Kevin’s ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard Review

NJPW/ROH G1 Supercard
April 6th, 2019 | Madison Square Garden in New York, New York

Honor Rumble
Think of this like the RAMBO they run before Wrestle Kingdom each year. Kenny King apparently requested to enter at #1. He probably regretted it as soon as Minoru Suzuki came out second to a monster pop. They made sure to give us another taste of Shingo vs. SHO and ultimately LIJ vs. Roppongi 3K. They better book Shingo vs. SHO at BOTSJ. There were a handful of fun entrants, though I had no clue who a lot of the ROH guys were. I haven’t watched that company in three years outside of a few matches here or there. Fun as it was at times, I don’t think it needed to be as long as it was. I popped hard for Haku at #29 and The Great Muta at #30. It came down to Liger and Muta against the Kingdom guys. They got rid of the geeks and it seemed to be just them left, but Kenny King came out of hiding and stole the match at 42:23. Way too long for what it was, but it had some fun bits. The finish was lame. [**½]

NEVER Openweight & ROH Television Championship: Jeff Cobb [c] vs. Will Ospreay [c]
A stocky boy against a lanky boy. I’m all for Cobb in this as I like him and strongly dislike Ospreay. Cobb started this by running right through him. Love it. Ospreay got his ass kicked for a good chunk of this, so I enjoyed it. His selling was off at points, though. Cobb looked great throughout and Will had flashes. He almost dropped Cobb on his head with a Spanish Fly. Wild thing to attempt. The Oscutter spot near the end was dope. Cobb blocked it and threw him into the corner, only for Ospreay to pop back out and hit it for a great near fall. Cobb hit a massive Tour of the Islands off the middle rope and added another to win in 12:53. A very good match. Ospreay had some good spots, Cobb was great, and the final few minutes ruled. [***¾]

Dalton Castle w/ The Boys vs. Rush
I used Japanese commentary for this show to avoid Ian Riccaboni and they still made me listen to him at points. He called this a HUGE international match. Castle has fallen so hard. Rush attacked quickly, hit him with a corner dropkick and won in 0:17. Quick squash to get Rush more over. Nobody came to see this anyway so it’s fine. [NR]

Post-match, Castle beat up the Boys.

ROH Women of Honor Championship: Mayu Iwatani [c] vs. Kelly Klein
According to commentary, this is a 2-2 series. Although I think the division is just these two and Mandy Leon. The crowd didn’t care at all about this. Honestly, it was hard for me to pay attention because Bret Hart just got attacked during the Hall of Fame and I had to check out what happened. Damn shame. We can’t have nice things. Klein won in 10:41. From what I saw, it wasn’t very good.[*½]

Cary Silkin embraced Klein and congratulated her. Then, the Beautiful People came out like this was TNA. Mandy Leon came out to seemingly make the save, but instead joined them. They painted Klein with lipstick and are apparently known as The Allure. The crowd didn’t like this.

New York City Street Fight: Bully Ray vs. Flip Gordon
This show hit a huge rough patch. Bully Ray just beat up some dude rapping. He was scheduled to face Juice Robinson but Juice was attacked earlier in the show. His replacement? Flip Gordon. Terrible. Bully had his buddies hit the ring and then Mark Haskins and Juice Robinson come out making this a six man tag.

New York City Street Fight: Bully Ray, Shane Taylor and Silas Young vs. Flip Gordon, Juice Robinson and Mark Haskins
Like the previous match, the crowd didn’t seem to care for this. The ROH portion of this show has been ROUGH. They used a bunch of weapons as you’d expect. Flip fired up as he demanded they all hit him with a kendo stick harder and harder. I still didn’t care. I don’t even want to write more about it. The crowd sat on their hands for most of it. Life Blood won in a very long 15:00 if you include the stuff before Juice and co. came out. ROH is sucking the life out of this show. [*]

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Taiji Ishimori [c] vs. Bandido vs. Dragon Lee
These guys should theoretically save this show. Right off the bat, it was a bunch of wild action. What you expect from these three. Maybe it’s because I’m not as invested in NJPW angles right now, but this felt kind of hollow. I had no connection. Still, don’t let that deter you. This was a fun match. Lots of big spots and fast paced action from three of the quickest and most agile wrestlers around. Bandido may have stole the whole show with a double flipping fall away slam off the middle rope. It was insanity. These are ballsy dudes. Surprisingly, Dragon Lee picked up the win with Desnucadora in 8:57. A hell of a sprint. Lee pinned Bandido, meaning Ishimori is open to a rematch. Lots of fun in this one. [***½]

IWGP & ROH Tag Team Championships: Brody King & PCO [c] vs. The Guerrillas of Destiny [c] vs. The Briscoes vs. EVIL & SANADA
I really dig the team of PCO and Brody King. Haven’t seen much of them, but they seem fun. PCO got a way over the top entrance with an electric chair. This was a wild clusterfuck involving a bunch of moving parts. At times, it was a giant mess. At other times, it was fun. PCO took an insane double powerbomb bump to the outside, popped up like he was reborn, and then died again. As expected, the Guerrillas picked up the win with a tandem powerbomb spot in the corner at 9:53. Sorry for the lack of detail. I grabbed snacks and ate during this one so I wasn’t typing too much. [**¾]

Toru Yano showed up and stole the IWGP Tag Titles. Then, off camera, Enzo Amore and Big Cass jumped the guardrail and attacked the Briscoes. I shit you not. TV did not acknowledge this at all, but ROH retweeted stuff about it so their worked shoot was clearly a work.

