G1 Supercard

G1 Supercard was a professional wrestling supershow co-produced by the American Ring of Honor (ROH) and Japanese New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotions. It was the 13th annual Supercard of Honor event and took place on April 6, 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The event was streamed live on Honor Club, New Japan Pro-Wrestling World, FITE TV, and broadcast live on traditional pay-per-view outlets.

G1 Supercard
Promotional poster featuring Madison Square Garden
Promotion	Ring of Honor New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Date	April 6, 2019
City	New York City, New York
Venue	Madison Square Garden
Attendance	16,534[1]
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous (ROH) 17th Anniversary Show (NJPW) New Japan Cup 2019 Next → (ROH) Best in the World (2019) (NJPW) Wrestling Dontaku 2019
Supercard of Honor chronology
← Previous XII Next → XIV (canceled)

The card featured 12 matches.[2] Both the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and ROH World Championship were defended on the card, as IWGP Champion Jay White defended against New Japan Cup winner Kazuchika Okada, while Survival of the Fittest winner Marty Scurll and Matt Taven wrestled for the ROH World Title against champion Jay Lethal in a ladder match. The event's undercard saw two Winner Take All matches between NJPW and ROH champions, and UK partner promotion Revolution Pro Wrestling (RPW) had its top title - the British Heavyweight Championship - defended as well.

Production

Other on-screen personnel

Role:	Name:
Commentators	Ian Riccaboni (ROH)
	Colt Cabana (ROH)
	Kevin Kelly (NJPW)
	Chris Charlton (NJPW)
	Toru Yano (Honor Rumble)
	Mandy Leon (match #5)
	Caprice Coleman (matches #6, #7, & #8)
	Nick Aldis (match #11)
Ring announcers	Bobby Cruise (ROH)
	Makoto Abe (NJPW)
Referees	Todd Sinclair (ROH)
	Paul Turner (ROH)
	Kenta Sato (NJPW)
	Marty Asami (NJPW)
	Red Shoes Unno (NJPW)
	Tiger Hattori (NJPW)
	Chris Roberts (RPW)

Background

In June 2018, it was officially announced that Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling would be running a show at Madison Square Garden.[3] One month later, it was reported that the event would have been canceled due to interference by WWE.[4] The issues were eventually resolved and tickets went on sale for the event in August. During the pre-sale, 60% of tickets were sold,[5] with the remaining of the 15,000 tickets selling within 16 minutes of going on sale.[6] The G1 Supercard was the first professional wrestling event at Madison Square Garden by a promotion not owned by the McMahon family since November 14, 1960.[7]

Storylines

G1 Supercard featured professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[8]

At The New Beginning in Osaka, Jay White defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time. It was announced the following day that White will make his first title defense at G1 Supercard against the winner of the New Japan Cup. On March 24, Kazuchika Okada would defeat Sanada in the finals of the New Japan Cup to earn the opportunity to face White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at the G1 Supercard, a rematch of Wrestle Kingdom 13, where White defeated Okada.

On the second night of the Honor Rising: Japan 2019 supershow, the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) won the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the fifth time, while in the main event ten-time title holders The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe) successfully defended the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Following the main event match, Jay and Mark Briscoe challenged Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa to a winner takes all match for both of the teams' respective titles at G1 Supercard. The Guerrillas of Destiny then came out, confronting the Briscoes and accepting the challenge. On the following day, NJPW officially announced a match between the IWGP and ROH champions, noting that Jay and Mark Briscoe still had a defense scheduled before the show against Villain Enterprises (PCO and Brody King). King and PCO won the match, the titles, and the G1 Supercard match vs. the Guerrillas of Destiny. The Briscoes and Los Ingobernables de Japon (Sanada and Evil) would later be added to the match to make it a Winner Take All four-way tag team match for the IWGP and ROH Tag Team Titles.

