Ring of Honor delivered an action-packed show with ROH Supercard of Honor on April 5.
Among other matches, Eddie Kingston defended the ROH World Championship against Mark Briscoe, and Athena put the ROH Women’s World Championship on the line against Hikaru Shida.
The results are as follows:
Zero Hour
Josh Woods, Tony Nese and Ari Daivari taking on Tony Deppen, Rhett Titus and Adam Priest.
This bout featured six guys who are all great workers, so there were plenty of technically sound exchanges and great chain wrestling.
This is a good opener because it's not an important match but will be fun enough to get the crowd excited for the night to come.
Aside from a couple of moves that didn't quite work out, everything we saw here made all six competitors look good.
The Premier Athletes scored the win when Nese pinned Priest.
Winner: The Premier Athletes defeated Titus, Deppen and Priest
The Beast Mortos took on Blake Christian in the second match of the night.
Mortos used to be known as Taurus, so he will be familiar to some fans from previous ROH and AEW appearances.
Christian was giving up a lot of weight but didn't really have the usual speed advantage that comes along with being the smaller competitor because Mortos is so quick for a guy his size.
This was a fast-paced and fun encounter that could have easily gone either way. After a hard-fought battle, Mortos picked up the win with a pump-handle piledriver.
Winner: The Beast Mortos defeated Christian
Anglico and Serpentico faced Cole Karter and Griff Garrison in the next match.
Maria was walking around holding up a mask they stole from Serpentico prior to this event.
Maria's young clients jumped their opponents right away, but the Spanish Announce Project didn't go down without a fight.
This was a decent but forgettable bout. Angelico stood out the most in terms of in-ring skill, but all four men did some solid work. Maria was ejected when she brought a chair into the ring, but she distracted Angelico on her way out.
Garrison and Karter stole Serpentico's mask again and rolled him up for the win.
Winner: Garrison and Karter
The fourth and final bout on Zero Hour saw May, in full Toni Storm cosplay, take on Stardom's Kohgo.
May had a size and power advantage and she made sure to put it on display by taking her opponent down and patronizingly patting her head.
This was a physical encounter that saw both women take a few hard hits, but it was Storm's protege who scored the win to end the Zero Hour.
Winner: May
Kyle Fletcher vs. Lee Johnson (ROH TV Title)
Fletcher is finally back on U.S. soil and put the Television Championship on the line against Johnson.
Johnson came into this bout on a nine-match winning streak, so he was looking to keep it going and add some gold to his luggage for the flight out of Philly. Fletcher refused to observe the code of honor and kicked the offer of a handshake away.
The first couple of minutes were slow and saw the champion try to establish dominance, but Big Shotty wasn't about to make it easy on him. He cornered Fletcher for a few chops that are going to leave a mark in the morning. Fletcher returned the favor a moment later.
Every time Johnson tried to build some momentum, the 25-year-old would find a way to counter him and regain control.
Fletcher has had several great matches in AEW and ROH, but this was a bit of a coming out party for Johnson, It felt like the first time he's been able to show us everything he has.
Johnson came close a few times and kicked out of some big moves. They may have done one or two near-falls too many, but it's a minor complaint about a really good performance.
Fletcher hit a brainbuster in the corner to win the match and retain the title.
Winner: Kyle Fletcher
Six-woman tag action was up next as AZM, Nakano and Kamitani took on Maika, Siera and Shirakawa.
These are six talents and champions from Stardom. This bout was part of the partnership between NJPW and AEW. We got a brief video package before the match to introduce everyone to the ROH fanbase.
Stardom is known for its hard-hitting and fast-paced style, so we got plenty of that in this match, but they also took time for some crowd work between sequences.
As good as a lot of this was, there were times when it felt like big moves should have been sold more. A hard hit means more if it takes longer to recover from it.
The final few minutes saw everyone get involved. Things started to fall apart a bit toward the end when you could tell the wrestlers not in the ring weren't sure what they were supposed to be doing.
This bout had a strange flow, but several individual spots and moments stood out for good reasons. Shirakawa scored the pin for her team. May came to the ring and got in Shirakawa's face before lifting her up in a hug.
Winner: Team Shirakawa defeated Team AZM
Undisputed Kingdom vs. Infantry (ROH Tag Titles)
Matt Taven and Mike Bennett put the ROH Tag Team Championships on the line against Carlie Bravo and Shawn Dean. Trish Adora accompanied her fellow Infantry members to the ring.
The champions attacked the challengers before the bell and beat them down as the ref tried and failed to get things under control.
Once the match got underway, it turned into a competitive and physical fight that took all four men all around the ringside area. The Infantry continued to get in more and more offense as the fight progressed.
Even though tags seemed more like a formality than a rule, this was a highly enjoyable match that gave both teams several chances to shine. Taven ended up being put through a table he set up when Bravo hit a splash.
When the ref was distracted, Wardlow showed up and took out Dean to allow Bennett to get an easy pin. It was a somewhat disappointing ending to a great match.
