WrestleMania Weekend has already begun, with several shows taking place in and around the Los Angeles area.
Now, it’s time for Ring Of Honor to have their turn. This will be the 12th time that RoH holds a show during WrestleMania Weekend under the Supercard Of Honor name. From top to bottom, it looks like an incredibly entertaining event could be taking place here.
I have this column, an NXT Stand & Deliver review, two WrestleMania reviews, and my normal weekly column to post in less than three days, so let’s go ahead and get my busy weekend going.
El Hijo del Vikingo vs Komander (AAA Mega Title Match): Tons of buzz surrounding these two men in the world of wrestling. Komander is rumored to be on WWE’s radar right now, and Vikingo is still being talked-about after his incredible match against Kenny Omega on Dynamite a week-and-a-half ago.
If you’re not a fan of Lucha Libre matches, this match did exactly zero to change your mind about it. Every complaint you’ll ever see about Lucha, fair or otherwise, applied here. The ring psychology is certainly different than what you’ll see from North American wrestling, or Japanese wrestling… or European wrestling… or any wrestling, for that matter. There were moments where one wrestler would line up for a high spot while the other wrestler basically had to stand there and wait for it.
The first couple minutes were really slow. Not in a bad way, but jarring when you’re expecting things to be 100 miles per hour from the sound of the opening bell. After that, though, things definitely started to pick up. Both men are going to be GIF stars this weekend, with several spots that made jaws drop. If Komander isn’t signed to a WWE deal, this is definitely something I’d like to see Tony Khan run back, whether it’s on AEW programming or RoH programming. Twitter is already calling for a rematch. That works for me. 4.25 Stars
The Embassy vs AR Fox, Metalik & Blake Christian (RoH Six-Man Tag Title Match): The champions (Brian Cage, Toa Liona, and Kaun) are bringing the size and power to this match, while the challengers are bringing the speed and athletic ability. Matches with clashing styles like this often end up being really entertaining to watch.
This was a bit of a surprise to me. It certainly wasn’t a squash match or anything, but it was a lot more one-sided than I think a lot of people were expecting it to be. The champions also wrestled a lot more fast-paced style, really taking it to the challengers. 3.25 Stars
Athena vs Yuka Sakazaki (RoH Women’s Title Match): Athena’s entrance saw her literally stomp the head off of a porcelain doll on stage. Well, shit.
This crowd has been relatively quiet for the entire show, but that lack of noise was on clear display for this one. While it wasn’t the highlight reel filler that the opening match was, nor the larger-than-life display that the second match was, it was still fun… but the crowd was way too quiet. I do wish there were less moments in the match that saw the women doing the “spot-stand there-spot-walk-spot” routine. The action itself was fun, but I would gladly give it a higher rating if there was more smoothness and fluidity. 3.25 Stars
Samoa Joe vs Mark Briscoe (RoH Television Title Match): It has been 73 days since the news of Jay Briscoe’s passing rocked the pro wrestling world. It’s still very weird to see Mark wrestling solo. Part of me is still waiting to see Jay there by his brother’s side.
The second it was said that this match was coming up next, I was relieved, assuming that it would help to wake the crowd up. There’s the emotional story of Mark Briscoe honoring his brother’s legacy, and there’s also Samoa Joe, who is always over with live crowds wherever he wrestles. Unfortunately, Joe and Chicken were only able to get the crowd going in spots. We’d get a mini pop here and there, but not much else.
A moment that will be remembered for a while saw Mark, after being on the receiving end of quite the beating, crawling to the corner and instinctually reaching out for a tag from his brother.
This was fun. I’m as big a fan of Samoa Joe as you’re going to find, but I think his days of having Match Of The Year type bouts are over. He’s still capable of good stuff, and this was proof. The story here was super simple. Mark had an emotional lift and had the fans behind him, but beating Joe isn’t an easy task. It will be very interesting to see what Mark’s in-ring future will be. 3.5 Stars
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Daniel Garcia: It doesn’t matter how many times guys like Tanahashi wrestle in America… I still mark out for it and how special it feels. This man is one of the greatest to ever step foot inside of a Japanese wrestling ring.
With everything I said about how big a star Tanahashi is, he still wasn’t enough to get this crowd going. Garcia’s heel reactions, especially once he started imitating Shinsuke Nakamura’s taunts, were louder than any face reactions Tanahashi got.
