Wrestlemania weekend means a whole hell of a lot of wrestling around the industry. There was a vast array of amazing stuff from a litany of companies, but no card gave the hype of Ring of Honor’s Supercard of Honor. It’s officially been one year since Tony Khan purchased the storied company and the first year can only be labeled a success.

Just look at this Supercard of Honor card and say that Tony Khan hasn’t put life into Ring of Honor. Major stars made this product something that must not be missed. Claudio, Samoa Joe, Eddie Kingston, Athena, and Brian Cage are all featured. Not to mention the guest stars of Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata, and El Hijo del Vikingo taking the card to another level of awesome.

And to quote Mark Henry…”There’s been enough talk. It’s time for the main event!”

Let’s talk about a show that elicits a happy reaction and not an irate one, Supercard of Honor!

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• First things first. Nigel McGuinness is back in Ring of Honor as a commentator! That’s awesome. Hopefully, he sticks around as the permanent third member. This new version of Ring of Honor already was feeling like the black and gold NXT, adding Nigel makes that even more accurate. This is a great thing.

AAA Mega Championship: El Hijo del Vikingo (c) vs. Komander

The first match of the evening was the AAA Mega Championship match between El Hijo del Vikingo and Komander. This match was placed in the perfect spot as the opener. It amped the crowd up for a fun evening of wrestling and showcased two unbelievable luchadors. The AAA Mega championship and luchador wrestling as a whole took center stage in an awesome match.

There’s not much to say here. This was a Lucha battle between mind-bending superheroes. Vikingo made insane moves look easy and Komander decided that gravity doesn’t apply to him. A couple of their big moves took a little too long to set up, but their coordination and balance to pull them off are off the charts.

Toward the end of the match, Vikingo missed the 630 and splatted onto the mat. He grabbed the ropes at the last second to stop Komander’s pin attempt. Vikingo eventually hits the 630 and wins a crazy match in what was the perfect way to start this show. It’s assumed that El Hijo del Vikingo goes back to Mexico for the majority of his work, but hopefully, Komander sticks around for a while!

4/5

ROH Six-man Tag Championships: The Embassy (c) vs. AR Fox, Blake Christian, & Metalik

Up next was the six-man tag championship match between The Embassy and AR Fox, Blake Christian, and Metalik. This match was fun nonstop trios action. A lot of people made a name for themselves in this one. AR Fox is having his time in the sun, but Blake Christian, Toa Liona, and Kaun all had some cool moments here. My favorite was when Blake Christian lifted the much bigger Brian Cage onto his shoulders and hit a fireman’s carry.

The match did end up coming to an abrupt ending when Brian Cage hit the Drill Claw out of nowhere to win the match for the Embassy. That was a surprise as Brian Cage was rumored to be leaving ROH. Cage has been on a good run, so hopefully he sticks around.

3.25/5

ROH Women’s Championship: Athena (c) vs. Yuka Sakazaki

Athena is killing it as Ring of Honor Women’s Champion. It doesn’t seem like anyone can stop her at this moment. Yuka Sakazaki gave it her all, but Athena was too much for the magical girl in a surprisingly physical match.

Athena isn’t just killing it in the ring. Her entire persona exudes physicality and intensity. Her entrance started by stomping on a doll that looked exactly like Yuka Sakazaki. How could anyone hate Yuka that much!?

The story of the match revolved around something that looked accidental. Yuka hit a cannonball senton that saw her land on her neck, which Athena then began targeting. If Yuka was legitimately hurt, you couldn’t tell. Her offense wasn’t affected in the slightest. Yuka’s resilience survived a nasty Wheelbarrow suplex from Athena too.

Athena’s unbeaten streak continued as she pushed the referee into Yuka, which allowed her to hit the O Face off the top rope. This was a great match! One of the best of the evening.

3.75/5

ROH TV Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Mark Briscoe

Sometimes a match result is generally surprising. Samoa Joe defended his ROH TV Championship against Mark Briscoe in a great match. All signs were pointing to this match being Mark Briscoe’s first glorious singles championship win. The Briscoe family was in attendance, numerous video packages played to pull at the heartstrings of every fan possible, and this match was in honor of Jay. Unfortunately, the King of Television had other plans.

Samoa Joe has been an awesome champion and put it on display here as well. He slowly picked Mark apart with his tough style. Joe would shut down any time Mark had momentum.

The best part of the match didn’t even include a move. Both guys were down in the center of the ring. Usually, in tag matches, this is where the hot tag happens. Mark goes for the hot tag out of instinct until he realizes that, obviously, his brother is not there. This was heart-wrenching, but it gave Mark life. It was like Jay fired Mark up and told him to win the match for him. Amazing stuff!

