wrestling / TV Reports
Cook’s ROH TV Review 3.11.22
Image Credit: ROH
Loading...Hey kids! Today we’re looking back at the history of Supercard of Honor. For most of its existence it’s taken place during WrestleMania Weekend in the same general area as WrestleMania, and they’re doing it again here in 2022. (I think!)
Cook’s ROH TV Review 3.11.22
Supercard has been one of ROH’s premier events since 2006. Many of the greatest athletes in the world have competed there and etched their place in ROH history. From the Frontier Fieldhouse to Madison Square Garden, Supercard has always presented some of the most exciting action. We look back at some of the greatest moments in Supercard history, and prepare for ROH’s new era, beginning at Supercard 2022.
ROH Supercard of Honor: Do Fixer (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito) vs. Blood Generation (CIMA, Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi): March 31, 2006 in Chicago Ridge. The annual Dragon Gate six-man tag team match was a staple of early Supercards. ROH fans loved the fast-paced style that these guys worked, and matches like this could be considered the spiritual predecessor to what we now refer to as Young Bucks matches. Whether that’s a good thing or not is your call. Dave Prazak & Lenny Leonard had the task of trying to call this one.
Genki & Masato start us off exchanging various headlocks & headscissors. Genki with a couple of arm drags as the announcers explain the humor of fans chanting “H-A-G-E” at his receding hairline. I found this more amusing in 2006. Dragon Kid & Doi tag in. Doi has the size advantage and utilizes it with a shoulderblock. Kid has the speed advantage and hits a couple of headscissors. Kid teases a dive and fans applaud. CIMA comes in, and I’ll mention here that Dragon Gate matches operate under modified lucha rules of not needing a tag to switch team members. Genki & CIMA square off. Dropkick from CIMA, he misses in the corner then misses Genki on the ropes. Genki sends CIMA outside & Saito & Yoshino come in. Yoshino was always noted for running the ropes really fast, and he does so here. Saito gets the advantage with a side slam though. Dragon Kid with a forearm to the back off the top. Standing kneedrop gets one. Yoshino gets double teamed by Saito & Horiguchi as we go to commercial.
CIMA works over Dragon Kid with double axehandles. Dragon Kid fires back and tags in Saito. Saito with a back elbow to CIMA, a slam and a standing legdrop for one. Doi breaks up the chinlock and enters the match due to the “no tags” thing. All three members of Do Fixer come in for a triple team kick that only gets two. Genki’s suplex gets blocked and he’s sent into the Blood Generation corner. His poor hair gets pulled and he’s sent for three different hair mares. Doi & Yoshino with the double team. Yoshino twists into the octopus while Do Fixer is kept in the corner. Genki gets a mudhole stomped him, and then a cannonball by Doi. CIMA tags in, double shoulderblock and a pose. Doi with a senton for two. Genki breaks the seated abdominal stretch by going to the ropes as we go to commercial.
Dragon Kid with the Deja Vu headscissors, then Horiguchi with the flip dive! Dragon Kid dives outside, and CIMA & Saito face off in the ring. Saito with a powerbomb, then a rolling fisherman buster gets two. CIMA with a double stomp, then his partners enter the ring to triple team Dragon Kid & Saito. Sling blade by Yoshino, then a missile dropkick to Dragon Kid gets two. Dragon reverses a suplex attempt, but gets flapjacked by Doi. Doi misses in the corner, Genki with a dropkick, a second rope moonsault gets blocked. Genki gets two on Doi with an inverted DDT, then gets planted with a modified TKO for two while the fans chant about it being awesome. Saito follows Doi up top, Dragon Kid joins the party. He rans Doi off of Saito’s shoulders on the top, Saito hits a splash off the top rope for two. CIMA with a superkick, Genki with a DDT. Doi gets ranaed by Saito, Saito German suplexes Yoshino for two. Our announcers have given up. Dragon Kid gets two with the West Coast Pop. He goes up top, CIMA stops him, then gets suplexed on his head. Genki with a sit-out Dead Eye on CIMA that looks like it would kill somebody. Naturally, it gets two. Genki gets stopped on his way up to the top rope and Blood Generation triple teams Saito. Top rope double stomp on Saito and a backstabber on Horiguchi by CIMA. Air Raid Crash on Dragon Kid gets two. Running boot by Doi for two. The fans don’t want it to stop as Doi & Dragon go up top. Top rope Ace crusher by Dragon Kid, then a West Coast Pop ends it in favor of Do Fixer.
Winners: Do Fixer (20:32 via pinfall)
Match Rating: ****
The fans absolutely loved it, and I know it got the five star treatment from a ton of people back in the day. I can’t quite go that high as there didn’t seem to be a lick of psychology here. Still fun to watch though, and the athleticism involved was impressive.
We see a parade of clips from previous Supercard main events.
CIMA, Shingo & Yokosuka vs. Dragon Kid, Saito & Mochizuki (Supercard of Honor II): Streamers! Shingo suplexes a head clean off a body. Dragon Kid hits his move once, but it gets reversed for the loss.
McGuinness vs. Aries (Supercard of Honor III): They shake hands. Nigel gets two with a big lariat. Aries with a Crucifix Bomb, but Nigel rolls into the Jawbreaker lariat for the three count.
McGuinness vs. Lynn (Supercard of Honor IV): Forearm exchange leads to a Cradle Piledriver and a new ROH Champion.
Black vs. Strong (Supercard of Honor V): Black defeats Strong with a superplex into a rollup.
