Ring of Honor "Supercard of Honor" PPV Roundtables
April 5, 2013

Sean Radican, PWTorch columnist (9.0)

This was an amazing show with an amazing conclusion. The fans gave the show fantastic energy from start to finish, and I really enjoyed how the S.C.U.M. vs. ROH angle played out throughout the show.

The matches on the show were very good from top to bottom, but it’s the moments this show provided that made this show special whether it was Elgin and Lethal having a fantastic match only to be beat down by S.C.U.M., which lead into a crazy ten-man tag, or the finish of the main event where the crowd became unglued as Jay fought through injury and adversity to overcome Steen and outside interference from S.C.U.M.

The rest of the card was bolstered by some very good matches including Bennett-Benjamin, Wolves-ReDRagon, and Anderson-Strong. Steve Corino was also a highlight throughout the show as S.C.U.M.’s mouthpiece. He was great on commentary during the Ten-Man Tag and his introduction of Matt Hardy before the TV Title match was incredible.

Now that the replay has been fixed by ROH, this is a must-see show. The crowd energy was incredible at Hammerstein and seeing Jay Briscoe win the ROH Championship is a must. It’s hard not to be excited about the direction of the company after this iPPV.

Brian Leahy, PWTorch specialist (9.0)

For ROH's Supercard iPPV, 97.5 percent of the presentation was flawless. Unfortunately for the live iPPV audience, the five minutes of feed downtime occurred in the closing moments of the World Title bout. For those watching live, it was a groan-inducing close to the evening, but even with this ‘minor’ blip it was impossible not to come out of the three hours of wrestling well satisfied with what was delivered.

The opener got things off to a flying start, as R.D. Evans did a fine job riling up the NYC crowd (as if they needed any help), before announcing himself as Q.T. Marshall’s mystery partner for his bout against A.C.H. & Tadarius Thomas. When the action got started, it was clean, crisp, and fluid. They told a basic story of Evans taking on more than Marshall appreciated, but the real entertainment came from the spring-loaded offense of A.C.H. & Thomas. A.C.H. closed proceedings with a cradle DDT on Marshall for a well-received pinfall victory.

I didn’t have the highest of hopes when Shelton Benjamin came through the curtain for the second bout of the night, but when Charlie Haas’s backfill turned out to be Mike Bennett, my interest picked up. Bennett, without fail, has delivered entertaining bouts on iPPV as far as I can recall, and continued his streaks here. Keeping up his end of the deal, Benjamin looked smooth and inspired and the two put together an perfectly acceptable effort. The finish might not have been clean (Brutal Bob assisted Bennett on the pinfall), but it’s heartening that Bennett went over; he may just be sticking around in ROH a little longer.

In Match #3, the action took a serious upswing in quality as Jay Lethal and Michael Elgin clashed in a #1 Contenders match. Elgin continues to deliver in every single outing, and Lethal when booked right and given a good opponent is more than capable of delivering top-notch bouts. What resulted was one of best matches of the entire weekend, and something truly special. Packed with high-impact spots and dramatic nearfalls, and buoyed by a crowd that couldn’t get enough of what Lethal and Elgin were dishing out, this was fantastic. The image of Elgin super-powerbombing Lethal was left etched in my mind, and nearly brought the house down. Elgin followed up the breathtaking spot with an hellacious backfist and a “standard” Elgin bomb for the win.

The teams representing S.C.U.M. and ROH had a lot to live up to next, and they were able to take the action in a different direction. With ten men, it risked being messy and difficult to follow, but the action was kept relevant and generally on-camera, while Steve Corino provided some color, on eh, color commentary. The pace was quick, with a high turnover on the “legal” pairings, but it was Corino who provided one of the highlights as he flung Caleb Seltzer into the ringside barrier and calmly and faux-apologetically retuned to commentary. A short while later, Rhino gored Coleman and picked up the win for S.C.U.M.

Post-intermission, NJPWs Karl Anderson and Roderick Strong collided in somewhat of a mirror match. The early going was a little tentative and even awkward in spots, but once they picked up the pace it flowed seamlessly. While this was as good as I’ve seen Strong perform in a while, being stuck in a “showcase” match with little build should be beyond Strong at this point. On the other hand, ROH could do worse than get Anderson back on a semi-regular basis, when touring allows. The late-bout stiff strikes brought the crowd back into the show, and after failing to connect twice, Anderson hit his Ace Crusher on the third attempt for the clean victory.

