G1/RoH Supercard (of Honor XIII)

Welcome to my annual Ring of Honor (RoH) blog for their annual Supercard of Honor show. 2019 was a wild year for RoH. They started the year losing access to Matt and Nick Jackson, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and all three members of SCU (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) as they all departed after their contracts expired at the end of the 2018 to help launch All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Before that it was known that those seven wrestlers would be leaving, RoH collaborated with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) to announce a special live PPV they would be airing on WrestleMania weekend: G1 Supercard. G1 is a recurring PPV special for NJPW, and I am presuming Supercard is short for the Supercard of Honor PPV special that usually transpires during WrestleMania weekend which is why I am covering this PPV and treating it as Supercard of Honor XIII. There is another big reason I wanted to cover this show….

That is because this joint venture between NJPW and RoH emanated from the ‘World’s Most Popular Arena’ Madison Square Garden. This was a shocking announcement because going back several decades WWE had the exclusive rights to MSG and the last other promotion that ran a show in MSG was back in 1960! WWE tried pressuring MSG and briefly got them to remove the show from their schedule….that was until the owners of RoH, Sinclair Broadcasting, called up WWE and informed them they own roughly half the FOX TV affiliate stations that would be starting to air SmackDown on FOX within several months and have control of what time to air WWE’s new flagship show and that was reason enough for Vince McMahon to back off and G1 Supercard wound up running as scheduled during the 2019 WrestleMania weekend from MSG.

NJPW and RoH have been lending talent to each other for years, but this is one of the first times they evenly split a card 50/50 for each promotion’s matches. When the tickets originally went on sale, it was shortly before the much hyped independent All In PPV put on by most of the Elite (at that time consisting of Cody, Omega, Young Bucks, Marty Scurll and Adam Paige) that RoH lent a lot of their talent for. The show wound up being a huge success and all the buzz for All In presumably was the catalyst for G1 Supercard selling out in under a day of tickets officially going on sale. By the time the G1 Supercard rolled around all of the Elite, save for Marty Scurll, departed RoH a few months earlier leaving a huge void of headline guys for RoH. The NJPW half of the card delivered with exciting match-ups, while the RoH half stuck out with a lack of top level talent.

The PPV had two pre-show matches that are included as bonuses on the DVD. The first match saw Jenny Rose & Oedo Tai overcoming the handicap match odds and defeating Hung Kimura, Sumie Sakai and Stella Grey when Tai got the pin with a 450 in a bout that saw a lot of nonstop energy to get the crowd rolling. G1 Supercard will be the first PPV I can remember that had a 30 person Rumble match in a pre-show they billed as the ‘Honor Rumble.’ It was also the longest pre-show match I can recall at 49 minutes. Entrances were sped up at approximately 30 second intervals to keep up the tempo which made it enticing to see who would walk out next. Both RoH and NJPW stars competed and I only recognized roughly half of the competitors, but it was fun learning some new faces. Colt Cabana was on commentary for the night but took a breather to compete in the Rumble when Yano invited him to take his spot. Other faces I recognized were Justin Gabriel now going by PJ Black, Beer City Bruiser, Delirious, Kenny King, Cheeseburger and a trio of Asian wrestling legends in Haku, Great Muta and Jushin Thunder Liger.

I do not care how aged Haku is because he still looks like one of the baddest guys on the planet I would not want to mess with. I have no idea how active Muta is, but he was not at all agile and seemed very careful with his movements. Liger could still go, but he was in the midst of his retirement year tour and it was apparent his best days were behind him. The end of the Rumble saw it looking like it would come down to Liger and Muta, but then Kenny King pulled the ‘ol hide under the ring trick card and emerged to toss Liger and Muta out to win it all. That was a fun crazy Rumble with the frequent entrances and it brought back memories of that bonkers Rumble match on a 2000 episode of Thunder with all kinds of unique entrants that were AWOL in that time of uncertainty for WCW and also marked the last appearance of Macho Man in WCW.

