at the pay-per-view (Respect is Earned) featured a intriguing promo from Adam Pearce. The PPV had begun with ROH main-staay BJ Whitmer being quickly beaten by ROH Champion Takeshi Morishima.
The promo segment opened with Pearce, dressed all in black, talking to his assistant, Shane Hagadorn. Pearce said:
Hagadorn, the eyes are the gateway to a man's soul. Go find him.
Shane then runs off. After introducing himself to the audience, Pearce continues:
...there is a hell of a lot of soul-searching to be done in Ring of Honor.
He then tells the history of ROH's growth from a small regional promotion to PPV. This is followed by:
Every member of the Ring of Honor locker room now has to step up, you see. They have to make that step. They have to ask themselves, "What am I willing to do to take my piece?".
Shane then enters the frame, saying he found "him." Shane and Pearce walk off as the camera follows. Down a long hallway we see BJ Whitmer sitting with his head in his hands. Pearce says:
The man down the hall's name is BJ Whitmer. This is a man whose soul is in so much pain that even he cannot reveal it to the world. BJ has made sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice for Ring of Honor...and for Ring of Honor's fans. He's had his flesh torn and his bones broken, and made a hell of a lot more than 1 trip to the hospital. A few months ago BJ lost in one of the most violent feuds in history to Jimmy Jacobs. And now he sits there, a man before you whose spirit is broken. Every day he will have to look in the mirror and ask himself, "How can I break free?".
As if that wasn't enough, we can add one more thing to the resume, because now BJ Whitmer is forever going to be known as the man who lost the very first match on RIng of Honor Pay-Per-View. Every night as he sleeps..as he dreams..and as he wakes up the next day...the question on his mind: What do I do to get relief? How do I make peace?...How do you make peace when the pressure is on? How do you make peace when the stakes continue to rise and eventually it's over your head? How do you do it? Every man's going to react in his own way. As I've said now every man is now forced to dig deep, to search within, to find that spot in their soul where clarity lives. They have to truly know...TRULY KNOW... what they're capable of. I know what I'm capable of. And soon every single one of you will know it, too.
Pearce then walks down the long hallway and places his hand on Whitmer's shoulder.