New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor became one of the first non-WWE wrestling companies to run Madison Square Garden in a very long time. 16,534 fans made their way to the Garden to see a very full card (which also included a dark match between Kagetsu, Hazuki, Jenny Rose and Sumie Sakai, Hana Kimura, and Stella Grey). To review this show I was joined by my colleague Daniel Bieko, who regularly covers ROH.
Honor Rumble: Kenny King – Minoru Suzuki – Cheeseburger – Beer City Bruiser- SHO – Shingo – BUSHI – YOH – Shaheem Ali – Rhett Titus – LSG – Ryusuke Taguchi – Will Ferrara – Chase Owens – Rocky Romero – Brian Milonas – Bad Luck Fale – Jonathan Gresham – Tracy Williams – Yoshi Hashi – PJ Black – Jyushin Thunder Liger – TK O’Ryan – Vinny Marseglia – Delirious – Tomohiro Ishii – Toru Yano – Colt Cabana – Hirooki Goto – King Haku – Great Muta – TWF: This match was a pretty fun rumble, although the ring got way too full for quite a lot of the match until they cleared everyone out towards the end. Some of the big names that got relegated to this match tell you how stacked this card was. Minoru Suzuki’s entrance music got a huge “Kaze ni Nare” from the crowd, although the NJPW World stream unfortunately had to dub it due to copyright reasons. Muta also got a huge pop for his entrance, which featured another ridiculously cool outfit. The Kingdom started running riot towards the end of the match, until Muta and Liger threw O’Ryan and Marseglia out and stared each other down to the delight of the crowd. However, in the first of many bizarre ROH booking decisions Kenny King ran in from where he had been hiding and threw both Liger and Muta out to win the Rumble. Winner: Kenny King
IWGP NEVER Openweight Title/ROH TV Title – Will Ospreay (c) vs. Jeff Cobb (c) – DB: WHAT A MATCH, both men emptied their respective arsenals on each other, a hard hitting contest no doubt, Ospreay was not as high-flying as usual and tried trading strikes with the larger Cobb, Ospreay had many near falls as did Cobb, Osprey got near falls with a Standing Spanish Fly & a perfect Oscutter but unfortunately the Hawaiian Juggernaut was just too much for the Aerial Assassin when he hit a top rope Tour Of The Islands and hit another for good measure. A brilliant first match that will set the tone for the night, (Personal Note – Who can stop Cobb- feels like Goldberg all over again). Winner and NEW NEVER Openweight Champion: Jeff Cobb
Dalton Castle VS RUSH – DB: WHAT WHAT WHAT …………RUSH just obliterated Castle and vanquished him in what i believe a record time, RUSH was straight on the attack and hit Castle with multiple Bull Horn Dropkicks to the face for the 3 count. Castle asked for this match , what will he use as an excuse as the man from Mexico just destroyed him, things going from bad to worse for The Peacock. Winner in a somewhat shock time: RUSH
WOH Championship – Mayu Iwatani (c) Vs Kelly Klein – DB: A good outing for both ladies , very even match up , in the early going it was Klein going after the left knee of Mayu and in return Mayu went after the left arm of Klein, multiple near falls by both women, a PoisonRana and Dragon Suplex scored near falls for Mayu. A Powerbomb and Horrific German Suplex and Lariat from Klein scored near falls, but the end came for May when Klein hit 2 K-Powers (Samoan Driver) for the victory. Both ladies shared a respectful embrace , then 2 familiar faces appeared on the ramp – Velvet Skye & Angelina Love , and they surrounded the newly crowned champ, Mandy Leon came to the ring and blasted Klein with a High Heel Shoe and now the newly formed group called ALURE is in WOH- Ladies beware !!!!!!! The mean girls are here. Winner and NEW WOH Champion: Kelly Klein
New York City Street Fight – Bully Ray Open Challenge VS Juice Robinson (Injured backstage) Flip Gordon answers the Bully Challenge OMG – DB: Bully starts off heavy hitting a Pop-Up Bully Cutter, Silas Young & Shane Taylor insert themselves into the match, Lifeblood (Haskins & Juice Robinson) came to help Flip then the match broke down pretty quickly ( as you would expect in a a street fight). A few high spots especially the brutal Kendo Stick shots Flip took (welts a plenty for Flip, but it seemed to fire up Flip). It reminded me of the riotous brawls of the old ECW days, Haskins damn near crushed the skull of Silas when he delivered a Double Foot Stop on 2 chairs (ouch), but it wasn’t Bully’s night when Lifeblood & Flip hit the patented WASSUP Diving Headbutt to the groin of Bully, then Flip put Bully away with his Beautiful 450 Splash and all 3 men covered Bully for the 3 Count. Winner: Lifeblood & Flip Gordon.