Winner: The Undisputed Kingdom defeated The Infantry
Queen Aminata vs. Billie Starkz (ROH Women's TV Title)
The finals of the tournament to crown the first ROH women's TV champion took place at the PPV when Starkz and Aminata fought for the belt.
Aminata had a bit more experience coming into this bout, but they were evenly matched in every way physically. The Queen took her time and wrestled Starkz to the mat and nearly ended the match early with a brutal running kick.
The 19-year-old fought her way back to her feet as the crowd cheered her on. This was a well-paced performance that had a logical flow. Only one would leave with a belt, but both women came away from this looking better than ever.
Starkz took a big risk and missed a senton bomb on the apron. Aminata pounced on her and maintained control for a long time.
Aminata countered another senton and Starkz immediately grabbed her neck and called for the ref. A scary moment unfolded as Starkz was given a neck brace and helped to her feet. As Aminata held the ropes open, Starkz revealed she was faking and hit a German suplex. She choked Aminata out to claim the win and win the women's TV title.
The majority of this match was fantastic, but it's hard to judge the finish. Everyone is going to have opinions about how this went down, but at least nobody was actually hurt.
Winner: Billie Starkz
Six-Man Open Challenge
The Bang Bang Gang came out with newly designed six-man titles to issue an open challenge that Lance Archer, Alex Zayne and Minoru Suzuki answered.
Jay White did not seem happy to see Suzuki, a man Ian Ricabonni was sure to note he has not faced many times in his career. They started for their teams with a funny exchange that led to Switchblade being punished by one of the men who trained him.
This ended up being several minutes of Suzuki decimating every member of the opposing team one by one. It was a fun change of pace from the work-rate style of wrestling we had gotten during most of the show.
Once Suzuki was out of the ring, this turned into a more traditional match with some great double and triple-team spots.
Zayne and Archer had a nice sequence of double-team moves, but the best exchange was between White and Suzuki late in the match. There was a lot to like and made this impromptu match one of the biggest highlights of the show.
The Bang Bang Gang retained the titles when White pinned Zayne.
Winner: The Bang Bang Gang
Dalton Castle vs. Johnny TV
Taya Valkyrie accompanied Mr. Television to the ring for his Fight Without Honor against Castle. This kind of match has only happened 15 times before this event.
They started with some simple shoving before Castle took the first real shot. For a match without the usual rules, they wrestled a pretty standard match for a long time.
They put on a decent show, but it felt like it took too long for someone to grab a weapon. Johnny set up a table with Valkyrie's help but it was a kendo stick that was used to dish out damage first.
This bout felt wildly different from everything else on the show and that can be seen as a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. If this had taken place earlier in the show, it may have been better received.
The second half was much better than the first and the crowd was having fun with a lot of the big moments, so they were able to turn it around a bit.
Castle called for the Boys and used all of them as weapons to hit suicide dives on Johnny, but the biggest one fell short. Jack Cartwheel showed up dressed as a Boy and took out Mr. TV. Paul Walter Hauser came out with a mask on and hit a spinebuster on Johnny.
The Boys carried Taya away and Castle ended up scoring the win. Hauser celebrated with him to end the segment. This was a lot of nonsense, but it was also kind of fun.
Winner: Dalton Castle
Athena vs. Hikaru Shida (ROH Women's Title)
The Forever Champion put her World Championship on the line when Athena took on Shida. Athena had her whole head and upper body painted red to match her gear.
After Athena played some mind games, they locked up and did a little chain wrestling. The Fallen Goddess tried to use a handshake to lure Shida in, for the former AEW women's champion saw it coming.
Athena began to focus on Shida's knee to keep her grounded and started talking a lot of trash. They worked really well together to put on a match that kept a tired crowd cheering and chanting.
This slowly turned into one of the best matches on the show, which should come as no surprise when you consider who was involved. Both women have been great talents for AEW and ROH and put on many memorable matches.
Shida was unable to win with the Katana and gave Athena the opening she needed to hit the O-Face for the win.
Winner: Athena
Eddie Kingston vs. Mark Briscoe (ROHWorld Title)
The main event of Supercard of Honor was the World Heavyweight Championship match between Kingston and Briscoe. They came into this match as friends and shook hands, but both promised they would bring everything to this bout.
The crowd began chanting "Man up" as they locked up and made a clean break. They took their time early on and sold each move instead of trying to pack as much into each minute as possible.
Briscoe brought a chair into the ring but Kingston used it against him when he hit a chokeslam onto it. Once Briscoe was busted wide open, The Mad King tried to open the wound even more with every chance he got.
This was not about technical wrestling or hitting the most precise strikes. This was about two roughneck SOBs throwing everything they had at each other. They did a great job making this violent while mostly staying within the confines of the rules.
This match started off a bit slow and built into a war of attrition. Both men are going to be battered and bruised for days after this one. After hitting a Jay Driller, Briscoe pinned Kingston to claim the world title for the first time.
Several people came out to celebrate and congratulate the new champion. Streamers filled the ring as Briscoe was hoisted high. After hugging a lot of people, Briscoe embraced Kingston as the crowd stood on its feet and cheered.
Winner: Mark Briscoe
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