ROH Supercard of Honor  

 

April 5, 2024 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #24 

 

Source: ROHWrestling.com  

 

We’re in Philly at the Licacouras Center. A completely different venue to anyone else that ran this weekend. It makes ROH look unique and different to the piles of Collective shows, which are all starting to blur together. Hosts are Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman and Nigel McGuinness. 

 

I’m not watching Zero Hour, get fucked. 

 

ROH TV Championship  

Kyle Fletcher (c) vs. Lee Johnson  

What is that look Kyle? The good news is that he doesn’t have that lank stringy hair thing going on, nor is he sat in a hotel bar until 5am hoping to bang a fan. Lee Johnson is a guy I’m sure I’ve seen wrestle before, but I don’t remember him. This is your stereotypical hot opener. They do a lot. Movez on the floor. Movez off the top. My favourite spot is when Johnson goes up top and Kyle clips his legs away. Awesome. The rest of it is big move/kickout stuff.  

 

Where they do sucker me in is when Kyle gets frustrated and instead of hitting more movez, he just beats Lee up. Sadly, they go back to the stupidity well. The Top Rope Canadian Destroyer, followed by not one but two frogsplashes, AND, of course, a kick-out is just overkill. Fletcher does the javelin thing into the corner and that’s really cool. So at least the stuff that holds this match together is good but there’s just too many big spots. Kyle finishes with a brainbuster on the buckles, and I’ll give them points for some of the wrestling in between the daft spots. ***½ 

 

I realise the picture was a little fuzzy after this and fucking hell, it was streaming at 360p. Haha. Good lord. Is my internet that bad? I switch to 1080p, and I CAN SEE THINGS. Marvellous.  

 

Tam Nakano, AZM & Saya Kamitani vs. Maika, Mina Shirakawa & Mei Seira 

The Stardom offer match for this evening. Stardom are a company that know how to put on undercard matches. Everyone works hard but doesn’t do so many spots they burn the crowd out. It’s more about showcasing the promotion, showing the abilities of the women, demonstrating their characters and knowing their place.  

 

I am so burned out on spotfests (because all Indies do too many) that this match just pleasantly washes over me. Japanese women are just better at wrestling than women from other countries. Something in the water. It starts with the movement around the ring. Being naturally comfortable. Then it’s the basics. Holds, emotion, selling, strikes.  

 

They slowly improve the near falls too and have people make saves when it looks like it’s over. It’s a far better put together match than just about every other scramble I’ve seen this weekend. Which also leads to Shirakawa taking a kick to the face, which she no sells and I buy into it! Because it’s unusual in the bigger picture of the match. Shirakawa beats Kamitani and I loved this. What a great little match. ***½ 

 

Post Match: Mariah May, pals with Mina historically, comes out to celebrate with her.  

 

ROH Tag Team Championship 

Undisputed Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven) (c) vs. The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Shawn Dean) 

Bennett is the first offensively bad worker on the card, thigh slapping his way around the ring like the low-tier Indie schlub he really is. There are 50 guys just like him working the Indies right now. I can only assume he’s a really nice person and people backstage like having him around.  

 

At the end of the day, this match is a mess and doesn’t do anything for me. They try too hard, do too many things where they don’t fit into the tag rules. The Machine Guns have a lot to answer for, in my opinion. They also fail to bring it to another level. The Bravo table spot is the tamest table spot you’ll ever see. Mae Young did more. Wardlow runs in for the stupid finish and the Kingdom retain. This was bad and brought the momentum of the show screeching to a halt. 

 

ROH Women’s TV Championship 

Queen Aminata vs. Billie Starkz 

Now, I’m not presenting a review of this match because they do a god awful, should be illegal, injury angle. Starkz going down holding her neck. Commentary do the Owen Hart voices. Everyone in the building thinks they’ve seen a real injury. I’ve seen footballers have cardiac incidents and the whole ground goes deathly quiet. No one wants to see this happen. No one wants a replication of this in the sportz entertainment world but ESPECIALLY if it just serves as a bullshit fake injury angle. This sucked. Whoever thought it was a good idea should legitimately be fired and never work in wrestling again. DUD 

If you’re doing the fake injury thing then don’t do head/neck because that shit is serious. Don’t play on the emotions of the crowd. Don’t drag it out. Don’t cut away from the ring like it’s real. Preferably, don’t do it at all. Fuck off. All the way off. Proper ‘most disgusting promotional tactic’ behaviour. Wankers. 

 

ROH Six Man Tag Team Championship 

Jay White & Ass Boys (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Alex Zayne  

Why is Bullet Club still a thing? An embarrassment for years and years and years with no end in sight. It’s not 2015 anymore. Why would you watch this when RJ City interviewed Lance Archer on Hey! (EW) this week and it’s the same length.  

Lance is so nice on here. The “champ stamp” bit is tremendous.  

 

So, I did watch the match but the Hey! (EW) show is better. Suzuki screaming “you’re still young boy” at Jay White runs it close though. This match could have been great fun if they’d just had Lance and Suzuki beat the shit out of the heels for 10 minutes and have them win with a fluke roll up but no, we have to run heat on Zayne because that’s what he’s there for. There’s a big break down segment and Bladerunner puts Zayne away.  

