The G1 Supercard will be looking to steal the limelight ahead of the WrestleMania 35. Two of WWE’s biggest rivals, Ring of Honor (ROH) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), will be joining forces to present the G1 Supercard mega-event. And they have picked one of the biggest locations to boast for it, the Madison Square Garden in New York City. The card for the first wrestling event at the Garden not run by a McMahon since 1960, will have 12 matches and and 10 championships up for grabs, including two title-vs-title clashes. The ROH/NJPW branded G1 Supercard will also see representation from other key wrestlers of this international, inter-promotional alliance with wrestlers featured from CMLL, Stardom, and RevPro.
There have been significant talent turnover, especially for ROH, and dramatic kayfabe developments since this show was first announced in July 2018 and sold out a month later. Most of the matches ended up being set up during the past month’s events surrounding both companies’ Anniversary Shows and the New Japan Cup, and several could have major consequences for ROH and/or NJPW’s futures. More importantly, there’s the potential for some memorable in-ring action.
The pre-show will be including the highly exciting Honor Rumble. Honor Rumbles are Royal Rumble-style battle royals where entrants join the match at time intervals. This will be the eighth Honor Rumble that Ring of Honor has put on and the first since Frankie Kazarian won an Honor Rumble in August 2017. The first person confirmed for the match was Jushin Thunder Liger and ROH later announced Kenny King, PJ Black, the Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser and Brian Milonas), and Cheeseburger. NJPW guys who haven’t been announced but seem like likely entrants because they’re booked on WrestleMania weekend shows but not the G1 supercard, which include Rocky Romero, Tomohiro Ishii, Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh), Minoru Suzuki, Taka Michinoku, and the LA Dojo Young Lions.
The Road to G1 served as the final event before the big upcoming G1 Supercard special. The tour’s first three events all took place in Texas - January 24, 2019, at Gilley’s Dallas in Dallas, January 25, 2019, at NRG Arena in Houston, and on January 26, 2019 and at the Austin Hwy Event Center in San Antonio. The fourth and final event took place on March 31, 2019, at UMBC Event Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Some results from the day saw Kenny King defeat PJ Black, Rush defeat Tracy Williams, and Marty Scurll defeated Shane Taylor to ease his way to G1 Supercard title match.
Jay Lethal, the two-time Ring of Honor world champion and current title holder will have to beat both Matt Taven and Marty Scurll in a ladder match to continue his more than eight month reign. Lethal, a New Jersey native, is considered The Franchise of Ring of Honor and it could be quite a big night for the hometown hero.
All of the companies’ big names will hit the ring in New York City starting with the pre-show at 6:30 p.m. and the main card at 7:30 p.m. live on HonorClub and New Japan World and replayed on AXS TV in two parts on April 12 and 19.There are a variety of options for watching this show! If you already have ROH’s streaming service, the $9.99 per month Honor Club, or New Japan’s streaming service NJPW World (about $9.00 per month), you can just open up one of those when the pre-show starts at 6:30 PM Eastern on Saturday, April 6, or the main card begins at 7:30. You can also buy the show as a PPV on Fite TV for $39.99, where the pre-show can also be watched for free.
