RoH Supercard of Honor XII & All-In

Greetings everyone and welcome to my yearly blog covering Ring of Honor’s latest Supercard of Honor (SoH) pay-per-view. 2018 marks the 12th SoH event, and I have seen them all so make sure to click here to catch up on my past entries. My copy of SoH XII arrived in the mail within the last week and I made sure to breeze through it before the big independent wrestling show, All In, that transpired a couple days ago and turned out to be a historic night for wrestling. Stay with me here after my write-up for SoH XII for some quick thoughts on All In.

SoH XII emanated from New Orleans, and as per tradition happened the same weekend in the same city as WWE’s flagship PPV, Wrestlemania. RoH did this to capitalize on the ardent fans travelling around the world looking to eat up as much wrestling as possible that weekend. Kevin Kelly is not behind the announcer’s booth this year, but Colt Cabana and Ian Riccaboni return and having a two-man booth this year resulted in far better commentary compared to before. Sinclair Broadcasting is still the owner of RoH and it is good to see them maintain the big step up in production values that were apparent last year. Once again there is a near-WWE quality entrance area with several LED-trons and professional caliber graphics and instant replays throughout the night. Colt & Ian pointed out they have a RoH record-breaking attendance tonight of roughly 6,000 people. It is worth pointing out for 2019’s Wrestlemania weekend show RoH has become the first non-WWE promotion to book the heralded Madison Square Garden in several decades and has already sold it out which will make that 10,000+ attendance their new attendance record.

Last year I mentioned a big change to RoH going into the 2017 SoH was they brought back their own women’s division after relying on a long partnership with indie promotion Shimmer providing their talent for RoH’s women wrestling. I do not watch the weekly Sinclair RoH TV show regularly, so I have no idea why it took RoH over a year to finally crown their first official RoH Women’s Champion on this night at SoH XII. The semi-finals of their championship tournament took place on the pre-show and are on the DVD as bonus features. They saw Kelly Klein defeating Mayu Iwatani with a rear naked choke and Sumie Saki beating Tenille Dashwood (formerly WWE’s Emma) with a roll-up to advance to the finals on the main card.

Also on the DVD as extra features are two half hour long Q&A sessions. One is with RoH World champ, Dalton Castle and the other is with the Bullet Club’s Young Bucks, Adam Page and Marty Scurll. Both sessions have mostly good fan interaction and a variety of love from the fans with a good mix of questions. Both are nice extras and I hope to see more like this on future RoH releases. Speaking of the Bullet Club, over the past few months I have started watching their weekly YouTube show, Being the Elite. It took me a few episodes, but I finally latched onto their ‘Attitude-era’ nostalgia brand of humor. That show, along with with Cody Rhodes’ All Us and the NWA’s Ten Pounds of Gold YouTube series combined to be a great hook for promoting All In.

Moving onto the main card, it officially opened with Chuckie T besting Jonathan Gresham with a rollup in a solid opener. Next up, Punishment Martinez survived a nasty suicide dive onto Tomo Ishii, and went on to win after executing a chokeslam. The first standout bout of the night took place next with Kota Ibushi defeating Adam Page with a knee to the face in a tremendous match that also saw a flawless moonsault to the outside, a German Suplex FROM THE GUARDRAIL (!) and a freaking cradle-Tombstone.

The women’s tournament final saw Sumie Sakai being crowned the inaugural RoH Women’s champion after hitting a DDT on Kelly Klein. The match also had a special moment when the other tournament competitors came out midway through and started pounding the mat nonstop to psych up Kelly and Sumie. RoH’s 6-man tag titles were on the line next which saw SCU’s Chistopher Daniels, Kaz & Scorpio Sky retain their gold over the Young Bucks and Flip Gordon in a ladder mach with too many remarkable spots to list them all. There was a Jeff Hardy-esque Swanton from the ladder, Flip nearly biffing a splash to the outside, Nick Jackson showing off his dazzling ladder hopscotch skills and many tables getting broken. Ultimately, it was Daniels grabbing the belt to retain for SCU. What a year it has been for Daniels evolving from veteran on a gold watch run as RoH World champ last year to zany faction leader with catchy theme song dedicated to an online PWG fan forum he once frequented.

SoH XII then had its intermission, but people watching live and on this DVD were presented with a taped preliminary match at the start of the evening featuring Brian Milonas & The Beer City Bruiser defeating the Motor City Machine Guns and Luke & PJ Hawx in a triple threat after BCB & Milonas connected with their rendition of my favorite tag team finishing move, The Power Plex. Next the standard tag team titles were on the line that saw RoH lifers and one of my all-time favorite teams, The Briscoes successfully defend their titles against Jay Lethal & Hiroshi Tanahashi. The announcers focused on how commissioner Bully Ray convinced the Briscoes to ditch they ‘redneck kung-fu’ style they were rocking last year and return to their badass brawling roots. I was surprised to see a RoH tag match that primarily stuck to tag format rules as that is rare for RoH in general, and was ecstatic to see the Briscoes bust out the Doomsday Device to win the match!

Magnum PI/80s Scott Hall clone Silas Young had a memorable night next as he won the TV title back from Kenny King in a ‘Last Man Standing’ match. The standout spot here was King’s Shooting Star Press through a table, but Young 1-up’d King by having his ally Beer City Bruiser sneak under the ring and ziptie King’s feet together while recovering from a spot that prevented him to answer a 10-count and see Young emerge as new champion! John Cena should take note here on the correct way to do this finish instead of his cringe-inducing way to beat Batista at Extreme Rules 2010.

