Being from New Jersey, you think Andrew was gonna miss a chance to see New Japan live? Let’s get the Supercard live bias reaction!

So you’re telling me I get a card with Hana Kimura, Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tetsuya Naito and Kazuchika Okada? Plus anything else that might happen…of course I’m going!

MSG was packed, it was a hell of an experience…but let’s see how much seeing it live skewed my opinion of the show.

Ratings:

• Hana Kimura, Stella Grey & Sumie Sakai vs Hazuki, Kagetsu & Jenny Rose: Kagetsu wins via Oedo Coaster @6:20 – * 1/2
• Honor Rumble: Kenny King wins @42:20 – ****
• NEVER Openweight & ROH TV Title Winner Take All: Will Ospreay (c) vs Jeff Cobb (c): Cobb wins via Tour of the Islands @12:50 –*** 1/2  – TITLE CHANGE!!
• Rush vs Dalton Castle: Rush wins via Horns of the Bull @0:15 – N/A
• WOH Championship Match: Mayu Iwatani (c) vs Kelly Klein: Klein wins via K Power @10:40 – * 3/4 – TITLE CHANGE!!
• Bully Ray Open Challenge 6 Man Street Fight: Bully Ray, Silas Young & Shane Taylor vs Flip Gordon, Juice Robinson & Mark Haskins: Flip wins via 450 @15:00 – *
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Triple Threat: Dragon Lee vs Bandido vs Taiji Ishimori (c): Dragon Lee wins via Desnucadora @8:55 – *** 3/4 – TITLE CHANGE!!!
• IWGP Heavyweight & ROH Tag Team Titles Winner Take All: Guerrillas of Destiny (c) vs The Briscoes vs Villain Enterprises (c) vs EVIL & SANADA: G.O.D. wins via Super Powerbomb @9:45 – *** – TITLE CHANGE!!
• Rev Pro British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi: Sabre retains via Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than the Last; The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness @15:15 – ****
• IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Tetsuya Naito (c) vs Kota Ibushi: Ibushi wins via Kamigoye @20:55 – **** – TITLE CHANGE!!
• ROH World Championship Ladder Wars: Marty Scurll vs Jay Lethal (c) vs Matt Taven: Matt Taven wins @29:35 – **** 1/4 – TITLE CHANGE!!!
• IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White (c): Okada wins via Rainmaker @32:30 – ***** – TITLE CHANGE!!

Analysis:

Hana and Hazuki are so damn adorable. This match was what I expected it to be. You got the personalities across with Oedo Tai and Hana, but the match wasn’t what one would call good. We got the usual Oedo Tai spots, Hana looked better in the ring than she usually does in Stardom, but for a dark match it was fine. Plus Hazuki and Hana, so I’m not gonna complain.

Honor Rumble starts off hot with Kenny King being 1 and number 2 is THE KING Minoru Suzuki! The crowd popped insanely hard for all of the Japanese stars. The time between entries was obvious that it wasn’t set, but the last few surprises were fantastic. We all knew Liger was going to be there, but the crowd was hot for Liger. THEN, we get King Haku to the Bullet Club music, so people were momentarily confused and then when it was obviously him we popped. But the biggest pop of the entire night was for number 30…The Great Muta! The match itself was a little hard to keep track of, but it was fun, lots of pops for everyone. Colt Cabana and Yano had a few funny moments. So with all the legends, it was just fun and the highlight of the night for a while. However, it’s funny how bad ROH looked in the rumble. I mean that more from the fact that all the Japanese stars got solid pops and all the legends came from the Japanese side. So the ROH side of the pool looked pathetically shallow.

Cobb and Ospreay are the first “real” match of the night, and it wasn’t a bad choice. Cobb got one of the best reactions for ROH stars, and the match was solid. The clunky Sasuke Special attempted catch hurt the pacing a little early, plus Ospreay getting destroyed for 10 minutes and then going into no sell mode makes no sense. Especially when he’s nearly 100 pounds lighter than his opponent. Suspension of disbelief turned into a big eye roll. Still though, good start to things, but some stuff even annoyed the live crowd.

Dalton Castle had this big elaborate entrance with more boys than usual, Peacock feather paddles, confetti…and then Rush came out hot. He walks out, takes his suit and mask off with emphasis and then he destroys Castle in 15 seconds. This all makes sense with what they’ve been doing with Castle, and Castle’s heel turn also plays into an idea I had months ago. Very simply, every Kingdom needs a Castle.

Mayu and Kelly had a solid match in Stardom’s  Five Star Grand Prix, but all of their ROH matches have been forgettable to bad. This started off fine with Kelly babyfacing herself by sending Camp Klein to the back, but a few sloppy throws and suplexes, as long as just clunky chemistry made this match hard to watch. Kelly got the win with K Power that most people expected, but then we get a surprise return. The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky and Angelina Love) walk out, Mandy Leon comes out seemingly to Kelly’s aid, but turns on Kelly. They lipstick an Anarchy A on Kelly’s head and then debut the new name ” The Allure”. It’s a dumb name, the crowd was flat and if ROH is claiming to want to put of great wrestling matches…and now put together a stable with Angelina, Velvet and Mandy Leon…ya…that’s not good in-ring talent. I don’t know what ROH is doing with WOH, and I don’t think they do either.

So earlier we saw Juice was laid out, then Mega Ran comes out to sing his awful “Going to the Garden” song. The crowd hates him, they boo. When Bully Ray comes out, he gets the pop. “Fuck Him Bully” is a chant that starts up. This is just cringe. Mega Ran got some popularity doing video game raps, and I never liked him 5 or 6 years ago when I learned about him, and the whole crowd wanted him to go through a table and booed him so hard it drowned out the mic.

