Wednesdaymania 216: ROH G1 Supercard

I love me some wrestling. I mean, obviously I do, since if I didn't I wouldn't have an entire day of my blog dedicated to it! But! Holy frijoles, the G1 Supercard at Madison Square Gardens is insanely goooooooooood.

Such a fantastic show!

Now, obviously, I watched this on New Japan World, the New Japan network (like the WWE network, but cheaper and with amazing current wrestling...), so my experience may be different from that of someone on the ROH network, Honor Club. I know for a fact that several of the themes (Liger & Taguchi, for instance) are changed for copyright reasons, and I'm sure we missed something somewhere...

The card started with a dark match - a six-woman tag match. It continues the slightly worrying trend of most women's matches being multi-woman matches, but I'll forgive it because it's a dark match. Kinda miffed that the majority of men's matches were 1 v 1, though... I'd appreciate more balance.

Like, if you're going to say that you value women's wrestling, as a company, maybe have the same proportion of multi-person matches to singles matches that you have for the men. Match formats can be muddled with (hardcore, ladder, etc), but it really, really needs to be more even in the multi-to-single ratios...

Match 1: ROH Honor Rumble. Winner: Kenny King. Time: 42:21

Complaints aside, I have to say that the opening match, a 30-man rumble, was fantastic. Kenny King is a great wrestler, and I have no real complaints about the sneakiness of the finish. It was amazing to see both Great Muta and Haku in the ring again, and watching Muta & Liger start to face off was super cool, and even though Kenny King sneak-attacked them to win, it was great. Since I'm not invested in ROH storylines, this show was pretty enjoyable for me.

Match 2: Jeff Cobb vs Will Ospreay; Winner Takes All for NEVER Openweight & ROH TV Championship.
Winner: Jeff Cobb
Time: 12:52

Ever wanted to watch two people beat the tar out of each other and also ignore gravity completely? You can with this barn-burner of a match! Watch a big Hawaiian guy utterly massacre a springy Englishman! Enjoy the carnage as two men who know how to use their bodies to true martial-artistic effect go to town! 10/10 would watch again.

Match 3: Rush vs Dalton Castle
Winner: Rush
Time: 0:15?! That sounds wrong, Wikipedia...

I loved Dalton Castle. Now, I am very confused. You see, if there's one thing Castle holds sacred, it's the wellbeing of his Boys, but after this stinging defeat, he...

He attacked his boys.

He mauled them.

He destroyed them.

I'm not sure I like where this is headed :(

Match 4: Mayu Iwatami vs Kelly Klein; Women of Honor Championship match
Winner: Kelly Klein
Time: 10:38

I don't think I've ever seen either one of these women wrestle, but my god, they can go. Kelly Klein has a great, strong, believable build, and she can go. Mayu Iwatami has a great presence and can really throw down. This was a fantastic match, but it kind of felt like they were rushing to the finish... And then there was the storyline nonsense right after the match. Ugh.

I hate mean-girls types. The wrestling business is lousy with pretty girls who are cruel. While I like the whole sexy-anarchy thing they have going, I was... less than impressed. It made Klein look weak. That's not what you want when you've just crowned a new champ. Why is it so hard for Bookers to get that?

Match 5: Flip Gordon & Lifeblood vs Bully Ray, Silas Young, & Shane Taylor
Bully Ray's Open Challenge
Winner: Flip & Lifeblood
Time: 15:01

So... I get really worked up over Bully Ray, since he's a really good heel. This match was all about his rivalry with Flip Gordon, and it was uncomfortable to watch. Everyone caned Flip. His back looked like hamburger. It was upsetting, but it was also 100% effective. You really want Flip to win by the end of this! The faces surrounded Bully and taunted him with kendo sticks, and it was just... it was fantastic. 10/10, would watch again.

Match 6: Bandido vs Taiji Ishimori vs Dragon Lee; IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship
Winner: Dragon Lee
Time: 8:54

Talk about matches that could've easily been twice as long! I'm a little concerned about the outcome, however. As fantastic as this match was, and as wonderful as these three would be as potential future rivals for the soon-to-return Hirumu Takahashi, the fact that it's Dragon Lee, the guy who broke Takahashi's neck, who won, that worries me.