The start of the actual PPV saw a ‘winner takes all’ match with two titles on the line in RoH’s TV Title and NJPW’s Never Openweight Title. Jeff Cobb beat Will Ospreay here to walk away with both belts in a bout that did not fail to deliver a ton of insane spots. Dalton Castle was the RoH champ on a previous SoH PPV I covered here, but now his stock has dwindled as he lost to Rush in 15 seconds here after three straight Shotgun Dropkicks. After Castle collected himself, he turned and obliterated his eccentric seconds, The Boys. The RoH Women’s Title was on the line next and saw Kelly Klein beat Iwatoni with an Airplane Spin slam in a decent bout. I had no idea TNA/Impact Wrestling’s The Beautiful People were still a hot commodity after their countless stop-n-go runs in that promotion, but when Velvet Skye and Angelina Love walked out after the match and attacked Klein the announcers put it over as the biggest thing ever to happen to their women’s division.

DJ/Hip Hop artist Mega Ran came out for a musical performance next, the song is a decent catchy beat for the DVD menus too which is a nice relief from the generic basement-rock that dominates most other RoH releases. Anywho, Bully Ray interrupted and harassed Mega Ran and laid out an open challenge that turned into a six-man tag with Bully Ray, Silas Young and Shane Taylor taking on Flip Gordon, Juice Robinson and Mark Haskins. This was a surprisingly a fun weapons brawl with lots of creative spots. The finish saw Ray fall victim to the Wassup Headbutt and the Gordon hitting the 450 for the win. The IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title was on the line next in a triple threat between Bandido, Dragon Lee and Taiji. In a bout that I will remember as having a sick tower spot, it saw Bandido capture the gold after hitting a variant of a driver-pin combination.

Another winner takes all titles match transpired next for both the RoH and NJPW tag team titles in a four way between The Briscoes, Guerillas of Destiny, Evil & Sanada and Brody King & PCO. RoH contributed some production dollars for PCO’s electric (literally) entrance that saw him get the Frankenstein electric chair treatment in a thrilling visual. Speaking of production dollars, this is easily the best looking RoH show I have ever seen, especially compared to the first couple of SoH shows I covered here. The Guerillas of Destiny walked out with all the tag gold when they hit their double powerbomb finisher on Brody for the victory. RoH caught a lot of heat for running a ‘worked shoot’ segment after the match ended with the wrestlers formerly known as Big Cass & Enzo running out and attacking the Briscoes after the match before they got escorted out, but RoH never officially acknowledged it on camera and after all the negative reception it got did not request feature services from Cass & Enzo so I will link to this fan footage of the run-in instead.

A third promotion contributed a match to G1 Supercard with Revolution Pro having their British Heavyweight Title on the card with Hiroshi Tanahoshi challenging Zack Sabre Jr. for the championship. I only remember Zack’s excellent work in the Cruiserweight Classic from a few years back so it was great seeing him again, doubly so since he was accompanied by another old favorite of mine I have not seen in over a decade in TAKA Michinoku. This bout saw a heavy emphasis on heavy duty technical and submission wrestling which was a breather from the spotfests that dominated the rest of the card. I want to re-emphasize ‘heavy duty’ because both Tanahoshi and Sabre did a superb job at conveying how much they laid into each other with a sick submission Sabre Jr. kept amplifying in unbelievable ways that I cannot even describe until Tanahoshi convincingly tapped out. Thinking about this now I would rank this as my favorite match from the night!

The tenth contest of the night saw the IWGP Intercontinental Title on the line between Naito and Kota Ibushi. I recognize both guys from the handful of NJPW Kenny Omega matches I tracked down after hearing a ton of buzz for and also recognize Ibushi from his Cruiserweight Classic run too. This match delivered, and had a great NJPW produced video package too. Both guys delivered a lot of intense neck and head spots, and Ibushi wound up winning after a rising knee strike in another match that was close to my favorite for the night. The RoH World Title was on the line next in a triple threat ‘Ladder War’ between Marty Scurll, Matt Taven and Jay Lethal. Lethal was hyped going into this as having the title the most number of days compared to all other previous champions….but I could never buy into him as a top level guy, and I recall despising Matt Taven on previous RoH shows and Scurll I have bad memories of his match against Castle last year where he spent eons trying to find a weapon under the ring so I did not have a vested interest in the bout. It was a solid match with a few unique spots and saw Taven winning the title after fighting off Lethal in the end, but I felt rather ho-hum coming out of this, and apparently so did the crowd watching their tepid reaction to Taven’s title win.

