BRM Reviews ROH Supercard of Honor 2023 (awesome!)

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Supercard of Honor 2023 (3/31/2023)- Los Angeles, CA

NIGEL MCGGUINNESS IS ON COMMENTARY!

AAA MEGA TITLE MATCH: El Hijo del Vikingo(c) vs. Komander- 9.25/10
This is what Kenny Omega vs. Vikingo wanted to be. It was just as insanely athletic, but with a great feeling out process early on to set up the “we are evenly matched” bit, a little bit of subtle heel stuff from Vikingo to give me a rooting interest, and the shaving down of how cooperative certain spots felt. Even that rana spot out of the corner that I hated so much in that match worked for me here. This might seem weird, but I think the reason for that was the close-up we got of Komander’s face where you could see the fear in his eyes that “this guy could jump down and land on me! I’d better get my arms out to try to catch him in a powerbomb if he does,” which made him holding his arms out feel like a defensive move, whereas with Omega and Vikingo, it felt like Kenny was holding his arms out to set up for the spot.

ROH WORLD SIX-MAN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Embassy(c) (w/Prince Nana) vs. A.R. Fox, Blake Christian, & Metalik- 7/10
This was a really fun power vs. speed match. It’s also the first time in the new ROH where it felt like the challengers had a chance to win.

ROH WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Athena(c) vs. Yuka Sakazaki- 6.75/10
Athena stomped on a doll during her entrance. They’ve also redesigned this belt. It’s now more purple. Speaking of bad coloration, Athena has sparkly pint paint all over half of her body. It looks terrible.
Athena was a good heel once again, but Yuka lacked the fire to make Athena’s overconfident heel act click the way it did in her defense against Willow Nightingale.

ROH WORLD TV TITLE MATCH: Samoa Joe(c) vs. Mark Briscoe- 7.75/10
When Mark went to the corner before firing up like he was tagging in Jay’s spirit to supplement his own, I teared up. At that point I became certain that Mark was winning… and then he didn’t. And I’m fine with that. Joe’s show of respect after the match was enough of an emotional win for the situation.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. DANIEL GARCIA- 6.75/10
Both guys worked the knee. Tanahashi could have sold his better. The match was just starting to get going when Tanahashi just hit the High Fly Flow and won.

LADDER MATCH FOR THE VACANT ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: Top Flight vs. Aussie Open vs. Lucha Bros. (w/Alex Abrahantes) vs. the Kingdom (w/Maria Kanellis-Bennett) vs. LFI (Rush & Dralistico) (w/Jose the Assistant)- 9/10
This was an awesome car-crashy Ladder match that REALLY got me behind Top Flight, to the point where I was upset when the Lucha Bros won. Everyone in this match is insane for taking the bumps that they took.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great
Mark Briscoe came out on stage to show the Lucha Bros. respect. And FTR did as well, getting a huge pop.

ROH PURE TITLE MATCH: Wheeler YUTA(c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata- 7.25/10
Jon Moxley came out with YUTA, but then went to the back. Shibata used the Pure rules better than YUTA, then kicked his head off and won the belt. Hopefully this is just a way to get rid of this unnecessary title. YUTA wound up looking like an idiot here, which is not what the Blackpool Combat Club needs right now, and feels like a big step backwards for YUTA if he winds up getting the tongue-lashing from Moxley that Caprice Coleman expected.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Claudio Castagnoli(c) vs. Eddie Kingston- 8.75/10
Holy sh*t! They had CHIKARA footage in the video package!
This was pretty much what you’d expect it to be with these two, with wonderful intensity and emotion. Claudio sold his knee well, and Kingston was perfectly resilient Eddie Kingston. The finishing sequence was tremendous.
Claudio’s win caught me by surprise, as I figured they were taking the belts off of the BCC guys so they could go be in ROH and Tony could fulfill his promise of not crossing things over, but I’m happy with Kingston not winning the belt yet. It will be better with more build.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great
Wheeler YUTA came out and he and Claudio had Kingston cornered, but Katsuyori Shibata came out to even the odds. The heels left. Kingston grabbed a mic and cut an awesome promo.


This was an awesome show from ROH. I feel a little more confident in Tony Khan’s booking (although not so much in his choice of undercard wrestlers, but that wasn’t an issue on this show). The more bare-bones he lets ROH be, the better it will be.