6 Ups & 2 Downs From ROH Supercard Of Honor 2024
It was a long night, but Mark Briscoe made it perfect.
The Ring Of Honor reboot hasn't exactly worked.
Writing from experience, watching ROH matches at an AEW TV taping feels like an imposition. By the time both Dynamite and Rampage are over, the seats begin to empty. You are kept on the hook for a strong ROH match to send you home happy, but before that, you are asked (or forced) to sit through multiple matches that really only exist to give some inexperienced talent reps. And that's a good thing! Just not four and a half hours deep into a TV taping!
Nu-ROH has given us the FTR Vs. Briscoes programme, Athena, and some great if echoey pay-per-views in front of smallish crowds. Even at its best. it's bittersweet. Jay Briscoe deserved a run in a major more than most, and Athena's bully character is far too good for a super-niche streaming service especially when you consider that the AEW women's division was hardly so crowded that it didn't need her.
If nothing else, as exemplified by the Supercar '24 line-up, Nu-ROH is Tony Khan's means of really trying with women's wrestling. Athena rules. Billie Starkz has been expertly built as a cult hero underdog babyface. The STARDOM exhibition promised something great in addition to those two developments.
Did Supercard of Honor truly justify itself? Or was it simply a fun to very good show that remained inessential in the grand scheme...?