The headlining main event saw Jay White defend his IWGP Title against Kazuchika Okada. I love how NJPW produces their video packages, and this one got me amped up going into the main event. The duo told a great story, and White’s manager, Gedo found clever ways to get involved. I recognize Okada from another Omega match I saw that I believe went to a time limit draw, and this match also went on a while going just over a half hour before White fell victim to the RAIIIIIIN-MAKERRRRR Lariat with Okada capturing the IWGP Title.

I saw online reception noting the weak RoH half of the show, and compared to the New Japan offerings, they definitely were a couple notches below, but RoH still had a couple of really good matches like the TV Title and bout and Bully Ray’s open challenge was the perfect refresher for this long of a card. I will give big ups for the Honor Rumble, Tag Titles and IWGP Title matches, but my two favorites that blew everything else away on here was the Zack Sabre/Tanahoshi and Naito/Ibushi matches. More than anything I came out of the G1 Supercard wanting to get more into NJPW, but with so much other wrestling out there to keep up with, I will probably only be picking and watching the occasional match or two a year that generates a ton of buzz. Collectively, I will give G1 Supercard a strong thumbs up and recommend to track down, especially seeing both promotions operate in a big time atmosphere like Madison Square Garden made the event truly special and standout like few other cards from RoH history.

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
Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure
Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Hulk Hogans Unreleased Collectors Series
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: From Secret to Sensation
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
Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge
Shawn Michaels: My Journey
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
Then Now Forever – The Evolution of WWEs Womens Division
TLC 2017
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

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

RoH Supercard of Honor XI

Welcome all to my yearly recap of Ring of Honor’s Supercard of Honor (SoH) event. It is the one RoH show I make sure to catch every year, so click here to check out past installments. 2017 marked the 11th edition of the show and like most previous SoH cards, it transpired within the same vicinity as where Wrestlemania occurred that same weekend. As a result, the announcers for this show (Kevin Kelly, Colt Cabana, Ian Riccaboni) stated SoH XI had one of the largest attendances in RoH history. RoH is about in the same place as it was a year ago, owned by TV conglomerate Sinclair. One new addition to RoH since the prior SoH was bringing back their own women’s division and branding it as ‘Women of Honor.’ They aired a handful of women-only shows since the summer of 2016 and women matches spotlighted on the RoH YouTube channel are among their videos that garner their highest traffic.

RoH still has their weekly syndicated TV show that can be found on your local Sinclair affiliate or on a few day delay on the official RoH website. I am impressed to see they have maintained their step up in ring and arena lighting that I noticed last year as it brings their overall production values up to a more professional level. They even added a few video-trons to their entrance area and have near-WWE quality matchup and banner graphics throughout the event. Big ups to Sinclair these past two years for doing those little things that go a long way!

The four prelim matches are included as bonus material on disc two and are all Women of Honor bouts. On one hand this is great seeing four women matches on a show, but to see them all relegated to the preshow is disheartening. Tasha Steelz bested Brandi Lauren in the opener with a Butterfly Suplex in a basic opener while the arena was still filing in. Next, Mandy Leon & Jenny Rose beat Sumie Sakai & Faye Jackson in a bout that engaged the crowd with a few more dives and high-flying maneuvers and saw Mandy get the pin with her Unprettier finisher. The best of the four women’s matches featured talent on loan from Mexican promotion CMLL. Marcela and La Amapola are two sound veterans who had a main event caliber match with many impressive holds and moments, and eventually Marcela got the victory with a Michinoku Driver. The final women’s match saw the undefeated Kelly Klein defeat Deonna Purrazzo with a Northern Lights Suplex. The announcers kept hyping Klein as a big deal for being undefeated for 525 days going into the match, so I anticipate only big things for her ahead.

The opener for the main SoH XI card was for the TV title and featured Marty Scrull defending the strap against Bullet Club member Adam Cole. Yes, the same Adam Cole who left for WWE a few months later and is now the head of the NXT faction, Undisputed Era with Bobby Fish and Kyle ‘o Reilly. This bout had a lot of good exchanges and counters and vicious-looking piledrivers. The exception however was Cole botching two attempts at a Tombstone, but the duo quickly found their footing not too long after. Eventually Scrull successfully defended the title with a rear naked choke submission. My man, Silas Young (AKA AWA Scott Hall) and Beer City Bruiser teamed up next against The Kindgom, and after some chicanery involving a cigar, Young hit his version of the TKO and got the pin while puffing away on the stogie in a fun match.