RevPro British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. [c] w/ TAKA Michinoku vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Sabre beat Tanahashi in the G1 27 (****¼) and New Japan Cup 18 (****½). Tanahashi beat him in an IC Title match (***¾) and the New Japan Cup this year (****¼). This was way different from everything else on the show in a good way. It had a slow burn but never felt like time was being wasted. Sabre stretched the hell out of Tanahashi and the ace sold it like a champ. I loved the spot where he couldn’t skin the cat the way he normally would. They traded pin attempts and offense down the stretch and it was all fluid and very well done. In the end, Sabre pulled Tanahashi into one of his brutal submissions and added leverage on an extra limb to make him tap out in 15:14. That was very good pro wrestling. Two pros just having a great wrestling match. No nonsense. Quality stuff all around and the current MOTN. I do think the crowd was kind of dead for this, probably still reacting to the confusion of the Enzo stuff. Way to kill the mood for Tana’s first MSG match. [****]

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Tetsuya Naito [c] vs. Kota Ibushi
Literally my two favorite NJPW guys. I’ve seen them wrestle several times. Ibushi won in the New Japan Cup 2015 (****), G1 28 (****¼), and New Japan Cup this year (****½), while Naito won their G1 27 meeting (****¾). Naito took forever to get his suit off because that’s the kind of guy Naito is. Within minutes, these guys were dropping each other on their heads. It’s the usual Ibushi/Naito stuff. Their chemistry is almost unmatched. Everything they did came off looking great and honestly pretty dangerous. The pace picked up to an insane level down the stretch because these guys are wild. Of course, Naito’s Destino wasn’t enough to earn the win. That move is such a waste at this point. Anyway, the closing stretch was great and saw Ibushi win the title with Kamigoye in 20:53. The usual great match from these two. Not a mark on their best work, but one hell of a bout. New MOTN. [****¼]

ROH Championship Ladder Match: Jay Lethal [c] vs. Marty Scurll vs. Matt Taven
The ROH portion of this show has sucked, so let’s see if these guys can save it. The show was already long and these guys decided to drag this one out. If you thought this show was paced well, you better not complain about WrestleMania. This match was a whole lot of nothing. They set up spots that just took forever and never had the kind of payoff I was hoping for. At times, I had no idea why a third person was involved. I’m not writing a ton here because there wasn’t a lot that happened. It was the worst kind of ladder match. Jay Lethal took a wild bump that looked absolutely brutal. He’s a trooper. Then, it all led to Matt Taven winning the title in an absurdly long 29:35. Why? Other than a few spots, I didn’t really like any of this. [**]

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Jay White [c] w / Gedo vs. Kazuchika Okada
White beat Okada in the G1 (***¾) and at Wrestle Kingdom (****). Okada is supposed on this redemption arc but the only bad things to happen since he lost the title was that he toyed around with balloons and lost to White & Tana. Other than that, he won most of his G1 matches, showed off his thigh meat, and won the New Japan Cup. Anyway, this was classic Okada formula. In other words, the first 15 minutes were a bunch of nothing and it didn’t mean a thing. I do like that it meant Okada was confident again and he could wrestle HIS match against the champion. Of course, it picked up late because that’s what Okada does. I’m just over this whole setup. The best parts were White avoiding the Rainmaker by sitting down and the Rainmaker kickout because the crowd was really pulling for Okada, making for a good reaction. As always, Okada won after the Rainmakers/counters/hold on/Rainmaker stuff in a long 32:33. This had no business going this long. Especially when you can cut out the first 17 minutes and miss nothing. Technically, it’s a good match but it’s super hollow and overly long. [***]

Booking wise, we’re just back to the status quo. It’s like when Gedo put the title on Naito and had him drop it right back to Okada in two months back in 2016. This is literally the same thing and it was the worst of the THREE Okada redemption arcs they’ve run since 2012.

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

This was about half a good show. I thought Ospreay/Cobb, the Jr. Title, the British Title, and the IC Title all ranged from very good to great. The main event was a disappointment and everything ROH put on was a steaming hot mess. What a terrible wrestling promotion. If NJPW wants to do anything big in the US again, they need to avoid ROH like the plague. Their section of the how was good even with the lackluster finish.