Welcome to Wrestle Purists’ coverage of ROH Supercard of Honor on April 1st, 2022.
Colt Cabana defeated Blake Christian
Cabana beat Christian with a Chicago Skyline. The two shook hands after the match.
A.Q.A. defeated Miranda Alize
A.Q.A. won with a shooting star press.
Backstage Interview with the Foundation
Jon Gresham, Rhett Titus and Josh Woods each addressed their opponents for later tonight, each essentially saying that even if their opponents are world class, the Foundation is better.
Tonga Liona and Kaun defeated Shinobi Shadow Squad
After the Shinobi Shadow Squad make their entrance, Tully Blanchard came out to announce their opponents will be his new clients. Tonga Liona and Kaun come out, and take the win.
Dalton Castle defeated Joe Hendry
This was the final match of the pre-show. Castle gets the win in his return match to ROH.
Backstage Interview with Bandido and Chavo Guerrero Jr.
Guerrero calls Gresham an interim champion at best, and he will help Bandido win their match by any means necessary. Bandido tells him he wants no cheating, and Guerrero agrees with him, though still says he’ll do “anything necessary.”
Swerve Strickland defeated Alex Zayne
Starting off the show is Swerve and Zayne. Bit of a slow start, but quickly sped up, with Zayne absolutely killing Swerve with a poison rana off the apron. Swerve eventually got the three count.
Brian Cage defeated Ninja Mack
Tonight was Ninja Mack’s ROH debut, being one of the “choose your honor” selections. Tully Blanchard comes out and introduces his next client, and it was none other than “The Machine,” Brian Cage.
Cage spends a lot of the match throwing Mack around like a sack of potatoes, including catching Mack out of a plancha and smashing him against the apron at the start of the match. Mack tried to fight back with kicks, but Cage caught him and put him down for the three count with the Drill Claw.
Jay Lethal defeated Lee Moriarty
Both men looked evenly matched early on, with Lethal showing frustration at not being able to hit some of his signature stuff. Lethal started taking control after working Moriarty’s leg.
After a series of near falls, the referee gets distracted by Matt Sydal, and Lethal uses the opportunity to low blow Moriarty. He then hit Moriarty with the Lethal Injection for the three count.
After the match Lethal and Sydal get into an argument, and Lethal ended up attacking him. Sonjay Dutt, who was shown before the match, came to the ring to stop him, and the two walked out together.
Mercedes Martinez defeated Willow Nightingale (Interim Ring of Honor Women’s World Championship):
Martinez spent a significant amount of the match in control, eventually managing to get the surfboard dragon sleeper locked in on Nightingale for the tap out victory.
FTR defeated The Briscoes (c) (Ring of Honor World Tag Team Championship):
The two teams have been teasing the match for months, and finally got to face off tonight, with the crowd going crazy before they even lock up.
Mark Briscoe and Cash Wheeler start off, being pretty even before tagging in Jay Briscoe and Dax Harwood, respectively. Harwood ends up spitting at Jay, and when they get back into the ring together Jay has the advantage.
The two teams traded momentum back and forth before going to the outside, where FTR took out Jay with a table and bust him open. FTR then spends the next few minutes isolating and working over Jay.
Jay managed to fight out and get the hot tag to Mark, who begins unleashing some redneck kung fu on FTR. The Briscoes take control, and hit the Redneck Boogie, but only got a two count.
FTR fights back, getting a two count of their own after a combination powerbomb and big splash. Briscoes comeback again, this time hitting the FTR with their own Big Rig for another two count.
All four men ended up knocked down outside the ring, and after getting back in they have a face off. It ends up with Jay and Harwood back in the ring together, and the two beat on each other until Jay gets the advantage.
By all rights it looked like the Briscoes had control, but then FTR hit Mark with the Big Rig out of nowhere, getting the pin and the victory. FTR are your new Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions.
After the match the two teams showed respect, shaking hands and hugging it out. As the Briscoes are getting a standing ovation, the Briscoes are laid out by the Young Bucks, who were chased off by FTR.
FTR grabs some mics, and challenge the Bucks to a match then and there. The Bucks refuse, saying if anyone wants to see FTR against the Young Bucks, they’ll have to tune into TBS.
Minoru Suzuki defeated Rhett Titus (c) (Ring of Honor World Television Championship):
Suzuki is in control early, out grappling Titus and cutting him off when the latter fought back.
Titus hits the dropkick on Suzuki, but only manages a two. Suzuki gets him up for the Gotch piledriver and plants Titus for the three, becoming the new Ring of Honor World Television Champion.
Wheeler Yuta defeated Josh Woods (c) (Ring of Honor Pure Championship):
The rules for the match are given by the commentary, and as both men make their entrance the judges, BJ Whitmer, Christopher Daniels and Colt Cabana are introduced.
Early on Woods shows the experience advantage, managing to get Yuta to burn two of his rope breaks. Yuta’s the first to throw a strike, and gets enough of an advantage he’s able to get the champ to burn one of his own breaks.
Yuta manages to gain momentum, but gets caught with a knee by Woods coming of the top rope. Yuta tries to fight back, but ends up having to burn his last rope break.
All of the sudden Yuta launches a series of hard elbows to the jaw, rolled Woods on his shoulders with a double under hook, and gets the three. In a surprise pin Yuta becomes the new Ring of Honor Pure Champion.
Jonathan Gresham (c) defeats Bandido (c) (undisputed Ring of Honor World Championship):
Gresham won his belt back at Final Battle after defeating Jay Lethal, who subbed in for Bandido after he had to vacate the belt.
Lots of back and forth in the opening stages. Bandido has the power advantage, but Gresham is able to match it with technique, with both men taking a moment to show off.
The match remains pretty even going forward, though Gresham is shown having the upper hand when they are grappling. He gets a few two counts and even gets the Octopus Stretch on, though Bandido gets to the ropes quickly.
Bandido hits Gresham from of the top rope, and then holds him up for the delayed vertical suplex. He holds him there for a full minute, with the crowd counting down.
Gresham starts to take the advantage back, but get cut off when Guerrero moves Bandido out of the way of a crossbody to the outside. Bandido argues with Guerrero for a second, before getting Gresham back into the ring and getting a two count off a shining wizard.
The two start trading strikes, but the ref gets knocked down and Guerrero uses the opportunity to toss the belt into Gresham’s face. Instead of taking advantage though, Bandido has the ref throw Guerrero out from ring side.
Both men turn it up to 11, trading high impact moves and near falls. Bandido hits the 24 ‘Plex, but Gresham kicks out at two and three quarters.
Gresham fights back, hitting a suicide dive to Bandido on the outside and throwing him back in. He then manages to get roll Bandido up for a three count with double under hook and gets the win, becoming the Undisputed Ring of Honor World Champion.
After the match Gresham begins to cut a promo, but he’s cut of by Jay Lethal coming out. Lethal asks for a title match, but Gresham denies him, citing his cheating in Lethal’s earlier match.
Lethal and Gresham start to brawl, but Sonjay Dutt comes out again to break it up. Dutt ends up cheap-shotting Gresham, and the two start beating on Gresham together.
Lee Moriarty comes out to help, but he gets taken out as well. Lethal holds the belts up with Dutt at his side, but then the music hits, and out walks Samoa Joe.
Joe and Lethal have a stare down, before Joe chokes out Dutt. Lethal makes his way out of the ring, with Joe stares him down. After giving a handshake to Gresham, the commentary tells us Joe will be on AEW on Wednesday, and the show closes out with him and Gresham standing tall.
