Implemented in 2006, the Supercard of Honor is an event that Ring of Honor (ROH) usually holds every year during WrestleMania weekend, in the same city or in the vicinity of where the biggest show of the year will be held. from WWE.
The exceptions to this tradition happened in 2010 and 2011, when the Supercard of Honor was held in May, and in 2012, 2020 and 2021, when it had to be cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic.
On the other hand, the 2019 event was called G1 Supercard, having been co-produced by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). It’s therefore worth checking out our list of the ten best matches in Supercard of Honor history, in chronological order.
Supercard of Honor (2006) – Do Fixer (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, and Ryo Saito) vs. Blood Generation (CIMA, Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi)
Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi and Ryo Saito were a regular trio on Japanese promoter Dragon Gate, having even held the Open the Triangle Gate Championship. CIMA, Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino were part of the Blood Generation faction, also from Dragon Gate. Both groups did a short tour with Ring of Honor for a few days. Not only was this match rated 5-stars by the Wrestling Observer, but it was also voted the 2006 Match of the Year by that same publication.
Supercard of Honor (2006) – ROH World Championship:
Bryan Danielson (c) vs. Roderick Strong
Champion just over half a year ago, when he beat James Gibson at Glory by Honor IV, in September 2005, Bryan Danielson defended the ROH World Championship against Naomichi Marufuji at Final Battle, in December, and at Hell Freezes Over, in January.
However, he saw his title defense scheduled against Roderick Strong, curiously a fighter who had also already defeated with the gold on the line on two occasions, on October 29th and November 5th.
Supercard of Honor VII (2013) – ROH World Tag Team Championship:
reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly ) (c) vs. The American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards)
About four months earlier, at Final Battle 2012, The American Wolves beat reDRagon .
However, at the iPPV that followed, the 11th Anniversary Show, on March 2, 2013, the duo of Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly captured the ROH World Tag Team Championship by defeating The Briscoe Brothers. A month and a half earlier, the duo of Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards had received the same opportunity, but were defeated by the Briscoes.
Also during that month of March, reDRagon successfully defended the belts against Alabama Attitude (Corey Hollis and Mike Posey).
Supercard of Honor XI (2017): Dragon Lee and Jay White vs. Flyer Jr. and Will Ospreay
A somewhat random match, which was even presented as an “International Tag Team Showdown”. Volador Jr., who belonged to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), only appeared in Supercard of Honor XI due to a partnership between ROH and CMLL.
Even so, it was a match in which each team featured a high-level fighter (Dragon Lee and Volador Jr.) and a young technical wrestler of great quality (Jay White and Will Ospreay).
Supercard of Honor XI (2017) – Ladder War VII for the ROH World Tag Team Championship
The Hardys (Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy) (c) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)
In early 2017, The Hardys embarked on a tour of various independent promoters while they were still TNA tag team champions, as a result of which that tour was dubbed in Impact Wrestling as the “Expedition of Gold”.
On March 4, The Hardys debuted in Ring of Honor at Manhattan Mayhem VI, having defeated The Young Bucks to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship. At the time, they were still officially the TNA tag team champions – footage of the duo relinquishing the belts was only aired the following week –, so they were recognized as the only tag team to simultaneously hold the tag team titles. from TNA and ROH.
Nonetheless, the Hardys defended the ROH World Tag Team Championship against the Young Bucks and the Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) in a Las Vegas Triple Threat Street Fight at the 15th Anniversary Show , but, not least because the victorious settlement was obtained in Beretta, it was scheduled for a one-on-one rematch between the Hardys and Young Bucks for the Supercard of Honor , and then a ladder match .
Supercard of Honor XII (2018) – Ladder War VIII: ROH Six-Man World Tag Team Championship:
SoCal Uncensored ( Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) (c) vs. Flip Gordon and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)
SoCal Uncensored captured the ROH Six-Man World Tag Team Championship at the 16th Anniversary Show in March 2018 by beating The Hung Bucks (Adam Page and Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson).
At the same time, The Young Bucks were trying to recruit Flip Gordon as an ally, but Gordon was always very sceptical. However, the Young Bucks twice saved Gordon from attacks at the hands of the SoCal Uncensored, prompting Gordon to accept a temporary alliance with Matt and Nick Jackson.
That said, ROH enforcer Bully Ray scheduled a title match between the two trios for the Supercard of Honor and decreed the match to be a ladder match.
Supercard of Honor XII (2018): Cody vs. Kenny Omega
On January 28, 2018, at New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) The New Beginning in Sapporo, Kenny Omega lost the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship to Jay White. After the match, Adam Page, who like Omega was part of the Bullet Club, went to confront White but was stopped by Omega, who accepted defeat. However, Cody appeared on the scene, and applied a Cross Rhodes on Omega, in the culmination of several months of tension in the leadership of the Bullet Club.
These developments led to the scheduling of a match between Cody and Kenny Omega for Supercard of Honor XII .
G1 Supercard (2019) – IWGP Intercontinental Championship:
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Kota Ibushi
As stated in the introduction to this work, the 2019 edition of Supercard of Honor was called G1 Supercard and was co-produced by Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). In the first round of the New Japan Cup, Kota Ibushi eliminated the IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito. In the next round, Ibushi was eliminated by Zack Saber Jr.
Parallel to the rest of the tournament, Ibushi and Naito faced each other in several tag team matches, and it was later announced that both would return to fight each other for the title at G1 Supercard .
ROH/G1 Supercard (2019) – IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada
At The New Beginning in Osaka, Jay White defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time.
A day later, it was announced that White would defend the title for the first time on the G1 Supercard against the winner of the New Japan Cup. On March 24, Kazuchika Okada beat Sanada in the final of that tournament to earn a shot at the title.
Supercard of Honor XV (2022): ROH World Tag Team Championship:
The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe) (c) vs. FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler)
At Final Battle 2021, The Briscoe Brothers defeated The OGK (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship for the 12th time. However, during the celebration, they were interrupted by FTR, which resulted in a brawl between the two teams. However, on February 17th it was announced that the Briscoes would defend the belts at the Supercard of Honor and a month later it was confirmed that their opponents would be FTR. RIP Jay.