On the NJPW's 47th Anniversary Event, Taiji Ishimori successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Jyushin Thunder Liger. After the match, he issued an open challenge to an ROH wrestler for a match at G1 Supercard. The challenge was accepted by Dragon Lee, representing Mexico's Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion - a longtime partner of both NJPW and ROH. On the following day, Bandido expressed the intention of joining the title match representing ROH. Later that day, a three-way match for the title was officially announced.

On March 9, it was announced that both ROH and NJPW wrestlers would compete in an Honor Rumble match as part of the G1 Supercard pre-show.

At the G1 Supercard press conference on March 13, it was announced that Marty Scurll - who won the Survival of the Fittest tournament to earn an ROH World Championship match - will invoke his title opportunity at G1 Supercard, where he will face champion Jay Lethal for the title. Two nights later at the ROH 17th Anniversary Show, Lethal and Matt Taven wrestled to a 60-minute time limit draw in a championship match, so Taven was added to the G1 Supercard match, which then became a ladder match.

At Wrestle Kingdom 13, Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Tomohiro Ishii to win the RPW British Heavyweight Championship. In a third round New Japan Cup match, Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Sabre Jr. to advance in the tournament. It was later announced that Zack would defend his British Heavyweight Title against Tanahashi.

In a first round New Japan Cup match, Kota Ibushi defeated the IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito. Ibushi would then be eliminated from the tournament in his second round matchup against Zack Sabre Jr. Throughout the rest of the tournament Ibushi would face Naito in tag matches with Naito pulling for another match against Ibushi. It was announced that Naito would defend his Intercontinental Title against Ibushi.

Reception

Critics of G1 Supercard mostly praised New Japan Pro-Wrestling's matches and angles while mostly criticizing Ring of Honor's matches and angles. Larry Csonka of 411Mania described G1 Supercard as "...a tale of two shows, with NJPW delivering bangers and a NJPW experience, while ROH failed and opted to trot out The Beautiful People, gave a cold Kenny King another title chance, went too long with Bully Ray, Klein’s title win, and wasted a huge opportunity on the biggest platform possible."[9]

Sean Radican of PWTorch called G1 Supercard a "really good show" saying that, "the ROH portions of the show weren’t very good at all outside of the Ladder match and even that had issues as the crowd didn’t invest much in the match and were really flat for Taven winning. The NJPW matches really delivered big time."[10]

Results

No.	Results[11]	Stipulations	Times[12][13]
1^D	Jenny Rose and Oedo Tai (Kagetsu and Hazuki) defeated Hana Kimura, Stella Grey and Sumie Sakai	Six-woman tag team match[14]	6:46
2^P	Kenny King won by last eliminating Jyushin Thunder Liger	30-man Honor Rumble for a future ROH World Championship match[15]	42:21
3	Jeff Cobb (ROH) defeated Will Ospreay (NEVER)	Winner takes all match for both NEVER Openweight and ROH World Television Championships	12:52
4	Rush defeated Dalton Castle	Singles match	0:15
5	Kelly Klein defeated Mayu Iwatani (c)	Singles match for the Women of Honor World Championship	10:38
6	Flip Gordon and Lifeblood (Juice Robinson and Mark Haskins) defeated Bully Ray, Shane Taylor and Silas Young	Six-man tag team New York City Street Fight[16]	15:01
7	Dragon Lee defeated Taiji Ishimori (c) and Bandido	Three-way match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship	8:54
8	Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (IWGP) (with Jado) defeated Villain Enterprises (PCO and Brody King) (ROH), Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil and Sanada) and The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe)	Winner takes all four-way tag team match for both IWGP Tag Team and ROH World Tag Team Championships	9:45
9	Zack Sabre Jr. (c) (with Taka Michinoku) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi by submission	Singles match for the British Heavyweight Championship	15:14
10	Kota Ibushi defeated Tetsuya Naito (c)	Singles match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship	20:53
11	Matt Taven defeated Jay Lethal (c) and Marty Scurll	Three-way ladder match for the ROH World Championship[17]	29:35
12	Kazuchika Okada defeated Jay White (c) (with Gedo)	Singles match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship	32:33
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match D – indicates the match was a dark match P – indicates the match took place on the pre-show