 

Post Match: Billy Gunn and the Acclaimed come out here and fail to kick the butts of the champs.  

 

Fight Without Honor 

Johnny TV vs. Dalton Castle 

Morrison had a shocker at Bloodsport, so it’s fair to say I’m not thrilled at the prospect of him in another big spot. Dalton Castle is the kind of guy who will be amazing in 10 years when he’s a manager or a commentator. My concern with his in-ring is that his body was broken years ago.  

I’ve always appreciated his individuality though. Predictably Johnny Morrison is fucking terrible in this match. The godfather of shitty wrestling. The first guy who did movez and looked so slick that you didn’t notice how bad his actual work was. He’s so bad in this match it almost defies reason. In a comedy spot where a big fat boy falls through the ropes, Johnny is still the worst thing about it with his thigh slappin’ attempt to kick him. Fucking pathetic.  

 

The booking doesn’t help because there’s a load of stupid shit and then actor Paul Walter Hauser does a run in. I know who he is, because I watch films and stuff but do people know who he is? I feel like the reaction suggests “no”. “One of TV’s greatest stars” says Riccaboni. Wrestling fans don’t watch anything other wrestling. Maybe NFL. Castle gets a his whirlybird finish into thumbtacks for the win. Well, this was not good.  

 

ROH Women’s Championship 

Athena (c) vs. Hikaru Shida  

This starts out a little awkward and sluggish and they don’t seem to have any kind of chemistry, which is unfortunate. I really like both, but it just isn’t happening. In the past, I would have just willed myself to like it but I’m trying very hard to be fair and that swings both ways.  

 

Athena takes good bumps and is an effective seller, which makes it easier for the match to get back on track. Shida, likewise, is stronger on offence. Despite the improvement over the early going, the lack of snap on moves is down to a developed lack of trust in the timing of the whole thing.  

They’re better off doing holds to get it together. The trouble with modern wrestling is a reliance on pre-planned high spots. You must get your shit in! Every time I think they’ve got it together, a spot doesn’t quite work. The powerbomb where they don’t release because there’s another powerbomb coming? Shida was pinned for about a count of 8 and the ref looked very confused.  

 

Athena gets the O-Face and nails it too and it’s not the finish because finishers cease to work Mania weekend. Shida looks concerned when its her turn to hit a finish. She’s holding back. Presumably over earlier issues. Athena has definitely gotten over her earlier jitters. She looks superb in the last few minutes on her offence and finishes with a second O-Face. Two orgasms? In the same day? My word.  

 

This had some serious issues with timing and how uncomfortable they worked with each other in the opening 5-10 minutes was worrying. Athena got over it, but Shida never did. In wrestling it’s tough to put your trust in someone else and that trust is gained. If Shida’s offence matched her bumping, this would have been really good. As it stands, it was ok. Maybe the blame lies in Athena’s bumping? However you slice it, we only had half a good match here. *** 

 

ROH World Championship 

Eddie Kingston (c) vs. Mark Briscoe 

Tony paid for Lynyrd Skynyrd. What an enormous mark he is. I mean that in a complementary way. I think. As someone who started watching ROH in 2002 and saw Mark Briscoe, then only 17, corner Jay on the first show…this is a special journey and a special story. One that wraps up at Wrestlemania weekend. Jay lost to Amazing Red that day. Red also wrestled on this weekend. Where was that match? The Murphy Rec, right here in Philly.  

 

It’s a shame Mark doesn’t have some sort of evil mountain to climb here. Instead it’s a respectful showdown with a beloved babyface. One who also climbed his own mountain just last year to claim gold, finally, at the highest level. Mark Briscoe is my kind of wrestler. He hits hard and he does crazy dives. Kingston is more grounded and violent. In recent years, he’s become more confident in his ability to be a crowd pleaser too, which is lovely to see.  

They get colour about five minutes in, and it is a crimson mask. The crowd are chanting “man up” at the poor guy. You fucking man up! Mark’s profuse bleeding merely adds to his underdog status. As does Eddie bullying him with chops. For me, Eddie needs to be a total bastard and he sells too much. When they start throwing big bombs at each other, and the big double clothesline in particular, we’re back on track. 

 

The lack of evil from Eddie means the crowd chant “both these guys”. I’d had have Eddie lean heel. They can walk it back and have them hug it out afterwards but during the match, your underdog has to fight from underneath. I’m only even remotely annoyed about it because the match is close to being exceptional and that might have put it over the line. 

 

I saw a Cutthroat Driver earlier this week and I said someone should steal it. I wasn’t expecting Mark to break it out as a throwback. Jay Driller finishes and Mark wins his first world title. This was a special match and a special moment. It could have been an all-timer but didn’t quite work out. Still, a great, great wrestling match probably MOTY to this point (in my book anyway). ****½  

 

The 411: 

While ROH will probably never hit the highs of its best days as a wrestling powerhouse, this was a pleasing show, and the main event was worthy of the ROH name. Two great guys just beating each other up. No bullshit. Just two guys fighting until one couldn’t stand anymore. The show takes a big dip in the middle, especially Morrison-Castle, but the main saves it.