Despite Mark giving this match his all, Samoa Joe withstood everything he had in his arsenal. The Froggy Bow was kicked out and the Cutthroat driver was countered into the Rear Naked choke for the victory. Mark Briscoe passes out and Joe retained his title.

4/5

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Daniel Garcia

Japanese legend, Hiroshi Tanahashi, made his Ring of Honor debut against Daniel Garcia in a fun match. It was an easily digestible twelve-minute match.

The whole match revolved around Daniel Garcia not respecting the Japanese legend. It’s possible that Garcia just doesn’t like any Japanese legends because he mocked some prominent ones like Shinsuke Nakamura. Not only that, but Garcia tried punishing Tanahashi’s previously injured knee. Commentary played it up about Garcia being Jericho’s protege and how Jericho would know how to beat Tanahashi. That’s a nice touch.

Tanahashi returned the favor by attacking Garcia’s knee as well. The injury must not have affected him all that much because he pulled out the Sling Blade and the High Fly for a quick victory after a lot of punishment. It felt a little out of nowhere, but it was still a nice match all around.

3.5/5

Reach for the Sky Ladder Match

What do you expect here? A slow pace and technical wrestling?

It’s a ladder match featuring two of the craziest flying tag teams in ROH/AEW, along with Aussie Open, The Kingdom, and La Faccion Ingobernable. It was a great match and one of the best of the evening. There was an unfortunate end to the match, but it didn’t take away from the quality of it overall.

A couple of notable spots were the awesome Doomsday Device by the Kingdom. They did that in honor of the Briscoes. Another one was Mike Bennet hitting a sunset bomb off the top of the ladder. Most of the other ones involved Aussie Open in some fashion. They were awesome here too.

The end of the match saw Penta el Zero Miedo hit a Canadian Destroyer onto Dante Martin through four tables except Dante hit slightly wrong and snapped his ankle. It sucks so hard for them! Speedy recovery Dante!

Lucha Bros won after Rey Fenix grabbed the belts and celebrated with Mark Briscoe, and FTR for some reason.

4.25/5

ROH Pure Championship: Wheeler Yuta (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata

I’ll quote myself here: “Sometimes a match result is generally surprising,” absolutely applies to the Pure Championship match between Wheeler Yuta and Katsuyori Shibata. Wheeler has spent the last month beating up on Shibata’s LA Dojo disciples. Unfortunately for Yuta, the LA Dojo head coach was a little tougher.

Wheeler Yuta stood zero chance in this one. It was incredible to watch Shibata pick Yuta apart. Yuta beating Shibata after a fifteen minute slugfest was an easy prediction, not a Shibata masterclass.

That’s not to say that Yuta didn’t put up a fight. The young Wheeler used low blows and closed hand strikes to take advantage, but not for long. Shibata would come back and continue the punishment.

Which led to Shibata knocking Yuta almost out with a hard palm strike across the face and then the PK Kick for the surprising victory. Katsuyori Shibata is the ROH Pure Champion! That was a fantastic showing by Shibata,

4.25/5

ROH Championship: Claudio Castagnoli (c) vs. Eddie Kingston

And finally, we reached the main event of the evening! Ring of Honor PPVs are very quick! Claudio Castagnoli defended his Ring of Honor Championship against storied rival, Eddie Kingston. This was the first time Eddie had ever challenged for the Ring of Honor championship. It was a championship that meant a lot to him after two of his best friends, Low Ki and Homicide, held that title. Unfortunately, it was not his night.

This wasn’t a match. It was a fight. Eddie wasn’t there to have any kind of technical bout, he was there to slap the shit out of Claudio. That was how Eddie would survive Claudio’s supreme conditioning. They went to war and looked like they were both ready to pass out by the end.

Claudio had control for a lot of the match. His newfound Blackpool Combat Club nastiness came out too as he used the ringside barricade to bash Eddie’s head in a few times. Despite all the strength and durability of Claudio, Eddie persisted.

And then the adrenaline shot hit. Eddie would not stay down. Claudio hit the flying uppercut twice and Eddie kicked out with authority. The crowd was one with Eddie at this point, urging him on to victory.

But Claudio squeaked out the victory by reversing Eddie’s pinfall rollup into his own. Eddie was trapped and Claudio stole the victory from the jaws of defeat. Eddie was incredibly close to the title and deserves another shot! This was a great match and earns MOTY honors!

4.5/5

Match of the Night

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OVERALL

And that was Supercard of Honor! What did you think?!

This was a good show! Maybe not as good as last year’s rendition, but this version of Ring of Honor is going places. It’s going high places.

Verdict: 4.25/5