A nice highlight package recapping Bully Ray’s involvement in RoH and becoming a triple tag team champion along with the Briscoes helped set up their title defense versus Bullet Club’s Hangman Page & Gorillas of Destiny. If you recall my past RoH recaps, I am not a big fan of the lack of officiating in RoH tag bouts, but considering the participants involved here I will allow a little leeway in this match that had a ton of chaos and crowd pleasing madness. I am still a little surprised to see Bully Ray competing in an RoH ring, but he seems like a good fit with the Briscoes as they successfully defended their titles with a double Doomsday Device and Super 3D for the win. Another former WWE star made his SoH debut next with Bullet Club’s Cody Rhodes taking on Jay Lethal in a Texas Bullrope match. Oh yeah, I forgot he is just called ‘Cody’ here because WWE owns the ‘Rhodes’ trademark. Another video package and the announcers helped set the stage for their rivalry and why the Bullrope match is a big deal for the Rhodes family. There were some big moments here that saw Cody dawn the crimson mask and a sweet-looking spot from Cody where he popped up and toss Lethal through a table. Eventually Cody got his first RoH loss here after Jay pinned him with the Lethal Injection.

The next match was a triple threat tag team match with the Motor City Machine Guns, the Rebellion and Will Ferrara & Cheeseburger. This contest was more of a cluster-mess with all kinds of hijinx in the opening half and the tag rules being practically non-existent. Once I got past the craziness, there were a few decent spots that culminated with the Motor City Machine Guns getting the win with their finish. The last match on disc one saw Punishment Martinez take on Frankie Kazarian. Martinez can fly for a big man, and he eventually got the victory with his South of Heaven Chokeslam after Hangman Page distracted Kaz.

The aforementioned Bobby Fish came out next and called out Jay Lethal, but instead Silas Young came out and the two had an impromptu match that featured a cringe-inducing ref bump. The match got thrown out after a few minutes when Silas attacked the replacement ref for the DQ. More CMLL talent was showcased in the next bout with Dragon Lee & Jay White taking on Volador Jr. & Will Ospreay. These guys can go, and their acrobatics puts a vast majority of the cruiserweight action on 205 Live to shame. Ospreay delivering a Shooting Star Press to the outside of the ring was the standout highlight, but it was his partner Volador Jr. who got the pin with a body scissors from the top rope.

The first half of the double main event followed with Christopher Daniels defending his RoH World Title against Dalton Castle. It was a nice feel good story earlier this year with Daniels winning his first World Title gold after over 20 years in the business. Dalton dialed back his act enough so it is not as obnoxious as before, but despite his efforts in this match a well executed counter-exchange had Daniels getting the surprise roll-up win. After the match Cody attacked Daniels to set up their title match several weeks later.

The final match saw the Hardy Boyz defending their tag titles against the Bullet Club’s Young Bucks in a ladder match. Since my previous SoH recap, I have since ‘got’ the Young Bucks ‘too sweet/superkick party’ personas. It was a bit too over-the-top initially when first exposed to it last year, but I kind of get it now and am not as mortified by it as I once was. I still think they forever ruined the superkick as a finish, but to be fair so did the Usos in recent years to a lesser degree. The match did not disappoint, and while the Hardyz are 25-year vets, they nearly stayed on pace with the Young Bucks throughout. A couple OMG moments were the Bucks putting Jeff Hardy through a table with a 450 Splash and the Hardyz shoving one of the Bucks off a ladder in a specific way that he wound up inadvertently putting his own brother through a table. I am not kidding when I state that at least 10, maybe even 15 tables were broken throughout the match. Ultimately, the Young Bucks emerged as the new tag champs when they simultaneously superkicked both Hardyz off a ladder and grabbed the belts for the win. If you recall how this weekend went down earlier this year it was the final day for the Hardyz in their short RoH stint after a lengthy run in Impact/GFW/TNA. They would proceed to return to WWE the next night at Wrestlemania 33, but more on that in a future blog!

