrestling industry. AEW Dynasty is practically here, dropping on March 30.
WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas is hovering over everything in late April. In that crowded environment, an event like ROH x MLP Global Wars Canada can easily get lost in the shuffle.
It needs something to make it stand out. A random Six-Pack Scramble is not going to move the needle for anyone who wasn't already planning to buy a ticket or tune in. What moves the needle is stakes.
What if the winner of this scramble gets a guaranteed shot at the ROH World Championship? What if they get a contract with Maple Leaf Pro? There needs to be a tangible reward attached to the chaos.
Without stakes, the match is just empty calories. It is fun while you are consuming it, but you forget about it five minutes after it ends. I am not saying the match will be bad.
In fact, it will almost certainly be a chaotic, highly athletic spectacle. The guys involved will work incredibly hard, take insane bumps, and give the live crowd exactly what they paid for.
But as an analyst looking at the broader picture of how Ring of Honor operates, it is frustrating. It feels like the bookers are hitting the easy button.
"We have thirty minutes to fill and six talented guys with nothing to do. Throw them in a scramble." That is the exact thought process, and it is entirely transparent.
If Tony Khan wants Ring of Honor to feel like a premium brand again, he needs to move away from these crutches. He needs to give us reasons to care about the individuals in the ring, not just the moves they are performing.
We will all watch the scramble at Global Wars. We will all pop for the inevitable tower of doom spot out of the corner. We will all retweet the clip of the wildest dive.
But when the dust settles, and the referee raises the hand of the winner, will it actually matter? Based on recent history, the answer is probably no.
Let's hope Scott D'Amore's influence can inject a little more logic into the proceedings. Because right now, the scramble is just another shiny distraction in a promotion that is full of them.
