RoH Supercard of Honor VI

It is time to catch up on another past Ring of Honor event in my backlog. A few months back I reviewed Supercard of Honor V, so let us follow it up with its successor, Supercard of Honor VI! This show took place at an interesting time. Instead of happening on Wrestlemania weekend which was the tradition of all the other past events under this name, it took place a month and half later in May. This was also just fresh into Ring of Honor getting acquired by Sinclair broadcasting and wrapping up its initial two year run on the old HDnet channel, and now being broadcasted on Sinclair's syndicated regional networks.

Remember Kevin Kelley? He was one of the second tier announcers from the old WWF from the mid to late 90s, and his contract ran up and he disappeared somewhere in the attitude era. He just kind of vanished for about a decade, I imagined he found work elsewhere, but he returned in a major factor being a big part of brokering this Sinclair deal, and it landed him as RoH's new lead announcer. I am not a huge Kevin Kelley fan, but he is a noticeable improvement over the old lead analyst RoH was using from their inception.

Onto the event. And if you do end up picking up this video, make sure to check out the include the bonus feature video wires which contain about a half hour of clips of past events and exclusive interviews to hype up the show, and really help lay some background for some key matches. Unfortunately, losing their support from HDnet looks like RoH took a little step back again with their lighting quality and production values. It is passable for an indy show, but RoH is a bit more than that, and this is just laughable at how low-rent this lighting and staging is for a promotion nine years old at this point of production.

The opening bout is Michael Elgin taking on Homicide. Elgin is managed by Truth Martini and is part of his House of Truth stable, and he headlined the RoH event I went to a year later during Wrestlemania 28 weekend. I forgot how much I hate Homicide's music, and Homicide in RoH. I only really enjoyed his work when he was part of LAX in TNA. The match needed more room to breathe, as it was just spot, spot, spot until Homicide landed an Ace Crusher for the win. Next up, Adam Cole and Kyle 'O Reilly beat the Bravado Brothers. I do not see the bravado in the brothers' ring gear. Unfortunately one of them got a concussion in this match, but Reilly and Cole landed a brutal looking backstabber/codebreaker combo for the win.

Afterwards, Steve Corino took on Michael Bennett. Corino use to be a dreaded bad guy in RoH, and is now trying to make amends and change his ways but the RoH locker room is not buying it, so he enlists the returning Jimmy Jacobs, another former dreaded bad guy who changed his ways to be his sponsor and help him out. Jimmy gives a great heartfelt promo before the match, but security and commissioner Cornette will have none of it and kick him out of the arena! The match was not anything to write home about, except it was cool to see Bennett winning with an old school piledriver. The prematch shenanigans were far more entertaining.

The man currently tearing up NXT as Sami Zayne is in his final years as indy sensation El Generico here as he takes on Chris Hero. Generico has some goofy prematch antics where he tries to get Hero to do a Thor pose before the match. Initially Hero won by using the ropes, but in a move I have never seen transpire before, the ref restarts the match because he takes the fans at their word that Hero cheated. Ok, now maybe a more tongue in cheek indy promotion like PWG and Chikara could get away with that, but that booking just seemed surprisingly bush league for RoH. Of course, once Hero reenters the ring, Generico immediately lands a Yakuza Kick for the win. Charlie Haas and Davey Richards put on a technical showcase next, with the action getting really intense towards the end before Richards got the win with several sick looking kicks to the head of Haas. Haas's tag team partner Shelton Benjamin avenged his loss next however by beating Claudio Castognoli (who you know better now as WWE's Cesaro) with a top rope overheard suplex.

After a few intense matches, the crowd was allowed to breathe with Colt Cabana and Christopher Daniels having a more laid back, fun match that Cabana is known for. Cabana got the win with a unique looking torture rack-buster off the top rope. The Briscoe Brothers and All Night Express got the crowd instantly riled up again in a street fight match for the ages. All kinds of weaponry was used, and all but Kenny King ended up getting busted open. I love the Briscoes, and while great at high flying and wrestling, these street fights are their specialty and it was mighty gratifying they wound up with the crowd pleasing win.

The main event saw Roderick Strong take on Eddie Edwards for the RoH World Title. I believe I mentioned in the last RoH blog, but I am just not all that big of a Strong fan. He has some great moves, but like Homicide it usually is just spot, spot, spot for him with little breathing time. Eventually they got into a great rhythm for the closing minutes that saw Edwards successfully defend his title by getting the victory with a half boston crab/half repeated kicks to the head submission. After the bout, an angle transpires that sets up Edwards against his tag team partner Davey Richards for an RoH Title match down the line.

I think all together that Supercard of Honor VI had a better all around card compared to its predecessor I reviewed a few months ago. However, with it not taking place around WrestleMania weekend like the past installments, and no real big time atmosphere with surprise cameos or special vignettes of that nature that these shows usually have, it kind of hurt in a minor way the event did not have that special flair for events with this magnitude of billing I believe should have. A minor qualm, but a far superior show match quality and storyline wise compared to last year, so it gets a recommendation from me!

Past Wrestling Blogs

For All Mankind
Goldberg Ultimate Collection
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
RoH Supercard of Honor V
Warrior Week on WWE Network
WWE Wrestlemania 28
WWE Wrestlemania 29