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Frisco Resident Charlie Haas Helping Up Ring of Honor's Profile

Posted: Sep 22nd 2011 By: CMBurnham

Frisco is home to several professional sports figures, including Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson, former NBA head coach Del Harris and former World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler Charlie Haas.

Haas, who has lived in what he calls a "really great family town" for seven years, will embark on a new venture beginning Sept. 24: taking Ring of Honor to a more national stage.

ROH, which has built up a loyal fan base over the past nine years with its live events and DVD sales, previously had a weekly television show on HDNet.

"That was when they had the old owner, which was Cary Silken," Haas said. "He sold the company to Sinclair Broadcasting Group."

Haas said "instead of trying to find a station to put us on," Sinclair Broadcasting Group can run the program on all of its affiliate stations, including FOX, NBC and My Network TV. And while ROH is entrenched as the No. 3 wrestling federation in the country behind WWE and TNA, Haas has big hopes for the new show.

"The first TV show for Ring of Honor will air," he said, "and it will be another professional wrestling show that will compete against World Wrestling Entertainment."

Haas said ROH will feature more of a "professional wrestling aspect" and less theatrics.

"It's more athleticism, more concentrated on wrestling," he added. "The way that it's been produced and with the new money that Sinclair has put into it, it's kind of like UFC meets professional wrestling."

Haas and fellow former WWE wrestler, Shelton Benjamin, have been with ROH for a year now, winning the organization's tag team titles April 1 by defeating the Kings of Wrestling in Atlanta.

"With Shelton, we were WWE Tag Team Champions," Haas said, "now we're the tag champions in our own league; we kind of jumped ship ... to go to Ring of Honor."

Haas said fans have asked if he and Benjamin, dubbed "The World's Greatest Tag Team," will come back to WWE.

"A lot of people miss us or keep telling us on Facebook or Twitter to come back," Haas said, "but we like it better here because it allows us to wrestle and be who we want to be instead of having to deal with the politics and all the creative politics WWE has. We're excited, one because we're the World Tag Team Champions, two we're just excited to be part of the company ... as it goes down this new avenue under this new ownership, it's really made us compete and bring it into a top level."

Haas said both he and Benjamin are excited to "rebuild the tag team division and be the foundation for it."

The duo also has a new theme song entitled "Mess You Up."

"It's actually by the Maurice Davis Band which; they're local here in Dallas," Haas said. "I'm a fan of his music -- big time fan and so ... I asked him to write the song 'Mess You Up.'"

Haas said the song will be played as he and Benjamin walk down the ramp to the ring.

The Frisco resident noted that he enjoys the song and it reminds him of "80s hair band" music.

"A lot of fans are requesting where to get it-- if it's on iTunes yet," Haas said. "I think it relates to the fans because one, they can understand him singing and two, it's that type of 'pump you up' work-out song, so the fans really, they love it."