What’s the news?
As per a story on topropepress.com, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling have announced their participants for the Honor Rising shows set for February 26th and 27th.
Ring of Honor’s representatives for the two-night extravaganza includes ROH World Champion Adam Cole, former ROH World Champion Jay Lethal, War Machine (Raymond Rowe and Hanson), the Briscoe Brothers (Mark and Jay), Dalton Castle, Delirious, Silas Young and Punisher Martinez.
In case you didn’t know...
Honor Rising is co-produced by New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor. The shows will be broadcast live on New Japan’s NJPW World streaming service. Continuing the partnership between NJPW and ROH, the 2017 edition of Honor Rising will be the second co-produced show from the two promotions to happen in Japan, and will be held at Korakuen Hall once again, as it did in 2016.
In 2014 and 2015, the two promotions held joint shows titled Global Wars and War of the Worlds, in Canada and the United States, respectively.
Honor Rising 2016 saw the promotions mesh instead of a promotion war, so to speak. ROH talents and New Japan talents would join forces in what some would consider dream matches.
The heart of the matter
Honor Rising is noteworthy, as it will be the first time that Kenny Omega will wrestle for New Japan since his six-star match with IWGP Champion, Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 11.
Speculation ran rampant about Kenny Omega’s future during his self-imposed break from action, but it was quickly quelled once he announced that he was going to stay with New Japan for at least one more year, and would not be signing with WWE at that time.
New Japan’s contingent is made up of Bullet Club members Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, Bad Luck Fale, Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa), Ring Of Honor Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), and Hangman Page. New Japan will also be represented by Juice Robinson (the former CJ Parker) and Will Ospreay will represent the CHAOS stable.
What’s next?
Honor Rising 2017 will take place on February 26th and 27th from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. If last year’s event holds any kind of parallel to this year’s event, the two promotions should announce the official card sometime on or around the middle of February. Last year’s card was announced on February 15th, 2016.
Sportskeeda’s take
It’s always a pleasure to see some of the most talented wrestlers in the world from different promotions mixing it up inside the squared circle. It will be interesting to see what kind of matches are drawn for this year’s iteration of the event, but with the talent available, we can only imagine that the shows will be incredible.