SoH XI was a major improvement from the two night split SoH X lineup from last year. The overall show was better paced and they did not go excess on the comedy or highspots overkill like in some previous years. The continued bump in production quality and convenient storyline highlight packages that preceded most matches added a lot for a casual RoH fan like myself who only catches just a few shows a year. I would have liked to have seen at least one of the women’s matches on the main card, and I had a few other nitpicks noted above, but for the most part this was the best SoH show in quite a few years. My picks for matches of the night are the Bullrope match, the CMLL tag match and the tag titles ladder main event that delivered! Definitely go out of your way to add Supercard of Honor XI to your RoH collection!

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
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
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 to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2014
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
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

RoH Supercard of Honor X Nights 1 & 2

Welcome readers to my annual blog dedicated to the top indie wrestling company in America, Ring of Honor (RoH). I use to buy way too many RoH DVDs, but the last several years I restricted myself to just their Supercard of Honor (SoH) show that usually transpires in the same location and weekend of Wrestlemania each year. 2016 marked the 10th SoH show, and it occurred the same weekend and location as Wrestlemania 32 in Dallas, TX. For the first time in SoH history, it got the “Night 1 & Night 2” treatment that RoH usually reserves for only a few of their marquee events each year. So this blog will be dedicated to covering both night one and two of SoH X.

Starting off with night one of SoH X, the DVD has a bonus preliminary women’s tag match of Mandy Leon & Solo Darling against Amber Gallows & Deonna Purrazzo. Darling is the first wrestling furry I believe to see compete in the ring, and Gallows is part of the white hot Bullet Club faction out of Japan that RoH is allowed to use in their company. Nothing too special out of this bout as the crowd was still filing in and could not get into it, but at least the match did have a pretty impressive double submission finish. I should also mention for both of these shows Kevin Kelly and Mr. Wrestling 3 (Steve Corino under a mask doing as good a job admitting he is not Corino as Owen Hart did admitting he was not the Blue Blazer) are the announcers.

Now let us move on to the main card of night one. The first official match saw Christopher Daniels against Bobby Fish. Been awhile since I saw Daniels and it is astonishing since I saw him on RoH’s first official show in 2002 that it looks like he has not aged a year! I am also digging his new World War I-inspired entrance attire. Bobby Fish delivered a moonsault as good as Daniels! Daniels wound up missing his moonsault though and Fish capitalized with an ankle lock submission for the win in a good opening bout. Next, the RoH star that simply will not leave, Roderick Strong took on Moose. Strong is still as dull as ever, but Moose however has “it” and I was almost instantly won over by him and surprised that he made the Diesel ‘choo choo’ taunt cool again after The Rock made that seemed almost impossible back in 2002. Even though I was on Moose’s side, it was Strong who got the win by doing his only noteworthy feat of the match, which were several brutal consecutive high knee strikes.

Next up was a six man scramble between Don Dijak, Cheeseburger, Adam Page, Kazarian, Dalton Castle and Don Diego. This match suffered with too much hokey comedy due to the nature of Dalton Castle’s character, who wound up getting the win by pinning the lovable underdog, Cheeseburger. I was glad to see Matt Sydal back in action for the first time since he was teaming up with Kofi Kingston as Evan Bourne several years ago. Sydal still is a capable high flyer, but he had a technical focused match here against Kyle ‘o Reilly. We did get to see Sydal perform his trademark Shooting Star Press, but it missed and Reilly got the win with a Kimura submission.

RoH in recent years finally got their own in-house music for wrestlers, or sign contracts with up-and-coming indie bands to perform wrestler’s themes. However, most of them do not match up with the wrestler’s personality at all. WWE is far better at matching the intensity of entrance themes to a wrestler’s character while it seems RoH lets the talent pick their entrance music. I am presuming this results in the RoH talent picking something they like personally, but more often than not sounds like something their character would not walk out to the ring to. One of the few exceptions is for ACH, I am down with his entrance music and it actually helped him get over quicker with me. Unfortunately his music did not lead him to victory as he lost in night one to Adam Cole after a dastardly low blow/neckbreaker combo.