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title – Bandido vs. Dragon Lee vs. Taiji Ishimori (c) – TWF: This match was the perfect antidote to the (in my opinion) dire street fight that preceded it – a short, fast-paced, vicious match between three excellent competitors. Dragon Lee and Bandido absolutely killed it, and Ishimori totally kept up with them. They managed to deal with the triple threat stipulation well, with moves coming so fast that they didn’t fall into the trap of having one man awkwardly waiting outside the ring. As well as doing some amazing lucha moves, Dragon Lee and Bandido also hit some great power moves, notably Bandido who hit an amazing flipping avalanche fallaway slam on both Lee and Ishimori from the turnbuckle. Dragon Lee picked up the win after hitting Ishimori with a knee, and then Bandido with a Desnacadora. Bandido has to be in Best of the Super Juniors after this showing, he was excellent, as were Lee and Ishimori. I’m looking forward to the inevitable Hiromu vs. Lee showdown at some point in the future. Winner: Dragon Lee
IWGP/ROH Tag Team Title – Guerillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) (c) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA) vs. Villain Enterprises (PCO & Brody King) (c) vs. The Briscoe Brothers (Mark & Jay Briscoe) – TWF: This was a decent match, although it didn’t manage to live up to the previous triple threat. The entrances were very cool, particularly GOD and then PCO, who was shocked by electrodes in a Frankenstein-esque entrance. The match itself was a bit of a mess, with a lot of brawling outside the ring while two teams did their stuff in the ring, but there were enough fun spots to keep it going along at a decent pace. SANADA put Tanga Loa in the Paradise Lock to a lot of cheers, and EVIL hit his chair-on-chair smash on Tama Tonga while the referee was distracted. PCO hit a crazy dive onto one of the Briscoes on the ring apron, then got powerbombed out of the ring by Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa in a crazy spot. Ultimately it was GOD who emerged from the pack after hitting a super powerbomb from the top turnbuckle on Brody King. This result makes the most sense really, since Bullet Club already have links to ROH, and GOD should be able to build up some good feuds with other tag teams in ROH. After the match Yano stole the IWGP Tag belts, so presumably he is challenging next. Then Enzo Amore and Big Cass jumped the barriers and started fighting the Briscoes in what seemed like a shoot, but it now seems was a work. If that’s true it’s a massively tone deaf move by ROH, and I absolutely don’t want to see Enzo or Cass anywhere near New Japan. Winners: GOD
RevPro British Heavyweight Title – Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (c) – TWF: Zack and Tanahashi had a good match in the New Japan Cup last month, which Tanahashi won, and then ZSJ challenged him to a match for the RevPro title. Sabre came to the ring accompanied by TAKA Michinoku, who did his hype man routine in English, and got a big chant of “Just Tap Out!” These two have faced each other several times before, and probably had better matches than this, although this improved in the closing stretch. Tanahashi managed to counter some of Sabre’s moves, but he couldn’t hit a High Fly Flow, and Sabre finally caught him in the Orienteering with Napalm Death in the middle of the ring, and forced Tanahashi to give up. The crowd seemed a bit flat for this match, although they definitely popped for the final submission that forced Tanahashi to tap out. I suppose that Sabre winning is a bit of an upset, although he’s had the upper hand on Tanahashi since the New Japan cup last year, so maybe not. It was a solid showcase to get Tanahashi onto the card at least. Winner: Zack Sabre Jr.