The card hit a small lull in the TV Title Match, as Matt Hardy and Adam Cole took on Matt Taven under three-way elimination rules. After a lengthy and funny ring intro for Matt Hardy courtesy of Steve Corino, the action got underway in earnest. While Hardy, Taven, and Cole tried and succeeded to present some decent action, the dog and pony show at ringside took most of the attention. Once the “Hoopla Hottie” Scarlet had finished giving Nigel McGuinness a lapdance, and Nigel had run through the entire book of Jerry Lawler double-entendres, the focus switched back to the ring, where Cole rolled up Hardy after a low blow, but soon after, Taven DDT'ed Cole for the victory. This wasn’t bad, per say, but was easily the worst match on the card.

Then, ReDRagon successfully defended the ROH Tag Titles against the American Wolves in a very entertaining semi-main event bout. Richards and Co. have oft been criticized for going overly long and being somewhat self-indulgent in their bouts, but this toed the line just enough. The early going wasn’t electric, but there was nothing wrong with it, and when the ReDRagon heat segment ended, the breakdown in action was superb. There’s no denying that these four mesh really well, and Fish and O’Reilly more than held their own. While the finish wasn’t 100 percent clean, it left Fish and O’Reilly looking strong enough and left the feud open for more matches down the road. I look forward to seeing plenty more of these four.

The main event, for any long-time ROH fan, was chill-inducing. ROH have had some special nights in NYC, and this may rank up there with some of the best of them as Jay Briscoe attempted to unseat Kevin Steen at the top of the pile. Briscoe came into the match selling a shoulder injury, which ended up being one of the key focuses of the match and a constant target for Steen. As you’d expect, the action was solid and had a steady build, a far cry from the stunts and bumps affairs earlier in Steen's title reign. As the action picked up, S.C.U.M. made various attempts to interfere only to be cut off by ROH wrestlers, which riled the crowd up even more. When ROH wrestlers surrounded the ring in the latter stages, the crowd hit fever pitch as Steen and Briscoe rushed towards the finish. On a weekend of ridiculously extended kick-out sequences, they erred on the side of caution, trading finishers once before Jay hit a lariat and a second Jay Driller for the win, and the ROH Title.

This was, quite simply, a great show from ROH. Technical difficulties aside (which have now been resolved on the VOD replay), this was a tour de force from the entire roster, booked close to perfection. Everything had its place, and nothing outstayed its welcome. Topping it off with a win for one of ROH’s best loved and longest serving wrestlers, ROH delivered a feel good moment that felt earned and above all, genuine. Something other companies tried and failed over the weekend. It's worth watching on iPPV at ROHWrestling.com.

Jimmy Eaton, PWTorch common fan specialist (8.5)

Well, folks, WrestleCon continued with ROH's Supercard of Honor VII. It's been a while since I've watched ROH just due to the lack of interest, but this card intrigued me a bit. That said, this show impressed and FINALLY I saw an iPPV that delivered. Granted, I didn't use the live stream and wasn't a part of the atrocity that was the main event being cut off, but nevertheless this was a phenomenal show. The lighting still wasn't the best, but I'm just thankful that the show was great. The response to the stream cutting off the main event? That was anything, but great but I'm grading this show without that issue.

A.C.H. & Tadarius Thomas vs. "God's Gift" Q.T. Marshall & R.D Evans was a solid tag match to open the show. I wasn't familiar with most of the participants involved, but I walked away thinking that I wouldn't mind seeing them compete again in the future. Good opener with a just enough to get the crowd into the show from here on out. Evans was fantastic as always with his mannerisms. Be it CHIKARA or ROH, this guy is as entertaining as they come.

Shelton Benjamin had a decent promo, but his segment with Mike Bennett dragged a bit for me and I didn't quite understand the whole thing with "Cheeseburger." The crowd seemed to love it, though. This was a solid match and a good send-off for Benjamin if it is indeed his final ROH match. but one thing I noticed was how sleazy they got in the match with Maria. Don't get me wrong, I like looking at Maria as much as the next guy does, but it got a bit distracting throughout. I know ROH likes to push the envelope to be different than WWE, but they need to be careful about going too far at times.

