ROH SUPERCARD OF HONOR

 Liacouras Center, Philly

THE PREMIER ATHLETES (ARI DAIVARI, JOSH WOODS & TONY NEESE) vs. ADAM PRIEST, RHETT TITUS & TONY DEPPEN (8:17): This was a good show. I can't believe Tony Khan is paying all the wrestlers on this show. Are they on contracts or mostly one-night deals? AEW has a giant roster already, plus add all these ROH wrestlers. It's like...a lot. And I still can't figure out who actually pays $9.99 a month just to watch weekly ROH TV shows plus 4 PPV's a year. I mean...there's enough wrestling already on free TV. Who are these people? Supposedly, the CW channel offered Khan to put ROH on their channel but he refused because he didn't want to go outside of Warner/Discovery. He is a billionaire...I guess he doesn't need the money. I don't know. The first four matches on this show were free on Youtube. The Liacouras Center looked about half full. I don't think the upper level was open but the lower level looked mostly full. I kind of doubt AEW will ever do a PPV in Philly, though, because I think they would've done it by now. This opener was forgettable. *1/2

BLACK TAURUS vs. BLAKE CHRISTIAN (8:41): Black Taurus, from AAA, has perhaps the coolest looking outfit/gimmick in wrestling. He's dressed up like a minotaur. Very cool. Match was okay. Blake Christian did some cool moves. **

COLE CARTER & GRIFF GARRISON vs. SPANISH ANNOUNCE PROJECT (ANGELICO & SERPENTICO) (8:32): Griff used to be in The Varsity Blondes tag team. Remember them? Julia Hart was a cheerleader. It's funny that she ended up being the only one pushed. I think Brian Pillman, Jr. is in Impact now. I suppose the SAP moniker is a take on the Spanish Announce Team group from CZW back in the day. Match was fairly entertaining. **

MARIAH MAY vs. MOMO KOHGO (6:14): Mariah May is a fucking star...AEW should really push her to the top. Maybe it's a slow burn, as eventually she'll break up with champ Toni Storm and they'll wrestle each other. Maybe at All In...since Mariah is English. Momo is from Stardom. Stardom had a PPV from the ECW Arena on Thursday so a bunch of Stardom wrestlers were in town this week. Match was good. Mariah is gorgeous plus a decent wrestler since she was wrestling in Stardom for the last few years. Momo looked good as well. **1/2

KYLE FLETCHER vs. LEE JOHNSON (19:51): This match was great. Very hard hitting. A lot of near-falls near the end. Fletcher has been killing it lately. His match with Ospreay on Dynamite was great as well. Lee Johnson isn't Ospreay, obviously, but he held his own for the most part. This was the best match on the show. ***1/2

EMPRESS NEXUS VENUS (MAIKA & MINA SHIRAKAWA) & MEI SEIRA vs. QUEEN'S QUEST (AZM & SAYA KAMITANI) & TAM NAKANO (14:27): This was a Stardom match. Stardom got so big that the president got fired and/or quit and started his own company. I have watched some of Stardom in the last few years since it became fairly popular but I don't know who any of these women are. Kamitani I think was the one that looked the best. It was fast-paced and the crowd seemed into it (the crowd was definitely a hardcore wrestling crowd and was mostly into everything on the show all night). **1/2

THE UNDISPUTED KINGDOM (MATT TAVEN & MIKE BENNETT) vs. THE INFANTRY (CARLIE BRAVO & SHAWN DEAN) (13:54): The Infantry just isn't working. They're a new tag team AEW is kind of/sort of pushing. They were in the recent AEW tag team tournament and beat The House of Black then lost to FTR. This match was mediocre. While The Kingdom is a part of the big Adam Cole heel storyline...they haven't really done much with them. Granted, they're the ROH tag champs...but, c'mon...this wasn't exactly a big match on the card. *1/2

BILLIE STARKZ vs. QUEEN AMINATA (17:42): I watched the Billie Starkz/Mao hardcore match on the DDT in Philly show on Thursday. It's funny, but very few promotions do men vs. women matches. I know GCW does them. Is it that big a deal to see men hit women during a fake sport? Eh. Starkz is only, like, 19 or something ludicrous yet she's seemingly become kind of a star on the indie scene. She was in the main event of the last ROH PPV. The story in this match was that Starkz did a moonsault from the top rope but Aminata put her knees up and Starkz hit her neck on the knees. The ref stopped the match and the doctors came in and put Starkz in a neck brace. Then Starkz revealed it was a ruse and attacked Aminata and pinned her to become the 1st women's TV champ. The crowd loved the fake injury and evil turn. Match was okay but the ending was intriguing. **

BULLET CLUB GOLD (THE GUNN'S & JAY WHITE) vs. MINORU SUZUKI & MONSTERSAUCE (ALEX ZAYNE & LANCE ARCHER) (15:18): Suzuki was a surprise and the crowd loved that. I don't think Suzuki is in New Japan anymore. He looks the same as he always has so I guess there's no reason to retire. Alex Zayne did some cool top rope stuff. After the match, The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn ran out to beat up Bullet Club. Match was okay. **

DALTON CASTLE vs. JOHNNY TV "FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR" (22:06): Man, some people hated this match with a passion. It was silly and long...I guess that's why. It was a hardcore match...so they did thumbtacks and Singapore canes and a leaf blower. The Boys were recently fired in real life so Dalton had a bunch of mostly fat dudes play The Boys. I have no idea where he got these dudes...but at one point they all attempted to jump through the ropes at Johnny TV outside and they all pretty much fucked it up and fell on their faces. Is Johnny TV really married to Valkyrie? She was his manager and they kissed during the match and it was noted that they have a reality show on Youtube. Okay...who the fuck watches that? Maybe it's funny, who knows? Johnny TV looks the same as he did 15 years ago when he was having great matches against Jeff Hardy in WWE. Did he find the fountain of youth or something? Dalton is always amusing so this match at least held my interest. Also...the actor Paul Walter Hauser came out at the end to help Dalton drop thumbtacks into the ring. Hauser won a Golden Globe for the TV show "Blackbird." But...I think he wrestles more than he acts. He was in a hardcore match against Sammi Callihan at the Wrestlecon show on Thursday. **

ATHENA vs. HIKARU SHIDA (22:31): The final five minutes or so of this were really good with a lot of dramatic near-falls. Athena is like the ROH answer to Roman Reigns, as she's held the title forever. The crowd seemed to believe Shida was going to win with some of the 2-counts by the end so it was fairly exciting. **1/2

MARK BRISCOE vs. EDDIE KINGSTON (24:13): Briscoe won the ROH title. That was nice. His parents and kids and other family members were there and came in the ring to help celebrate. Some of the other wrestlers came out and held him up on their shoulders. This was a very similar ending to when Cody won the title on Sunday. Did the WWE watch this? Heh. Briscoe was a bloody mess for most of the match. Good match, though it wasn't a match of the year contender or anything. The show was entertaining but if you didn't see it you weren't really missing anything momentous or anything. **1/2