Next up was an eight man tag with the Briscoes & War Machine against All Night Express, Beer City Bruiser & Silas Young. This was my first exposure to the Beer City Bruiser, who looks like a modern day Dick Murdoch but somehow is capable of all kinds of flips that should not be possible for someone of his body type. Glad to see Silas Young back too and that he is still keeping the ‘80s Scott Hall look alive. This bout was enjoyable nonstop chaos with countless flips and dives, but delivered in a more lighthearted fashion to the crowd’s delight due to the nature of the personalities involved. The Briscoes and War Machine went to the pay window after Mark pinned the Bruiser with his Frog Elbow off the top turnbuckle.

The world title was on the line next with Jay Lethal defending against newcomer Lio Rush. Rush won RoH’s annual top prospect tournament and got a world title shot in return. This match told a convincing story of Rush being the rookie underdog who did not stand a chance against longtime champion Lethal, but somehow managed to not go down without a fight. Eventually Rush got pinned after the Lethal Injection. Lethal called out the locker room for a new challenger, and out came Colt Cabana making his RoH return after several years away. Colt delivered a passionate promo detailing why he came back and why he loves RoH. His promo actually threw me off though because I always remembered Colt as being more of a comedy act like Santino Marella, and this kind of mic work just did not sit right with me initially.

The main event saw the Young Bucks against the Motor City Machine Guns. I was actually looking forward to this match since I remember really digging both of these teams’ work in TNA. A year or two back I remember the Young Bucks being badasses from their last RoH work I saw, so I was bummed to see how they now evolved into Bullet Club members who just do ripoff DX and nWo taunts throughout their matches and deliver over a dozen superkicks a match, all while Corino gratingly yells out on commentary the name of the move each time. It got old quick and seemed to be there more for the die-hard RoH fans amusement, but in a turnoff kind of way that the NXT Full Sail fans can be guilty of a lot with their antics at times. Granted, there were a lot of impressive spots in here throughout, but a lot of it suffered with too much being telegraphed, and very little selling at all, and both teams just seeming to be way more into the goofy hijinx that overstayed their welcome. Eventually, the Young Bucks got the win with their finisher, the Meltzer Driver.

That wrapped up night one, which had a couple solid mid-card matches, but the first night definitely felt disappointing with too many matches trying hard for laughs. My two matches of the night went to Letal/Rush and the eight man tag. The DVD bonus preliminary match for night two saw Shane Taylor & Keith Lee beat Shaheem Ali & Ken Phoenix after a nice looking elevation powerbomb for the pin.

Jay Lethal was not advertised for night two, but he opened up the show rebutting Colt’s promo and wanted to prove himself as a worthy champion and so he gave an instant world title shot to…..Cheeseburger. The underdog accepted the match, but he was far less of a challenge than Rush was the night before and Lethal made quick work of him within a couple minutes and pinned him after a Lethal Injection. This did not sit well with Cabana who came out and baited Lethal into another impromptu match, but this one was not for the title. The two wildly brawl all over the arena for just a few minutes until Colt got a surprise roll-up for the win. Colt actually had a really good serious demeanor on him here and the previous night and showed a lot of good fire here that by the time he got the win here actually got me on his side and made me want to see him take on Lethal in an actual title match.

The next bout saw ACH & Matt Sydal defeat the All Night Express after ACH got the pin with his Midnight Splash off the top turnbuckle in a really good, electric tag match that never let up. The show was on a roll so far, but the following match between Will Ferrara against Donovan Dijak dragged it down a couple notches after Dijak had a couple nasty looking botches that took away from the match. Dijak proceeded to botch the finishing sequence and had to redo it all over again so he could walk away with the pin.

RoH must have known of my ‘praise’ for Strong and rewarded me with a two-out-of-three-falls match between him and Bobby Fish. The first two falls saw both Fish and Strong dominating for long stretches of time, only to see the other man catch a lucky break for a surprise pin. I will give both guys credit though for having a convincing final fall that saw Bobby Fish wind up victorious after a heel hook submission. Next up we had RoH star P-Dog trying to recapture the 2003 magic of John Cena’s ‘thuganomics’ era rapping his way down to the ring with his posse, but thankfully Moose let that die down quickly and demolished P-Dog and his entire crew to the crowd’s appreciation.