The #1 Contenders Match was very fitting with the right booking decision made. Jay Lethal vs. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin was an awesome match and Elgin getting the win solidifies how far he's come and shows that he can lead ROH in the coming years. He was absolutely memorizing to watch. Did I mention this was awesome? Really, aside from Taker vs. Punk at WM29 and Steen vs. Briscoe on this show, this was one of my favorite matches of the weekend.

The 10-Man War with TEAM ROH (B.J. Whitmer, Mark Briscoe, Mike Mondo, Caprice Coleman, and Cedric Alexander) vs. TEAM S.C.U.M. (Jimmy Jacobs, Cliff Compton, Rhett Titus, Jimmy Rave, and Rhino) was a fun brawl despite much going on at once but hence, the definition of a war. Good effort by all involved to tell the story and that's what I took away from the match moreso then the action itself. It was crazy at times, but fun and fast-paced with just the right amount of chaos. Ultimately the S.C.U.M. invasion angle took focus for most of the show of course and it was really emphasized in a meaningful way especially during this match. Corinio did a great job on the mic and the audio quality sounded much better than Evolve's house mic for what it's worth. It was nice to not have my ear drums blown out.

I loved the video package of Jay Briscoe's previous title attempts. I wish it had an explanation beforehand to tell me what they were, but regardless it definitely did the trip of making you care about his journey to the ROH World Title. It could've been a bit shorter, but I imagine it was for intermission when watching live, just like the promo from the previous week's ROH TV.

"Machine Gun" Karl Anderson vs. Roderick Strong was a very hard-hitting match. I haven't seen Karl Anderson before, so it was a real treat, knowing his reputation in Japan. This was another very, very good match if a tad on the short side. Nice to see Anderson respected by Strong too post-match.

The ROH TV Title between Matt Taven, Adam Cole, and "Self Proclaimed Icon" Matt Hardy was also a lot of fun with Hardy looking rejuvenated compared to seeing him last in TNA. The Hoopla Hottie part of the match with Nigel was stupid, though. It took away from an important match on the card and there can be other occasions if they want to push the sex card. Nigel was funny, but people who complain about WWE's distracting commentary at times should also be furious if they miss a few minutes of a match for something I can Google on the Internet. This completely took me out of the majority of the match and I don't remember this ever being an elimination match either, but I may have missed something. This was definitely not a high point of the show except for Matt crying after the match. That was hilarious.

The Tag Team Championship match of reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) vs. the American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) delivered fantastic tag action that reminded me why I enjoyed watching ROH in the first place. I actually liked the finish of the roll-up with a handful of tights to play up the heels and give the American Wolves a reason for a re-match. The match had a ton of hard-hitting action that maybe dragged a bit and lacked the usual selling you'd expect to see after some of the moves they executed. Regardless, a great wrestling match, which is a plus for anyone who likes the "wrestling" in professional wrestling.

Last, but not least, was the ROH World Championship match with Kevin Steen defending against Jay Briscoe. I know most people didn't find this attractive on paper as a big title match, but I knew these men could deliver. Heck of a match that really ended the show on a high note and brought the raw emotion that few title matches do today. I didn't need to see the promo as many times as they showed it leading to the match but, hey, it's still less then what WWE does, so I can't really complain. It was match of the night due to the story and emotion involved, as nothing beats seeing a guy who's mainly known in a tag team rise to the occasion and show just how talented he is.

It will be interesting to see where they go from here with Steen and Jay, but after seeing all the loses in previous title matches, no one deserved this win more than Jay Briscoe. Nigel said if he lost, ROH may be finished. I think a show like this is a huge step in the right direction for the company as a whole thanks to guys like Jay Briscoe. That main event gave me legit chills down the spine knowing that Jay started from Day One with ROH. This is what TNA missed the boat on with James Storm over a year ago. Great commentary, fun outside story with S.C.U.M. and ROH, and just an absolute blast.

Overall, ROH brought it with one of the better shows I've seen from them, including a great effort from the rest of the locker room and a touching cap on the show with the Briscoe Family. If it were not for some sleazy moments and a very underwhelming TV Title match, I would've called this one of the best shows so far of 2013. Either way, a high recommendation from this common fan.

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