Honor Rumble entrants

Promotion

     – ROH

     – NJPW

     – Free agent

     – Winner

Draw[18]	Entrant	Promotion/Status
1	Kenny King	ROH
2	Minoru Suzuki	NJPW
3	Cheeseburger	ROH
4	Beer City Bruiser	ROH
5	Sho	NJPW
6	Shingo Takagi	NJPW
7	Bushi	NJPW
8	Yoh	NJPW
9	Shaheem Ali	ROH
10	Rhett Titus	ROH
11	LSG	ROH
12	Ryusuke Taguchi	NJPW
13	Will Ferrara	ROH
14	Chase Owens	NJPW
15	Rocky Romero	NJPW
16	Brian Milonas	ROH
17	Bad Luck Fale	NJPW
18	Jonathan Gresham	ROH
19	Tracy Williams	ROH
20	Yoshi-Hashi	NJPW
21	PJ Black	ROH
22	Jushin Thunder Liger	NJPW
23	TK O'Ryan	ROH
24	Vinny Marseglia	ROH
25	Delirious	ROH
26	Tomohiro Ishii	NJPW
27A	Toru Yano[lower-alpha 1]	NJPW
27B	Colt Cabana[lower-alpha 1]	ROH
28	Hirooki Goto	NJPW
29	King Haku	NJPW
30	The Great Muta	Free agent

1. Toru Yano came out as the #27 entrant, but ultimately gave his spot to Colt Cabana. However, Yano also entered the match a few minutes later.

See also

• 2019 in professional wrestling
• List of Ring of Honor pay-per-view events
• List of NJPW pay-per-view events

References

1. https://www.njpw.co.jp/tornament/183901?showResult=1
2. "G1 SUPERCARD" (in Japanese). Retrieved February 13, 2019. 全８～１０試合予定
3. "Sinclair's Ring of Honor to hold show at Madison Square Garden". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
4. "Ring Of Honor Show At Famed Madison Square Garden Called Off". 19 June 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
5. "ROH-NJPW G1 Supercard sells out MSG". SI.com. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
6. "ROH & NJPW G1 Supercard sells out Madison Square Garden". WON/F4W - WWE news, Pro Wrestling News, WWE Results, UFC News, UFC results. 10 August 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
7. "WWE's WrestleMania-week competition sells out MSG". 10 August 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
8. Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
9. "411MANIA". Csonka’s ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard Review. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
10. Marc (2019-04-06). "RADICAN'S NJPW/ROH G1 SUPERCARD REPORT 4/6: Live coverage of ROH/NJPW MSG debut headlined by IWGP Hvt. Champion White vs. Okada -". Retrieved 2019-11-04.
11. "G1 Supercard". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
12. Powell, Jason. "4/6 ROH and NJPW G1 Supercard at MSG pre-show: The Honor Rumble". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
13. Powell, Jason. "4/6 ROH and NJPW G1 Supercard results: Powell's live review of Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Hvt. Championship, Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven vs. Marty Scurll in a three-way ladder match for the ROH Title, Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, and more". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
14. "WOH Six-Woman Tag Set To Kick Off Events In MSG". Ring of Honor. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
15. "ROH and NJPW Stars To Compete In Honor Rumble On G1 Supercard Pre-Show". Ring of Honor. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
16. "Juice Robinson Answers Bully Ray's Challenge For NYC Street Fight At G1 Supercard". Ring of Honor. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
17. Currier, Joseph (March 17, 2019). "ROH World title ladder match added to G1 Supercard". F4WOnline. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
18. Elizabeth, Claire. "NJPW / ROH G1 Supercard results & liveblog: Switchblade vs. Okada III, Lethal vs. Taven vs. Scurll, and more". CagesideSeats. Retrieved 7 April 2019.