I was ecstatic to see Silas Young and the Beer City Bruiser challenge for the tag titles against War Machine next. It was an entertaining big man slugfest, with an occasional flip from the Bruiser to keep us on our feet. Unfortunately it was not enough as War Machine retained after their Fallout finisher. BJ Whitmer and Dalton Castle competed next. For what it is worth I am actually kind of enjoying how BJ Whitmer has now evolved into this rugged veteran with a chip on his shoulder. Castle got the win after a roll up from a distracted Whitmer. This match suffered again from Castle overdoing it on his shtick.

The semi-main event was a fatal four way tag match between the Addiction, Briscoes, Motor City Machine Guns and Young Bucks. This match was just all over the place and there were parts I really liked and other parts I despised. There were moments where the teams were on a roll with nonstop awesome spots that had me popping and others that seemed too dumb and telegraphed. There were also random moments where the teams decided to follow tag rules and longer durations where they did not, and the ref did not make a modicum of an effort to enforce the tag rules at all in the match. This actually got me appreciating the WWE refs more because they actually enforce the rules in the matches to give a more sports-like feel so you do not get some of the ludicrous moments this match suffered from. Despite all that, I was relieved to see the Briscoes get the win in this crazy affair after they hit their Doomsday finisher.

The main event for night two saw the end of a longstanding feud between Adam Cole and Kyle ‘o Reilly in a no holds barred match. This match started off with a lot of brawling all over the arena. Night two had the same theme of the first night where it seemed the main event was the only match that allowed actual selling of moves. There were a few creative submissions in here such as Cole getting an ankle lock with a chair in a way I never thought possible and Reilly getting the submission win after using a chain to enhance an armbar. Pretty good main event, but I will give the slight nod to night one having a better closing match. Overall though, I enjoyed night two’s offerings more as the comedy aspects as a whole seemed used more sparingly and effectively here and just a better paced show overall. If you had to get just one Supercard of Honor X DVD, definitely get night two as night one is easily skip-able.

Also props to RoH for maintaining a decent lighting setup in the ring entrance and ring itself. It was only a couple years ago where it looked like RoH were still using the same ancient thrift store spotlights for their lighting when the company started in 2002 and their current setup helps their in ring product stand out exponentially more. They are only a notch or two under TNA/Impact Wrestling lighting quality now, which may not sound like much, but watch a SoH from just a few years ago, and trust me it is a big step up.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
RoH Supercard of Honor V
RoH Supercard of Honor VI
RoH Supercard of Honor VII
RoH Supercard of Honor VIII
RoH Supercard of Honor IX
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28
Wrestlemania 29
Wrestlemania 30
Wrestlemania 31
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016

RoH Supercard of Honor IX

We are within a month of Wrestlemania 32, so just like last year I am celebrating with two wrestling entries this month on the blog! Like last year I will kick it off with my recap of the last year’s Supercard of Honor (SoH) from the number three promotion in America, Ring of Honor (RoH). Make sure to come back in a week or two with my rundown of last year’s Wrestlemania 31. 2015 saw RoH bestow us with SoH IX, and like most years this event transpired, it happened on the same weekend and city where Wrestlemania took place in order to attract its biggest crowd and most ardent fans. SoH IX took place in Redwood City, CA, which is in the greater San Francisco/Santa Clara area where WM31 occurred.

I will preface with a little context on the state of RoH one year ago. At that time RoH’s weekly TV show could only be found for free on their website and on syndication at mostly odd hours in a growing number of markets around the country. After a brief run of the weekly TV show airing on Destination America network, the newly rebranded Comet TV channel started to air the show on Wendesday nights at 11pm CT. RoH’s parent company, Sinclair broadcasting recently acquired the Tennis Channel and speculation is brewing they are going to give the channel a makeover and make it a perfect fit to showcase RoH and finally give their production values a big upgrade to standout on the channel.

With that 2015 setup out of the way, SoH IX kicks off with Mark Briscoe squaring off against ACH. Like last year it seems the Briscoes are both on their own separate paths with Jay now rising above as the serious headliner, while Mark is all about his own unique brand of redneck kickass he has on display here. It also took awhile for me to get use to seeing a Briscoe with so much….hair. I enjoyed this fast paced opener, and got a kick out of Mark’s brand of ‘redneck kungfu’ he had on display. Mark won the opener after a sequence of rollup reversals.