IWGP Intercontinental Title – Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito (c) – TWF: For me, this was easily the best match of the night. Ibushi and Naito have a history of good matches together, mainly because neither of them has any regard for their physical well-being. The crowd was split fairly evenly behind both wrestlers, although Naito’s early tranquilo antics brought big pops from the crowd. This was a typically crazy match, with a lot of big neck-bump spots, including Ibushi hitting a hurricanrana off the apron to the outside, and a german suplex from the apron back into the ring. Naito hit a Destino for a very close two count, but couldn’t quite manage to get the second Destino to put Ibushi away. Instead, it was Ibushi who ascended to the level of his heroes Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi, borrowing the Bomaye before hitting a Last Ride Powerbomb and finally a Kamigoye to put Naito down for the three count. This was another excellent match between the two, and Ibushi finally got his hands on the Intercontinental Title, which will surely lead to some great matches down the line and allow Naito to turn his focus to the Heavyweight Title. Winner: Kota Ibushi
ROH Championship – Triple Threat Ladder Match – Jay Lethal (c) VS Marty Scurll VS Matt Taven – DB: This match will have taken a toll on the careers of all the men involved, it was brutal to say the least, all men putting their lives on the line in various spots of the match including Lethal being Powerbombed through a ladder set up on 2 chairs, Taven being Superplexed from the top of a ladder by Scurll and Taven suffering a ‘Macho Man’ Elbow Drop from the top of a 15ft ladder. Scurll was on 1 leg the majority of the match which impeded him from there on in, in the end it came down to the old enemies Lethal & Taven and on this night Matt Taven fulfilled his own prophecy saying that he is the Real World Champion, and after sending Lethal crashing into a draped ladder he now has the belt to prove it. Winner and NEW ROH World Champion: Matt Taven
IWGP Heavyweight Title – Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White (c) – White came into this match with consecutive wins over Okada in the G1 and at Wrestle Kingdom, and having generally had a much better 2018 than the Rainmaker. This match was a bit like the show itself – too long but with good moments. The first fifteen to twenty minutes were slow paced, which is generally an issue with Okada matches anyway, but at the end of a long show and coming right after the long ladder match it wasn’t the best spot for it. The match picked up later on as the big spots started coming, and Okada got an incredibly close near fall after a Rainmaker (so much so that one fan threw a premature streamer in celebration). One gripe with White’s strategy was that he dodged a Rainmaker by just dropping to his knees, which looked really stupid since Okada still had hold of his hand and he wasn’t even attempting to defend himself. White hit a Blade Runner, but was too exhausted to cover Okada, and finally Okada was able to hit a Rainmaker for a three count. The result was probably the right one on the night because it kept all the fans happy, although I’m surprised that they went with another short title reign for Jay White. Still, closing Madison Square Garden with the ace of the company standing tall was a good look for New Japan. Winner: Kazuchika Okada
Final Thoughts
TWF: I have mixed feelings about the G1 Supercard. On the one hand it is great to see a company other than WWE running MSG, and to see other companies doing well. On the other hand, the Ring of Honor parts of this show bordered on dreadful, starting with the booking to have Kenny King eliminate the legends Muta and Liger, to the recreation of the Beautiful People, the interminable street fight, and bringing Enzo and Cass back. Watching some parts of this show felt like watching the worst parts of WWE Raw. It was really a show of two halves though, since the NJPW matches were mostly good to great. The Jr. Heavyweight match and the Intercontinental match were really the highlights of the show, although the NEVER/TV Title match and the Heavyweight Title match were decent too. One other complaint watching from home was that the crowd sounded very quiet, which seems to have been an audio issue rather than a crowd problem. My view is probably different to Daniel’s, but this show would have been much better if New Japan had just run without ROH. What this means for the future of their relationship remains to be seen, but if this is an example of ROH’s biggest show then I am absolutely not enthusiastic about this partnership. AEW must be feeling pretty good about the results of this week.