A seemingly buffer tag team match proceeded after, but it proved to be one of the most memorable moments of the night. Eli Isom & Cheeseburger were suppose to face The Dawgz, but a sneak attack during their entrance immobilized Isom and commissioner Bully Ray came out and said if Cheeseburger could not find a replacement then they would forfeit the match. Fan favorite, Cheeseburger pleaded Ray to be his partner, and after some reluctance agreed and the two went on to unleash some Dudley nostalgia offense until Ray turned on Cheeseburger and chokeslammed him. Ray then cut a villainous promo saying Cheeseburger should not have patronized him and proceeded to rip on the high-flying style of most RoH talent and threatened to stop the show in front of the RoH CEO by performing a banished move in front of the Louisiana Athletic Commission. The match was eventually thrown out, and Ray instead just gave a sick powerbomb to ‘Burger instead and walked out. It was an intense segment that got the crowd all riled up, and seeing Bully Ray as a nasty villain is what he is always best in, so props to him here!

Bullet Club leaders collided next in Cody vs. Kenny Omega. After watching enough Being the Elite I can proudly claim to be a fan of Bernard the Business Bear and was nice to see him get in some early comedy spots here before getting ejected from ringside. Cody and Kenny fought a hell of a match with many big moments and near-falls, and poor Brandi Rhodes inadvertently falling through a table. The finish saw the Young Bucks coming out to help Kenny, but accidentally super-kicking Kenny instead, which lead to Cody hitting the Crossroads for the win. The main event saw Marty Scurll attempt to win the RoH World Championship from Dalton Castle. It was a fine closer until it came to a screeching halt when Scurll wasted three-to-four minutes looking for his trademark bag of powder under the ring. It was so bad that Castle eventually improv’d and bought more time for Scurll until he mercifully found the illusive white substance. It proved to be worthwhile though because the almighty powder was the catalyst for the finishing sequence that naturally saw the powder backfire on Scurll, which lead to Scurll mistaking the ref for Castle and snapping the ref’s fingers. This ultimately built up to the ref cringing in pain and running to the back when attempting to count a near-fall for Castle in a brilliant piece of booking. Castle then spent a couple minutes fighting out of a chicken-wing submission before recovering to hit his Bang-a-Rang finish for the victory.

SoH XII easily ranks in the top half of SoH shows, and I would have to take a deep look at the line-ups, but off the top of my head I think I can safely say it would be in my top three cards bearing the Superard of Honor name. It is a long show, but there is a ton of good stuff on here. Ibushi/Page, both tag title matches, Kenny/Cody, Young/King and the last five minutes of the main event are all must-see and collectively make this a cannot miss show!

I am running long enough already, but I am still buzzing from All In two days ago so I will chime in with some quick thoughts on the historic night for indie wrestling. If you are unfamiliar with the show, I will once again point you towards Cody Rhodes’ All Us YouTube series which is about how the show all came together to be the biggest drawing crowd for indie-wrestling this century. For me, the marquee bout was seeing Cody Rhodes battle for the prestigious NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship against Nick Aldis. Seeing Cody come so far and emerge as a headlining act after honing his craft on the indie-scene the last two years had me rooting for Cody to carry on his father’s legacy and revitalize the NWA brand as its new champion.

Cody did just that and All In delivered in spades for having the NWA Title match have a ‘big time fight’ feel and I had goosebumps as both Cody & Nick walked to the ring with their entourage of WWE Hall of Famers. That rarely happens for me, and while the match may not have been a high-spot, high-flying affair, it easily had five star drama and moments throughout with Cody being possibly knocked and busted open and later Brandi sacrificing herself and covering up Cody to eat a top rope elbow from Nick. Seeing Cody eventually recover and get the best of Nick in a reversal sequence for the win and championship with an emotional celebration was a powerful moment I will never forget.

Other quick thoughts on the rest of the card was the women had a killer four way match, which unfortunately had a mistimed finish, but otherwise had a ton of great action. As a big Arrow fan I was incredibly stoked to see Stephen Amell go hold-for-hold with Christopher Daniels. The match lasted longer than I thought, and even though Amell looked wiped by the end, he was still capable of delivering several moves I never would have thought possible from someone in only their third-ever match. Adam Page and Janela had a bout filled with all kinds of fun inventive spots, and the Joey Ryan post match tomfoolery will be something talked about for years to come. Props to Don Callis’s ‘phalanx of phalluses’ call being the line of the night.

I absolutely ate up Jay Lethal/Flip Gordon paying homage to Randy Savage’s Wrestlemania matches with Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior. Omega and Pentagon had a ton of highspots and eventually settled into a high-caliber match, and I was popping like the rest of the crowd for Chris Jeriho’s surprise post-match attack! Okada and Scurll had my second favorite match of the night behind Cody/Aldis with tons of epic near-falls and RAAAAAINMAKERs that got me and the crowd popping like crazy before Okada did two in a row for the win. The headlining six-man tag with Young Bucks & Ibushi against Mysterio/Badido/Fenix was light-out from start-to-finish because it came to light afterwards a couple matches went long earlier and the six had to cruise through the match and barely got the finish in time where the Bucks pinned Badido after their signature Meltzer Driver about 20 seconds before All In went off the air.

All In will go down as a truly special night for wrestling. It was a much-needed change-up from the standard PPV fare from WWE. The last time I felt this way with a PPV as a whole was for the first ECW One Night Stand. My hat is off for Cody and The Young Bucks putting together this stellar card that collected top acts from RoH, Impact, New Japan, CMLL and other promotions to capitalize on the hot indie-scene of wrestling from the past couple of years. If you only watch WWE programming and always wanted to try something different, but have no idea where to start on wanting to watch just one other show from the countless other promotions out there, then go out of your way now to make All In that one show.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017