McXal's Reviews

It's the Christmas 2019 period, and what says 'Christmas' more than perhaps the single biggest PR disaster in the history of Ring Of Honor? I say 'perhaps', because that time the then owner "lol'd" and "pretended" the person they were chatting to online said something else probably still counts as a bigger disaster! This week we take a deep-dive into G1 Supercard. Of course, by 'deep dive' I actually mean a vapid, clip-show, overly corporate hour of pleasantries rather than an actual in-depth review of the myriad of problems Ring Of Honor encountered when they ran Madison Square Garden (unfortunately - that would be a WAY better show). Ian Riccaboni is once again our host...

We open with what Ian calls 'one of the main events' from G1 Supercard. That being the ACTUAL main event of Kazuchika Okada defeating Jay White to regain the IWGP Heavyweight Title. The corporate revision of history begins...

The Ospreay/Cobb match is shown pretty much in full next, and it remains a complete blast. 

One match they have no issue showing in full is Rush's twenty second demolition of Dalton Castle. Ian calls it one of his highlights, but perhaps his favourite match was the 2019 Honor Rumble which took place on the pre-show. Extended highlights are shown, culminating with Kenny King's surprising and dastardly victory - last eliminating Jushin Liger and Great Muta.

The episode ends with a full showing of the Lethal/Taven/Scurll Ladder Match. As with every other time I've watched that match, and even after having seen just how f*cking hard Taven worked as champion, it still feels like an absolutely TERRIBLE decision to put the belt on him here...

Tape Rating - N/A - I thought about calling this show a DUD. As I said in my full review of G1 Supercard, as a Ring Of Honor fan I found the experience of watching the show so profoundly uncomfortable that it almost drove me away from the promotion that I've watched and covered via online written content since 2002; a hiatus from regularly watching ROH from which I would not return until September 2020. BUT looking at this episode through the eyes of perhaps a casual viewer who has stumbled onto the show and has no invested long-term interest in ROH, this was a great hour of television and a strong advertisement for the ROH product. Ospreay/Cobb and Lethal/Taven/Scurll are really good matches...and when put your product on television with a sold-out Madison Square Garden audience you clearly make your promotion seem 'big-time'.

10) Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Brody King/PCO (**** - 17th Anniversary Show)

9) Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham vs Tracy Williams/Mark Haskins (**** - Road To G1 Supercard: Dallas)

8) Mark Haskins/Bandido vs Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham (**** - Summer Supercard)

7) Rush/Dragon Lee vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe (****1/2 - ROH on SBG Episode 410)

6) Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Guerrillas Of Destiny (****1/2 - Summer Supercard)

5) Bandido vs Jay Briscoe (****1/2 - Global Wars Espectacular: Night 1)

4) Tetsuya Naito vs Kota Ibushi (****1/2 - G1 Supercard)

3) Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Jay Lethal/Jonathan Gresham (****1/2 - Final Battle 2019)

2) Jonathan Gresham vs Jay Lethal (****1/2 - Death Before Dishonor 17)

1) Jay Lethal vs Matt Taven (****1/2 - 17th Anniversary Show)