6 Ways Gabe Sapolsky's ROH Followed Paul Heyman's ECW Legacy
2. Created Future Stars
Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Raven, The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, The Dudley Boyz, Taz, Rob Van Dam, Rhino, Tajiri, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero and many many more. What do they all have in common? They were all part of ECW before they made their names. Likewise Ring of Honor is responsible for many big stars. The longest reigning WWE Champion of the last 25 years, CM Punk was ROH World Champion when he signed his WWE contract. Current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan won both singles championships in his seven year run and main evented the first show. His fellow founding father Low Ki went on to win the second season of WWE NXT and had two successful runs in TNA, while the third member of the debut main event, Christopher Daniels would win several championships in TNA and make himself one of the biggest known wrestlers on the independent circuit. The winner of the Andre the Giant Battle Royal and newest Paul Heyman guy, Cesaro made a big impression in ROH as Claudio Castagnoli. Shield member Seth Rollins is a former ROH World and Tag Team Champion as Tyler Black, and his stablemate Dean Ambrose had a couple of matches in ROH and worked for Sapolsky in Dragon Gate USA. The longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions (of the SmackDown brand title, and fourth overall), Paul London and Brian Kendrick both came from Ring of Honor before making a name for themselves on the WWE stage. The man dubbed 'Mr TNA' AJ Styles was showcased in ROH before TNA was even around and is one of the biggest names in the past decade to have never signed with WWE, as is Samoa Joe who was a dominant machine in both ROH and TNA. The man who defeated him for the ROH World Championship, Austin Aries, has had two successful runs with TNA. TNA's tag division also owes a gratitude to ROH, with previously mentioned Daniels and Low Ki teaming as XXX, Homicide coming in as half of LAX and The Motor City Machineguns both originating in ROH and formed the team there.