After that shit moment, Bully said Juice can’t respond, so the open challenge is still open. I rolled my eyes and said “here comes Flip”, and fuck me running, Flip Gordon walks out. Bully’s goons of Silas Young and Shane Taylor come out to help Bully, and then Juice and Mark Haskins show up. Juice, not selling the backstage beatdown, and then cuts a promo to make it a 6 man. IT’S A STREET FIGHT! JUST GO IN, SHUT UP! The only good part about this was Flip Gordon has his “Please Sir may I have another” moment. He stood in between Silas, Shane and Bully and goaded them to hit him with the kendo sticks. I’m not a big Flip Gordon fan, but he earned my respect since the marks were deep red and obvious on Flips back. Crap in general since no one wanted those people in the match, but it at least had a highlight.

This was a typical lucha style match. Nothing bad, but nothing really fantastic except for Bandido’s Double Stacked Avalanche Death Valley Driver or whatever it was. It took a little long to set up, but the whole crowd knew it was gonna be something crazy…and boy was it. Taiji was kicked out of the ring, and Dragon Lee pinned Bandido, so Taiji has a direct path for a rematch. But generally I’m not mad, it wasn’t a bad match.

Now, the infamous tag match, not for what happened during, but for what happened after. Starting at the beginning, PCO had his electrocuted Frankenstein entrance with Destro, but people started muttering that took too long. So the length of the show was starting to wear on people with 4 matches to go. The match itself was a spot fest and hard to really follow. PCO did his Senton to the person on the apron and hit it. But the whole crowd gasped when G.o.D. literally got PCO up and threw him out of the ring to the floor. G.o.D. played up the “yeah we killed him” thing, and then PCO sat up for a second with his big wide eyed grin, but slowly laid back which got the crowd to pop hard and chant “He’s not human”. Each team had a few moments where it looked like they might win the match, but it was just generally hectic and not overly fantastic. G.o.D. win the whole thing with the Jado gifted Super Powerbomb.

Then we all know what happened after that. nZo and Massive Cassidy (or whatever the hell they are now) went after the Briscoes. Bully Ray ran out immediately, the brawl happened, security was worthless and then among the insanity Toru Yano apparently stole the IWGP Tag Titles. They kept the brawl off the camera but it looked dumb live since security ran out after the 5 minute scuffle was over. Like…where were you when it mattered? Yes it was probably a work, but it looked moronic in person.

So this isn’t quite the death spot, but you’re putting two more methodical guys on after a spot that has most people on their phones trying to figure out what they just saw. Stupid card placement. Taka’s hyping got a big pop, Tanahashi had a lot of support, and it was a pretty good match. But we’re starting to hit that point where the crowd is getting frustrated since it’s just a long night. Sabre wins with one of his moves with a paragraph long name,but it was solid and surprising.

This match had a lot of buzz in the building, people love both wrestlers, but there were a few miscues. They had one spot, the Body Scissors, block, Pendulum Piledriver Attempt, Reversal Attempt, and then just trip and fall. We had a really solid match that was building well, until that point, then the whole crowd went dead. Yes a Destino near fall had the crowd erupt and they got the crowd back, but still…that one spot was a big black mark on the whole match. Funny though, Ibushi signs a contract with New Japan and he’s had 2 titles in 4 months. He should’ve signed a damn contract earlier.

Now we’ve got the match that surprised everyone. Mutterings in the crowd had no expectations for this, and I really didn’t either. So Marty is still very over, people still love Lethal, and Taven is hot garbage. Taven got boos, “You Still Suck”, “Fuck you Taven” chants constantly. Yes he’s a heel, yes that’s kind of his job. But I don’t see the draw with him and honestly, I don’t think most people do. Maybe this was just the good ole ” You’ve stuck with ROH for a while, so we’re putting you over”, and I expected him to win since Scurll is mostly likely going to AEW and not re-signing with ROH. But still…no one wanted Taven to win (except for the Kingdom girls) and that killed the crowd a little.

So Okada and White was probably hurt a bit by the length of the show. I saw some people leaving after the ladder match, and this match didn’t get started until a bit after 11. This was insanely well wrestled by both men. White kicked out of the first Rainmaker he was hit with, and hit a desperation Blade Runner, but couldn’t pin Okada. Okada went into his sequence when he beat Tanahashi and Styles the first time, wrist control, short arm lariats over and over, just rocking Jay. The Rolling Rainmaker popped the crowd hard since we all felt it was coming. Then after a few counter attempts, Jay gets drilled by the Jumping Tombstone and then one more big Rainmaker for the win!

Okada and Jay White has a damn good match with a lot of growth from White.

Crowd completely hot for Okada and hated White.

Once Gedo was kicked out, you know it was coming:

The redemption of Kazuchika Okada.

Congrats Rainmaker #G1Supercard

pic.twitter.com/rU26cquzU8

— Golden Maharaja ™ (@KingNj90) April 7, 2019

Overall Score: 9/10

This was a great show. Even though the wrestling itself was lacking at times, it never really hurt the whole surreal aspect of the show. A packed MSG, Japanese stars that don’t come to the east coast very often, GREAT MUTA, the belt is back on the best wrestler in the world, Kazuchika Okada. My only complaint is morons that never sit the fuck down. You paid money to watch a show, not wander about paying 13 dollars a beer and being generally irritating. If your ass can’t sit down through the bulk of the show, then stay home. So many idiots up and down, in the walkway blocking the ring view. People ruin experiences and those type of people I would’ve loved to just trip down the steps.

So as many have said, the ROH moments of this show were the weak parts, there’s no way to argue that. They did set up a few things like Kenny King getting massive heat, Enzo and Cass maybe joining the roster could help them, Beautiful People might draw some curiosity and Castle’s heel turn is a long time coming. It doesn’t excite me, but who knows. It might do something.