The second match on the card saw Michael Elgin face Frankie Kazarian. For whatever reason I was never too big on Kaz from his days on Impact Wrestling, but Elgin I recall being impressed by in his bout with Davey Richards at Showdown in the Sun. This match just did not do it for me and it fell victim to the RoH stereotype spotfest. By that I mean it had little to no time to for selling and give the match time to sink in. Elgin got the winning with a spinning powerbomb-driver.

The next match was a 6-man Mayhem match, where two are in the ring and can tag in and out to anyone. Featured here were Moose, Caprice Coleman, Cedric Alexander, Tomasa Ciampa, Matt Sydal and Andrew Everett. Great seeing Matt Sydal (AKA Evan Bourne) back in action for the first time in at least three or four years after screwing up back-to-back drug tests and riding out the remaining two years of his WWE contract on suspension and somehow wound up with a nasty foot injury in a freak accident that sidelined him for even longer. As a result Sydal does not have the same spring in his step, but was still capable of several good spots in this match, including his trademark Shooting Star Press for the victory in a really good match that had the crowd the entire way. I want to give props to Moose’s dropkicks here. Moose gives me the vibe of a well rounded Titus ‘O Neil.

Up next was probably my match of the night as is pitted Decade faction members BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs against each other. Their steel cage match from several years ago is still my favorite RoH match, and this match had a very nice shoutout to that match with BJ teasing doing a move that went terribly wrong in one of their prior matches, but wisely backed away from it. While these two are getting up in age and are not as flashy as before, unlike a lot of matches on this card, these two allowed their match to breathe with lots of selling and psychology to help setup the next stage of the match. It even told a story with the Decade turning on Whitmer after the match. Christopher Daniels and Roderick Strong should have took note, because their match next was another match with nonstop spots with no room to breathe and resulted in me zoning out of the match before I realized Strong won with a submission.

The tag team title matchup was a bit of a mess for my liking. ReDragon (Kyle ‘O Reilly & Bobby Fisch) defended their belts against The Kingdom (Michael Bennett & Matt Taven). I actually enjoyed the early stages of the match that were filled with some fun comedy moments and good traditional tag action, but then they just went into RoH spot-spot-spot mode and some lousy interference at the end backfired on The Kingdom and lead to ReDragon successfully retaining the belts in a lackluster match.

The TV title match next helped redeemed the tag title contest. Jay Lethal won the TV title at last year’s SoH show, and he is still the champion in an impressive reign, that continued after this night with a successful defense against the legendary Jushin Thunder Liger. Liger is 50 and can somehow still go! I just watched him last weekend in a tag match off the WWE Network from Starrcade ’92…..1992…that is 24 years ago!!! Probably cause of Liger’s age is why this match was not nonstop spot-spot-spot, but it worked towards its benefit and made me believe Liger would come away with the title, but it was not to be after Jay hit his Lethal Injection for the victory.

The main event saw a returning Samoa Joe face Jay Briscoe for the RoH World Title. Samoa Joe is coming back to RoH after nearly 10 years in TNA Wrestling, and five years since his last RoH appearance. I was expecting Joe to emerge victorious here as he unleashed all his vintage moves in a bout that went nearly a half hour. It was not to be though as Jay successfully defended the title with a clean pin after his trademark Jay Driller. Really good match, but seemed to be missing something to make it a runaway match-of-the-year contender.

Supercard of Honor IX was an OK card overall. It had a mix of disappointing spotfests that resulted in me forgetting about them almost as soon as they were over, but it was good seeing Sydal and Joe back in RoH and both got plenty of moments to shine. My two matches of the night however go to Liger/Lethal and Whitmer/Jacobs for having me the most invested throughout. There is one bonus match on the DVD featuring a quick bout between Romantic Touch and Shane Taylor, along with plugs for other RoH merchandise.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unrealeased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
RoH Supercard of Honor V
RoH Supercard of Honor VI
RoH Supercard of Honor VII
RoH Supercard of Honor VIII
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28
Wrestlemania 29
Wrestlemania 30
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015