There wasn’t anything particularly special about the match, but there wasn’t anything particularly offensive, either. A lot of the problem right now is that Daniel Garcia has cooled off A TON in recent months. For a while, it looked like he was going to be one of the biggest stars in AEW, back when he was being forced to choose between being a “pro wrestler” with the Blackpool Combat Club and a “sports entertainer” with the Jericho Appreciation Society. The moment he chose Jericho, the air was completely taken out of his balloon. Jericho continues to drain the life out of anyone near him in AEW, and that’s a damn shame. There’s so much more that Garcia could be doing. 3.5 Stars
The Lucha Brothers vs Aussie Open vs The Kingdom vs Top Flight vs La Facción Ingobernable (RoH Tag Team Title “Reach For The Sky” Ladder Match): Five teams. Ten men. Ladders. Some of the most exciting in-ring performers in the business today. The RoH Tag Team Titles on the line. There’s a lot to like about what the hell this match could, and should, be.
While I wouldn’t say this match completely brought the crowd to life, it’s easily the closest we’ve seen all night. This is like a Japanese crowd, with the fans being quiet but reacting to the high spots and big moments. Fortunately, this match saw high spot after big moment after high spot after big moment, giving them plenty to react to.
This was every bit the spot fest it needed to be. I do have some gripes, though. In separate moments, Dante Martin and Penta El Zero Miedo looked like complete fucking morons, standing atop a ladder in the center of the ring, but instead of easily reaching out to grab the titles, they decided to perform a flashy move instead. My other gripe was simply that the RoH production team couldn’t keep up with all the action, and they missed multiple spots entirely, and nearly missed a couple more. Even with the gripes I had, this was still a lot of fun. 4 Stars
After the match, an emotional Mark Briscoe brings FTR out, and the three men congratulate the new champions. Mark then goes to ringside and hugs both members of The Kingdom, with plenty of tears shed between them.
On Twitter, it was pointed out that Dante Martin appears to have been legitimately injured during the aforementioned flashy move from Penta that I mentioned earlier. From a bridged ladder inside the ring, Penta delivered a Destroyer over the top rope and through multiple stacked tables, but Dante landed leg-first on the floor. He was in a lot of pain, and the medical team attended to him. I’m not going to make any official guesses, but it certainly looked like a broken foot or ankle. Compound fracture, perhaps, simply based on the way that your foot isn’t supposed to point in the direction his foot was pointing. Dante went to grab his foot almost immediately after landing. Top Flight are cursed. They just have to be. One of them seems to be injured all the time.
Wheeler Yuta vs Katsuyori Shibata (RoH Pure Title Match): I’m not sure why I’m surprised to see Yuta’s Blackpool Combat Club stablemate, Jon Moxley, walk to the ring with him, but surprised I am. That was it for Moxley on this show, though. Okay then.
In a fun moment, Yuta delivered some STIFF chops to the chest of Shibata, who literally stood there and absorbed them before buckling Wheeler’s knees with a forearm shot from hell. Shibata isn’t a physically imposing man in wrestling (listed at 6’0″ and 209 pounds), but he’s a different type of monster. He would be terrifying to be across the ring from.
There was less to this match than I was expecting. Again, it was a simple story. Yuta cheated and used underhanded tactics, but no matter what he did, he wasn’t able to take advantage of things because, once again, Shibata is a monster. 3.5 Stars
Claudio Castagnoli vs Eddie Kingston (RoH World Title Match): When there’s CHIKARA footage in the video package for a match, you know the feud has been a lengthy one. There has been a ton of bad blood between these two men, going back about 15 years. Legit heat, to whatever extent, making it even better. They haven’t faced each other in the ring in over 12 years, so it will be very interesting to see how they’re able to keep their emotions in check.
Claudio hits Eddie with a Neutralizer, only for Eddie to kick out at one, drawing the loudest reaction that this crowd has given us all night. They’ve been loud for Kingston for the entire match, too.
While this wasn’t an in-ring classic or anything, it really did its job. As I said, it got the crowd going, but it was also fun seeing Kingston continue fighting back, no matter how many big shots Claudio hit him with. There were some slow spots, but things really picked up down the stretch. 3.5 Stars
After the match, Wheeler Yuta comes out, and it looks like he and Claudio are about to attack Kingston, only for Katsuyori Shibata to come out and make the save. Before the show goes off the air, Kingston cuts a mini-promo, saying that he isn’t going anywhere and that he’s still going to beat Claudio’s ass. I mean, damn, this was probably his best opportunity to do so, but okay, perhaps we’re getting a rematch.
Overall, this was a strange pay-per-view, in my opinion. 3.25 Stars was the lowest rating I handed out, so it wasn’t a show that delivered in-ring stinkers, but most of the matches failed to go beyond “good” and reach “really good” or “great” status. When you’re having a show during WrestleMania Weekend, it’s usually the time when you’re having the best show you’ll give all year long. I don’t think that’s what ends up happening with Supercard Of Honor. The live crowd certainly didn’t treat this as the biggest and best show you’re going to see, that’s for sure.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go finish my usual weekly column so that my weekend can be fully open for Stand & Deliver and back-to-back nights of WrestleMania.