6 Ups & 2 Downs From ROH Supercard Of Honor 2024

1. The Tone Was All Wrong

Dalton Castle Vs. Johnny TV is a difficult one to rate. The fans seemed to enjoy the characters and their dynamic and the idea of the match rather than the match itself.

Both were over in the building, and the big centrepiece spots drew big reactions, but this was too long for what it was, and what it was was an unwieldy balance between drama and comedy. Johnny TV beat up on Castle for what felt like an age as Tyra Valkyrie seemed to loop drawing heat forever on the outside. On a night that needed the levity of this daft pairing, they took too long getting to the gaga. The serious stuff made up every other match on the card. The comedy was a stitch when they eventually got to it.

In the big payoff, Dalton introduced a new line of Boys. They each attempted to deliver a suicide dive to Johnny. Each Boy was more endearingly terrible than the last, and the last one simply fell through the ropes directly onto his belly. This was a great gag.

The overlong match wasn't great, and the finish was odd. A Boy who was very obviously played by Paul Walter Houser stood around stalling for time before revealing himself and assisting Dalton with the win with a Bangarang executed on a pool of thumbtacks. His just being there and doing nothing was awkward, particularly since everybody had either guessed his identity or didn't give a toss about him.

As good as it was overall, Supercard needed a punchy bit of brevity. Not everything needed to go long - this especially.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!