ROH legend, surprises, & Forbidden Door appearances at Supercard of Honor

Ring of Honor has been known for surprise appearances in the Tony Khan era. The Supercard of Honor PPV (March 31, 2023) did not disappoint in that regard.

The biggest surprise was the arrival of Nigel McGuinness.

McGuinness is an ROH legend as longest reigning Pure champion at 350 days and second longest reigning world champion at 545 days (behind Samoa Joe at 645 days). McGuinness joined commentary for the evening. He had several zingers. One that stuck out in my mind was suggesting that Hiroshi Tanahashi could benefit from joining the Jericho Appreciation Society if he lost to Daniel Garcia.

Speaking of Tanahashi, ROH also made excellent use of the Forbidden Door. Several intriguing names were in action on the PPV. Tanahashi was tested by Garcia, but the ace of NJPW handled his business to win via High Fly Flow frog splash. He also rocked out on air guitar.

Katsuyori Shibata returned to the ring to teach Wheeler Yuta a lesson and take the ROH Pure Championship back to the NJPW LA Dojo.

The human highlight reel known as Hijo del Vikingo was in action against Komander. Vikingo successfully defended the AAA Mega Championship. Let’s hit my favorite highlights from that bout. Both luchadores drank their Gummiberry Juice. Vikingo stood atop the ring post to leap for a springboard, but Komander caught him in the air for a powerbomb.

Komander was close to victory on a rotating corkscrew flipping splash.

Vikingo pulled out his step-up 630 senton onto a table.

Aussie Open competed in the Reach for the Sky ladder match. Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher didn’t win tag team gold, but they did show their ability to make ladder sandwiches.

The pre-show also had a variety of notable names. NJPW hoss Jeff Cobb bested former ROH TV and tag champ Tracy Williams with the Tour of the Islands swinging slam. Free agent Willie Mack went down in defeat to Konosuke Takeshita on a blue thunder bomb and running knee strike. Miranda Alize was pounced by Willow Nightingale and finished with a doctor bomb. Alize was a finalist in the ROH Women’s World Championship tournament in 2021 losing to Rok-C (aka Roxanne Perez in NXT).

The pre-show closed with a nice surprise as well. After Stu Grayson handled business to defeat Slim J, Evil Uno joined his pal to celebrate in the ring. Former ROH wrestlers Vincent and Dutch returned on stage with their Righteous gimmick for a staredown from afar with the Dark Order duo. This is particularly noteworthy, because Vincent and Dutch were long-rumored to be part of the new Wyatt Family in WWE.

Which was your favorite special appearance from Supercard of Honor?

Get the full results of Supercard of Honor here. The PPV is available for viewing through Bleacher Report in the USA and Fite TV for the rest of the world.