Edwards vs. Strong (Supercard of Honor VI): Strong motions that he wants the belt. He doesn’t get it, as Edwards gets him into a half crab and then stomps away on his head for the referee stoppage.
Steen vs. Briscoe (Supercard of Honor VII): Staredown! Jay hits the Jay Driller and gets a two count. Jay hits it again, this time he gets three and wins the title.
Cole vs. Briscoe (Supercard of Honor VIII): Matt Hardy knocks Jay off the ladder, but gets met with a Jay Driller. Cole knocks Jay off the ladder and finally unhooks the belts after forever and a day.
Briscoe vs. Joe (Supercard of Honor IX): Jay actually hits the Jay Driller on Joe and gets the three count. Kevin Kelly appears to be calling the match from inside a shed.
Cole vs. O’Reilly (Supercard of Honor X): Cole attacks from behind in the entranceway. O’Reilly hits a running dropkick, then suplexes Cole on a platform. O’Reilly backbreaks Cole on the top of two chairs. Superplex through a table. O’Reilly locks in a triangle choke and the referee stops the match.
Hardys vs. Young Bucks (Supercard of Honor XI): All four men are up on the ladders. The Hardys get superkicked off and the Bucks grab the belts. Pretty large venue for this one!
Cody vs. Omega (Supercard of Honor XII): Cody hits a Vertebreaker for 2.98. Crossrhodes gets a looonnngggg three count.
Great Muta & Jushin Thunder Liger Face-Off (G1 Supercard): Muta was the last entrant in the Honor Rumble. Liger with a palm strike in the corner, Muta with the dragonscrew, then the twisting elbowdrop.
G1 Supercard: ROH World Championship Ladder Match: Jay Lethal (c) vs. Marty Scrull vs. Matt Taven: To say the ROH portion of the G1 Supercard got mixed reviews would be a bit generous. Most critics at the time hated it and held it as an example of ROH trending downhill. Which, unfortunately, wasn’t entirely wrong. Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana & Nick Aldis were on the call.
The bell rings, and Lethal & Taven go right at it while Scrull goes outside to get a ladder. Nice plan, but Lethal kicks the ladder right into Marty’s face before he can get in the ring. They exchange strikes on the outside. They lift the ladder up, then Taven does a dive onto the ladder & them. Lethal takes Taven down with some kicks, then Scrull gets one. Lethal suplexes Taven on the floor, then gets some chairs out from under the ring so he can build a ladder & chair set in the entrance way. Scrull hits a tornado DDT on Taven and puts a ladder in the ring. Scrull sets a ladder up in two corners. Taven gets tossed into both of them twice. Lethal backdrops Marty into a ladder. Lethal suplexes Scrull and tips a ladder over on top of him. Taven gets knocked off the apron and a ladder thrown on top of him. Lethal & Scrull echange chops while Aldis calls Lethal a “custardfoot”. Marty drives Jay’s head into the ladder, then places him in the tree of woe with his head inside the ladder! A Saw-type situation according to Colt, and Marty smacks the ladder with the chair a few times as we go to commercial.
Lethal traps Scrull’s leg in the ladder and locks in a figure four! Taven takes advantage and climbs up the other side, but Lethal stops him and tosses him outside. Lethal drops the ladder on Scrull, but gets kicked out of another figure four attempt. Scrull tries to springboard, but his knee doesn’t allow it and Lethal cutters him off the apron. Lethal & Taven back in the ring, Taven knocks Lethal to the apron, then running powerbombs Lethal into that contraption in the entranceway that Jay set up awhile ago. Hoisted by his own petard. Scrull sets up a ladder, but his knee causes some slow climbing. Taven comes in, so Scrull chops away at him. Scrull props the ladder up in the apron. Suplex reversed, Scrull drop toe holds Taven into the ropes and delivers a 619. Scrull calls for the crossface chickenwing, doing a lot of Hulking up for a Villian. Taven cuts it off and hits the DDT, much to the fans’ dismay. Scrull stomps Taven’s fingers insider the ladder, but Taven blocks the fingerbreak and hits a rolling neckbreaker on the ladder. Taven climbs on top of the ladder located in the corner, but Scrull follows him up. Vertical suplex off the ladder! We go to commercial.
A table has been set up, and Scrull is trying to piledrive Lethal from the apron through it. Lethal blocks, but gets sent off the apron. Taven hits a spear on Scrull, sending him through said table. We’ve got another table set up on the floor, and Lethal places Taven on it. He sets up the ol’ Jeff Hardy ladder across from it, and this likely won’t end well. Yep, Lethal hits the elbowdrop off the top of the ladder! Scrull has the ring to himself for a moment and sets up a ladder, but Lethal’s rolling in. He follows Marty up the ladder. Meanwhile, Taven has found a gigantic purple ladder while these two are fighting on a smaller ladder. Lethal knocks Taven off of that ladder and gets him into the corner before Scrull attacks them both with a ladder. He places the ladder up as a platform, while Lethal does the same on the other side. Taven hits Lethal with a chair and knocks Marty off the ladder. Taven’s going up, but Lethal’s met him up there. Taven hits Lethal with the belt, knocking Lethal onto the propped up ladder! Taven grabs the belt and we have a new ROH World Champion.
Winner: Matt Taven (29:35 via retrieving the title)
Match Rating: ***1/2
More than a third of this match was clipped, which is probably for the best considering the feedback surrounding it. Larry Csonka gave it ***1/4 and said the dead spots and lack of crowd involvement hurt the match. Editing it down took out some of those dead spots, so I liked it more than people that paid to watch G1 Supercard. I also don’t particularly dislike Matt Taven, so there’s also that.