It seems like NJPW is going to set up Dragon Lee as a longterm foe for Takahashi to work his way back up towards. Wow. That's... wow.

Match 7:GOD vs Villains Enterprises vs Los Ingobernables vs Dem Boys...
Winner-Takes-All Four-way for IWGP & ROH Tag Championships
Winners: GOD (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa)
Time: 9:45

I'm just going to say it out loud: I can't stand the Briscoes. They have Go Home heat with me. I don't enjoy watching them, even though I know they're incredible wrestlers. They just... they make me uncomfortable in a very un-wrestling way. Like, PCO is a scary man, and he's got that heart scar and he's practically undead (and his opening, while about 20 minutes too long because of poor planning & execution, was fantastic), but I don't feel like I'm going to see him on the news with half-eaten women chained in his shed.

Regardless, I think the right team won here. I love LIJ. I love Villain Enterprises. I just think it's GOD's time.

Great match, 9/10, would watch again.

Match 8: Zack Sabre Jr vs Hiroshi Tanahashi; British Heavyweight Championship
Winner: ZSJ
Time: 15:14

I could watch this match all day long. It's a perfect blending of submission styles, rope breaks, and just plain cruelty, but while ZSJ is a consummate heel, and while Taka is the best heel-mouthpiece (barring Paul Heyman), I never got the sense that the match was getting out of hand. There's a lot of respect in that ring, even while you watch a scrawny vegan Brit bend a beefy Japanese air-guitar-champ into pretzel knots.

10/10, would watch again.

Match 9: Tetsuya Naito vs Kota Ibushi; IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Winner: Kota Ibushi
Time: 20:53

This match was everything I had hoped it would be and more. Ibushi is a madman, Naito is a madman, they're both insanely good wrestlers, and it's basically just a bouquet of violent ballet. If you need to show someone how to make a very violent but very beautiful match, show them these two fighting. They're primo. They're fantastico. They're amazing.

12/10, will watch again.

Match 10: Marty Scurll vs Jay Lethal vs Matt Taven; ROH World Championship Ladder Match
First of Two Main Events
Winner: Matt Taven
Time: 29:35

This is honestly one of the hardest ladder matches I've ever seen. It had some insane spots (Lethal wound up upside-down with his head inside a ladder that was draped across the ropes, and there were chair-shots involved). It was brutal and terrifying and I hollered more than once. Any one of these men could have won and I'd have been a very happy FC. I'm a Scurll Gurll, Lethal is fantastic, and when I saw Matt Taven live, I was in awe. Seriously, all these guys. Amazing.

There was a spot where Taven brought out his own purple ladder, which was, of course, the biggest one. It was amazing. I loved it.

I'm 99% sure that Marty is going to AEW after this month, so it wasn't a shock that he didn't win.

I was much more surprised at Taven's win. Does Lethal need surgery or something? Is he leaving the ring? I hope not. He's incredible. Taven did a lot to earn that belt, though.

And now he can drape both it and his custom belt over his chest like badass bandoliers.

11/10, would watch a million times.

Uh

Probably through my fingers, though. It's really brutal.

Final Match: Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White; IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Winner: Kazuchika Okada
Time: 32:33

Both of these men are mad lads. They take so much punishment from one another it's not even funny. What was funny, however, was the entirety of Madison Square Garden overwhelmingly cussing out Gedo, who has turned on the Rainmaker (Okada) and joined with the Switchblade (White). White is a fantastic heel, he's been a great champion, but it was only a matter of time before the gold found its way back home with Okada.

I would absolutely love to see this match again and again.

I look forward to this matchup being the new Kenny vs Okada.

13/10


I think that'll do it for me today. There's so much I haven't discussed - how insane it is that NJPW go this show going in the first place in a stadium Vince McMahon thinks is his, how Toru Yano got Colt Cabana involved in the Rumble, how Enzo & Big Cass were there (on purpose & with permission) but they weren't shown for some reason...

I just can't cover it all.

You'll have to watch it for yourself, if you can!

Go Enjoy Something!
FC