Top NJPW Star Pulled From ROH Supercard of Honor
Ring of Honor's new era truly kicks off this weekend. AEW President Tony Khan purchased the promotion back in early 2022, quietly rebranding it as a sister company to AEW. The already-scheduled ROH Supercard of Honor 2022 went on as scheduled, with Khan adding ROH Death Before Dishonor and ROH Final Battle to the pay-per-view calendar to round out the year. All these events were accomplished without a weekly television program, as top matches were built to on AEW programming. That changed at the start of the new year, as ROH began running its own self-branded weekly show on the rebooted HonorClub streaming service.
Those ROH TV tapings have proved to be a melting pot of the professional wrestling world, as AEW talent, ROH originals, and New Japan imports showed face on the shows. ROH's weekly TV has been building to this weekend's ROH Supercard of Honor, an event that will bring the likes of AAA's El Hijo del Vikingo and NJPW's Hiroshi Tanahashi to the honorable ring.
If everything went according to plan, another top international star would have had a spot on the card. Speaking on the ROH Supercard of Honor media call, ROH owner Tony Khan revealed that Will Ospreay was initially set to compete on the show. Ospreay's recent shoulder injury pulled him from Supercard as well as a number of other matches that he had scheduled during WrestleMania weekend.
It's unclear as to who Ospreay would have faced within ROH ropes. The recent addition of Tanahashi vs. Daniel Garcia could indicate that the leader of the United Empire would have squared off with the Jericho Appreciation Society member if not for his injury.
Ospreay had a couple of American stints last year, competing for AEW during the lead up to AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door and participating in the AEW World Trios Championship tournament. Ospreay is rumored to headline this year's Forbidden Door against IWGP United States Champion Kenny Omega in a rematch from their NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 clash, but that all depends on his recovery.
ROH Supercard of Honor goes down this Friday, March 31st. The full card can be seen below...
- Ring of Honor World Championship: Claudio Castagnoli (c) vs. Eddie Kingston
- 'Reach for the Sky' Ladder Match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship: The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fénix) vs. Top Flight (Dante Martin and Darius Martin) vs. The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) vs. Aussie Open (Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher) vs. La Facción Ingobernable (Rush and Dralístico)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Daniel Garcia
- Ring of Honor Women's World Championship: Athena (c) vs. Yuka Sakazaki
- Ring of Honor World Television Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Mark Briscoe
- Ring of Honor Pure Championship: Wheeler Yuta (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata
- Ring of Honor World Six-Man Tag Team Championship: The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun, and Toa Liona) (c) (with Prince Nana) vs. AR Fox, Blake Christian, and Metalik
- AAA Mega Championship: El Hijo del Vikingo (c) vs. Komander
