Honor Rising, the annual shows co-produced by New Japan and Ring of Honor in Tokyo, took on a new level of significance this year ahead of the NJPW/ROH joint show at Madison Square Garden over WrestleMania weekend. The IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles were put on the line for the first time ever at an Honor Rising event, and the Guerrillas of Destiny pulled off a shock result by beating the Los Ingobernables de Japon team of EVIL and SANADA. Elsewhere, the Briscoe Brothers defeated David Finlay and Juice Robinson to retain the ROH Tag Team Titles, Will Ospreay defended the NEVER Title against Dalton Castle, Jeff Cobb beat Hirooki Goto in a ROH TV Title match, and Jay Lethal defended his ROH World Championship against TK O’Ryan. The fallout from these shows may give some clues as to the shape of the card come April and MSG.
I pretty much only ever see ROH when the Honor Rising cards come around, so I have to say upfront that I am not privy to the current storylines going on in ROH right now, and this review is written entirely from the perspective of a fan of New Japan. What I will say is that Honor Rising usually feels like a throwaway pair of shows, designed to cement the working relationship between NJPW and ROH and allow Japanese fans to experience a more “US” style of show. Just the fact that the IWGP Heavyweight Champion gets to take Honor Rising off should tell you how they view the shows. Tetsuya Naito, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Kazuchika Okada did appear, but all in fairly meaningless tag team matches against the ROH stable The Kingdom. From a New Japan perspective the only major news to come out of these shows was the crowning of new heavyweight tag team champions, and an MSG challenge to GOD from the Briscoes. The Briscoe Brothers are former IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions so it wouldn’t shock me to see them win them again at MSG.
The match between GOD and LIJ was probably the best match of the two nights, although Shota Umino and Ren Narita both had very strong matches on night one of the shows against Marty Scurll and Zack Sabre Jr. Both Narita and Umino look like they’re ready for excursion whenever New Japan decides to send them off, although maybe they’re saving one or both for a Best of the Super Juniors run before that. I was actually more impressed by Narita on this show, who really showed off his strong technical skills against Scurll. These shows were also notable for Jonathan Gresham’s NJPW debut, and he looked fantastic going up against Taiji Ishimori and Robbie Eagles on night one, and then ZSJ and TAKA Michinoku on night two. He has to be included in BOSJ this year surely, and I think he will be a big hit with the Japanese crowd on a longer tour.
Otherwise the matches on these shows were fairly average, with the best of them probably being Cobb against Goto. Cobb and Goto are still to have a really blow away match, although I preferred their effort here to their match last year at the Cow Palace. Ospreay vs. Castle was fine, although Castle has clearly been slowed down by his injuries in recent times. The major thing that Ospreay did on these shows was hit a Storm Breaker on Jeff Cobb in a tag team match on night two, cementing his move up to heavyweight and possibly opening up an ROH TV Title match in the future. The comedy matches didn’t really do anything for me, but we did get to see the first time team of Colt Cabana and Toru Yano, who defeated Cheeseburger and Delirious on night two.
If the Honor Rising shows were eminently skippable Takashi Iizuka’s retirement show on February 21st was anything but. The undercard was solid, and saw Roppongi 3K pick up a win against El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru ahead of their Jr. Heavyweight Tag Title match against BUSHI and Shingo Takagi. Ospreay also pinned Davey Boy Smith Jr. in the semi-main event, again demonstrating that he’s moved beyond junior status. However, the real highlight of the show was the final match between the team of Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yano, and Okada against Iizuka, Minoru Suzuki, and Taichi. Tenzan and Iizuka used to be partners, and Tenzan had spent the New Beginning tour trying to get through to his old friend inside the iron glove wielding maniac. He even went as far as sitting a vigil at a shrine before this match, which he claimed held Iizuka’s good spirit. Tenzan was successful in getting a final victory over his erstwhile partner with a moonsault in this match, but ultimately Iizuka went out as a biting madman, and left his iron glove in the ring for a ten bell salute. A fitting end to a 33 year career with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Naito also continued to make noises about entering the New Japan Cup this week, telling reporters that he had conveyed his strong feelings about entering to New Japan management. Shinsuke Nakamura entered the NJC in 2013 as Intercontinental Champion, but since then the title holders have been kept out of the tournament since the winner could in theory challenge for any title. However, this year the winner will challenge Jay White at MSG for the IWGP Heavyweight Title, so Naito’s desire to be the first person to hold the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Titles simultaneously may be coming closer.
As far as the Honor Rising shows go, unless you are a New Japan completionist you don’t need to go out of your way to watch them. The LIJ vs. GOD tag team match is the only major change to be aware of, and the match was definitely an improvement on their match at the final of the World Tag League. I’ve seen it being suggested that part of the reason for the switch is to ensure that there are no visa issues for the MSG show, which was supposedly the reason for the lack of Japanese wrestlers on the New Beginning in the USA cards. If so, I suppose that this makes sense, although I don’t really want to see another Briscoe Brothers title run. We’re now at the point that Bullet Club are holding the IWGP Heavyweight Title, the Heavyweight Tag Titles, and the Jr. Heavyweight Title, so the faction looks very powerful, and hopefully there will be some interesting feuds to come out of this. My guess would be that Naito does enter the New Japan Cup, but loses to Ibushi, which would set up an IC Title match in April. Meanwhile Okada wins the Cup to set up a match against Jay White to headline Madison Square Garden.
Honor Rising Night One
- Marty Scurll def. Ren Narita, 11:33
- Zack Sabre Jr. def. Shota Umino, 13:56
- Jonathan Gresham & Jushin Thunder Liger def. Robbie Eagles & Taiji Ishimori, 5:27
- David Finlay, Juice Robinson, Toa Henare & Tomoaki Honma def. Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) & Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe), 12:14
- NEVER Six Man Tag Title Match: Ryusuke Taguchi, Togi Makabe & Toru Yano (c) def. Cheeseburger, Colt Cabana & Delirious, 10:16
- NEVER Openweight Title Match: Will Ospreay (c) def. Dalton Castle, 17:30
- ROH World Television Title Match: Jeff Cobb (c) def. Hirooki Goto, 13:52
- Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jay Lethal & Kazuchika Okada def. The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia), 14:10
Honor Rising Night Two
- Jonathan Gresham & Toa Henare def. TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr., 12:20
- Marty Scurll def. Robbie Eagles, 8:55
- Colt Cabana & Toru Yano def. Cheeseburger & Delirious, 10:09
- Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay def. Dalton Castle & Jeff Cobb, 11:45
- Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito def. Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia, 11:50
- ROH World Title Match: Jay Lethal (c) def. TK O’Ryan, 10:52
- IWGP Tag Team Title Match: Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA) (c), 20:26
- ROH World Tag Team Title Match: The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) (c) def. David Finlay & Juice Robinson, 17:13
