Josh Barnett

USA TODAY Sports

Christopher Daniels was doing what independent pro wrestlers do when he took a booking on a show called “The Era of Honor” in 2002 in Philadelphia. He was filling dates on his schedule.

“At that point, it was just work,” he says, “but we had a locker room full of talent. Seeing all these guys who I had met on different independent shows throughout the Northeast, it was almost like an all-star show.”

Daniels was in the main event with fellow wrestlers Low Ki and Bryan Danielson (who later became Daniel Bryan). He added more dates with the company, known as Ring of Honor, which had 12 events in its first year. Soon there were a few dates outside of Philadelphia. Then there was a first anniversary show.

“Being in the main event of the first show, at that point we had no idea what we were building,” Daniels recalls. “The first year was a whirlwind of great shows and great experiences. The idea of having the first anniversary is when it hit home that we were going to stick around for awhile.”

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Or perhaps more poetically, Daniels says, “It wasn’t anything until it became something.”

Ring of Honor will celebrate its 15th anniversary Friday in Las Vegas with a pay-per-view event at Sam's Town Live (9 p.m. ET). Daniels will attempt to win his first Ring of Honor world title when he challenges three-time champion Adam Cole in the main event.

Though times and talent have changed, one key quality of Ring of Honor remains: It’s become an alternative for wrestling fans to what they see from World Wrestling Entertainment. How it has remained such an alternative distinguishes the company in a business that has seen rampant consolidation in the past four decades. The numbers of wrestling promotions that have failed to make a mark — or failed entirely — is almost equal to the number that have attempted to do so.

“Despite all the success WWE has had and the variety to WWE-style wrestling that they’ve started to embrace, that can’t be the be all end all of wrestling,” Daniels says. “We see an opportunity to help continue to help build up Ring of Honor and cement the idea that we are a very viable alternative to what the WWE offers as professional wrestling.”

Going to the fans

That alternative concept — from the fans to the performers — goes back to its roots.

“Ring of Honor didn't try to reinvent the wheel,” said Bryan Alvarez, who covers the business for WrestlingObserver.com. “They just presented a good pro wrestling product with good wrestlers and good storylines and sometimes great storylines.”

Bully Ray, the former Bubba Ray Dudley, who has worked for virtually every promotion in the United States and around the world, said Ring of Honor caters to its customer's wishes while maintaining a balanced checkbook.

“Ring of Honor gives its fan base exactly what they want to see,” said Bully Ray, who will make his in-ring debut with the company at the 15th anniversary show. “Ring of Honor knows its audience and knowing who your customer is, is Job 1 for any business."

“As fans discovered the product, they found something that was, from day one, different but also featured throwbacks to old school wrestling,” says Mike Johnson of industry news site PWInsider.com, who has followed ROH from its outset. “They made the wins and losses and the titles changing hands mean something. There were very personal promos and stories built on competition. For fans who wanted something that wasn't WWE storylines in that era, it was refreshing.”

Joe Koff also sees ROH's growth without straying too far from what fueled its initial popularity. Koff has been Ring of Honor’s chief operating officer for the last five-plus years since Sinclair Broadcast Group bought the promotion. He also is Sinclair’s vice president of training and development.

Sinclair, which owns the most local television stations in the United States, bought the company from Cary Silkin, who had put up millions of his own money to keep the company afloat and was its owner from 2004 to 2011.

Rather than a wrestling company, Ring of Honor is a business unit of a large television company. “Financially, Sinclair was the best thing to ever happen to Ring of Honor. No question,” Johnson says.

With Sinclair, Koff said, ROH's one-hour flagship program airs 256 times per weekend, including duplication on some stations, in all of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s 81 markets. That doesn't include Ring of Honor's syndicated partners in markets such as Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia and regional networks such as NESN in New England and Cox Sports South. Add in Comet, another cable network in 80 million homes including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York; Ring of Honor’s web site; and the 35 million views on its YouTube channel, and the footprint continues to grow.

The company does about 40 live events annually, including four to six pay-per-views.

“What I feel the most proud of is, in that five years we have really become part of the narrative of the business,” Koff says, “and to me that’s very complimentary. It’s also basically validation of the work we have done and the strategies we have in place.”

Growing the business

To a man, though, the performers in the ring and the people behind the scenes, all want to talk about the wrestling. The hour weekly show has very few promos — segments when talent argues for themselves or against rivals — and is crammed with matches.

“When you hear complaints about pro wrestling, it’s that there is too much soap opera, too much storyline,” Daniels says. “Ring of Honor has put a premium on in-ring action. What happens between the bells is what Ring of Honor has always been known for.”

Koff says he thinks WWE's decision to bring back a cruiserweight division and what he’s seen from NXT — two products with more of an in-ring focus than WWE’s flagships RAW and Smackdown Live — are directly related to what ROH has done, noting that WWE “reacted to what we were doing. I’d like to think of us as the innovators in the space. I think Ring of Honor has helped the industry in raising the level.”

Beyond the current roster, that high-quality wrestling has come from a long and notable list of alumni. Former ROH champions include Danielson, Kevin Steen (now Kevin Owens), Tyler Black (now Seth Rollins), Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, — all WWE front-liners — former WWE champion C.M. Punk and newcomer Austin Aries. Claudio Castagnoli (now Cesaro in WWE) is a two-time former ROH tag team champion.

For them, Ring of Honor was part of the journey but not the destination. For some, the jump was from ROH to WWE; for others, their path was ROH to other independent promotions and then WWE.

“What this comes down to is what’s better for them, and what’s better for their family, what’s better for their careers,” Koff says. “I abide by that and I respect that, and I thank them for their service and I think they were part of the fabric of Ring of Honor.”

But Koff also takes pride in the number of talents who opt to remain with the company. The Young Bucks and Jay Lethal are among those to recently re-sign.

“I get humbled at those moments that (talent) would choose us,” Koff said. “The reason they choose us is because they like what we represent, what is the culture of the company and how I fit into it or can enhance it.”

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As much attention as the alumni get, Daniels won’t be the only performer to appear at the 15th anniversary show who was on that first show. Jay Briscoe lost to Amazing Red on that night, but has won the ROH world title twice, and he and brother Mark have won eight ROH world tag team titles since.

Mark was at ringside in 2002. Younger than Jay by nine months, Mark had just turned 17 and was unable to wrestle in Pennsylvania.

“I feel like when Ring of Honor started up, we were like the all-star team of the indies from all around the country,” Mark says. “Now, I feel like, all these years later, we’re more of a franchise, more of a New England Patriots or a San Antonio Spurs, even though the roster is loaded with all-stars.

"Now we have the chemistry of the unit. We’re in it for the long haul — the whole season, not just for the all-star game.”

Despite briefly wrestling elsewhere and overtures from other organizations, the Briscoes are among the foundational pieces in Ring of Honor.

“We’re happy here,” Jay says. “This is just something cool to be part of, to help this company grow — and we’ve seen it grow a lot already — and help the young guys out. …

“This is home. We’ve been here for so long. It’s like family, man.”