ROH SUPERCARD OF HONOR

Los Angeles

JEFF COBB vs. TRACY WILLIAMS (5:20): The card for this show was phenomenal. Shibata, Vikingo, and Tanahashi wrestling. A ladder match with The Lucha Brothers. The show didn't turn out phenomenal, but it was mostly a good show. Most of the matches seemed to be just thrown together or announced right before the show. Granted, I haven't watched the weekly ROH show yet, mostly because it's only on Honor Club. I haven't really heard anyone saying it's a great show, either. They taped some of the episodes at Universal Studios but this week's show was taped after Dynamite on Long Island, which means the crowd was probably gone, tired, or dead. The first four matches on this show were forgettable and on the free, Youtube pre-show. The crowd, at USC's Galen Center, didn't even fill up until the main card started. Jeff Cobb looked good, but there wasn't much to this. *

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. WILLIE MACK (9:36): I first saw Willie Mack on a AAA show last year. The Mexican crowd fucking loved him. He's a fat black guy that dances a bit in the ring. He's very entertaining, though, so it's kind of a shame that they didn't give these two a real, long match. **

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. MIRANDA ALIZE (6:49): I really enjoy the ROH announcers, Ian and Caprice. When Willow came out and everyone was dancing, so were the two announcers. They added a third announcer, Nigel McGuinness, on this show, and he wasn't dancing and didn't look amused. I get why they added him. He was in ROH years ago and was a NXT announcer for awhile. Sadly, I didn't think he meshed well with the other two announcers. This was short at least. *1/2

STU GRAYSON vs. SLIM J (6:56): Stu Grayson quit AEW awhile back and but recently re-signed. Maybe he only quit to go raise a family or something? I have no idea, but The Super Smash Brothers were always an awesome tag team so it's cool that he's back. This was probably the best of the pre-show matches but nothing great or anything. **1/2

EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO vs. KOMANDER (15:43): This was for Vikingo's AAA title. Vikingo and Kenny Omega had a match of the year contender a few week's ago on Dynamite, so this obviously wasn't as good and Vikingo did pretty much all the same big spots. Komander is great, but no Kenny Omega. Vikingo's big move, the over-the-top-rope 630 through a table is a fantastic move...but here the table didn't break. Komander does a lot of top rope ring walking, which gets the crowd in a frenzy. This was super entertaining and a great way to open the show. ***

THE EMBASSY vs. AR FOX, BLAKE CHRISTIAN & METALIK (8:22): I heard that Brian Cage's contract is up. He definitely would fit perfectly in WWE, as he's in the same mold as Braun Strowman or Brock Lesnar or Bobby Lashley. Considering his team kept the 6 man titles, maybe he's not leaving? The other team looked fantastic. Blake Christian was running and jumping all over the place like he's Sonic the Hedgehog. AR Fox did all his crazy, high flying moves. Metalik is a bit older and slower, though, than he was in WWE. This was entertaining while it lasted. ***

ATHENA vs. YUKA SAKAZAKI (11:38): The crowd was pretty dead for this early on but got into it late with Sakazaki's comeback. Athena retained the women's title. The last few minutes were good. **

SAMOA JOE vs. MARK BRISCOE (14:26): This result baffled the world. Everyone figured they'd let Mark Briscoe win the TV title here, considering his brother died in a car accident a few months ago and because of that we all want to see him win and get a happy ending. When he got choked out and lost, the camera caught a shot of his two daughters at ringside and one of them was crying and the other was holding her sister's head against her chest to console her. Jesus Christ! Just let him fucking win the match! Why even put him in this match if you're going to have him lose in front of his family? Just put him in a multi-man tag match or something he can win. The only possible reason I can think of why it was okay for him to lose if he told Tony Khan to let Samoa Joe win. Otherwise, it was a pretty good match. **1/2

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. DANIEL GARCIA (11:59): Another good match, albeit pretty standard. Tanahashi won with the High Fly Flow. **1/2

THE LUCHA BROTHERS vs. AUSSIE OPEN vs. TOP FLIGHT vs. THE KINGDOM vs. LA FACCION INGOBERNABLE "LADDER MATCH" (20:14): This was definitely the match of the weekend. Granted, there were a billion shows in the LA area this weekend and I only watched this show and the two nights of Wrestlemania. I did watch the women's ladder match on the NXT show, and probably will get around to watching the rest of that show (Dragon Lee finally made his debut). But this match was beyond insane. They did every crazy ladder spot you can think of. The big move of the night that everyone was talking about was Penta's Canadian Destroyer on Dante Martin from a ladder bridge in the ring onto four stacked tables at ringside. Dante Martin only hit the edge of the tables and his foot hit the floor and his foot turned sideways. It was a gruesome injury that I actually missed watching it the first time because it happened so fast. Both of The Kingdom members were bleeding. There were multiple ladder bridge slams and dives. Dante Martin did a Sunset Flip body slam from the top of the ladder. I can't even begin to describe every crazy spot in this match. The winner got The Briscoe's tag team title belts. Fantastic, wild match. ***1/2

KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. WHEELER YUTA (13:15): It's crazy that Shibata is wrestling these days. He won the Pure title here, so I guess he's back for good. This was more a mat wrestling match for the most part, although they did a lot of hard chops later on. The Pure title baffles me, as the rules are a mile long. Who came up with this? It's kind of ridiculous. I doubt we'll ever see a real Shibata match, though, as he probably won't ever be taking drops on his head and going full bore like he used to. Still, he's as intense as ever, and I'm glad he's back. **

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. EDDIE KINGSTON (20:07): This was boring early on. By the end it turned into a good match but it took awhile. Claudio retained the title. Eddie Kingston hasn't wrestled in AEW for awhile. I'm not sure what the point of him going to ROH was. Hopefully he'll come back to AEW because the crowds love him and he usually has good matches. This was not the epic, classic, great main event you'd want on a ROH show. The early, high flying craziness kind of took the momentum of this show. Claudio is a great wrestler but I don't think he's had a great match yet since joining AEW. I'm not sure who his next oppenent will be, but I'd fucking love to see a Shibata vs. Claudio title match down the line. **1/2