ROH Supercard of Honor 2023 Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights

Welcome to Bleacher Report's coverage and recap of ROH Supercard of Honor 2023.

This is the first pay-per-view since the company returned to airing weekly episodes five weeks ago, so most of the matches on the card have been built up enough to drum up some interest.

This show took place during the biggest week of the year for the pro wrestling industry, so it aired while WWE SmackDown, AEW Rampage and the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony was taking place. Needless to say, there was no shortage of wrestling content on Friday night.

Here is a look at the results from the show:

• Claudio Castagnoli defeated Eddie Kingston (ROH World Championship)
• Athena defeated Yuka Sakazaki (ROH Women's World Championship)
• Samoa Joe defeated Mark Briscoe (ROH Television Championship)
• Katsuyori Shibata defeated Wheeler Yuta (ROH Pure Championship)
• The Embassy defeated AR Fox, Blake Christian and Metalik (ROH Six-Man Championships)
• The Lucha Brothers defeated The Kingdom, Aussie Open, Top Flight, Rush and Dralistico (Reach For The Sky Tag Team Championship Ladder Match)
• El Hijo Del Vikingo defeated Komander (AAA Mega Championship)
• Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Daniel Garcia

Let's take a look at what happened Friday.

On Friday, ROH announced four matches for the Zero Hour pre-show. To make things easy, we will recap all of those matches on this page.

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Tracy Williams was up first to take on Jeff Cobb. With Cobb fresh off a loss to Kenny Omega on Dynamite, he was looking to regain some momentum. They had a solid match, but it was relatively simple. Cobb won with his Tour of the Islands finisher.

Winner: Jeff Cobb

Grade: C+

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Willie Mack and Konosuke Takeshita faced off in the second pre-show bout. Mack got a nice response, but Takeshita got a big pop.

Both of these men are powerful, but Mack had a slight size and strength advantage while Takeshita had the upper hand with height and speed. They had a good, competitive match that got the crowd hyped more than once. Takeshita scored the win to end a fun performance.

Winner: Konosuke Takeshita

Grade: B+

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Willow Nightingale took on Miranda Alize in the third match. Willow is one of the most beloved women in ROH, so she obviously got a great reaction when she made her entrance.

The luchador used some cheap tactics to take control after a couple of minutes, but Nightingale ultimately regained her composure and won the match with a powerbomb.

This was a decent bout, but it didn't come close to some of Willow's other matches in recent months. A lack of experience as opponents may have been a contributing factor, but they still did a good job.

Winner: Willow Nightingale

Grade: C+

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The final match on the Zero Hour show was Slim J vs. the recently re-signed Stu Grayson. The Dark Order founding member got a nice welcome from the crowd for his ROH return.

Grayson exploded out of the corner as soon as the bell rang. He beat on Slim until the ref made him back off, but he got right back on his opponent. Ari Daivari and Mark Sterling did everything they could to give Slim a hand, but Evil Uno was there to make sure the odds weren't too stacked against his ally.

This match was high energy from the moment it started until the ref counted to three. After surviving a couple of near-falls, Grayson picked up the win with a backbreaker.

Winner: Stu Grayson

Grade: B-

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Cobb moves around better than you would expect based on his body type. He's more flexible than he looks, too. 
• Cobb should be billed as Rhyno's son. 
• Nigel McGuinness joined the commentary team after the first match. 
• It will never get old seeing a guy like Mack hit a dive out of the ring. 
• Mack's pounce was awesome. Takeshita sold it perfectly. 
• Willow's fisherman's suplex looked great. 
• The Trustbusters' entrance music is kind of catchy. 
• Grayson's apron senton is a cool move.  

The AAA Mega Championship was on the line in the opening bout on the main card when Vikingo faced Komander. Both of these men have gotten some exposure on AEW TV recently, so a lot of people have been getting a taste of their high-flying antics for the first time.

The Code of Honor was observed, and the crowd was going wild and chanting before they even made contact. They locked up and began trading wristlocks.

Surprisingly, they quickly took the match to the mat and began trading submissions, but they did it with the signature luchador style. Both men had the same idea several times, so they kept coming to a stalemate.

Komander set up a table at ringside before hitting a 450 off the stage to the floor. The longer the match went, the more it began to favor the champion.

After hitting a Canadian destroyer from the top rope, Vikingo hit Komander on the table with a 630 senton that somehow didn't break it. Komander hit his finisher, but Vikingo grabbed the bottom rope at the last second to break the pin. The champ was able to score the win with a 630 to end an incredible match.

If you like lucha libre action, this match likely made you very happy. If you don't like matches with excessive high-flying spots, then you probably had a bad time. This was an amazing display of aerial ability from both men. You don't have to like this kind of wrestling to appreciate the skill of the performers.

Winner: El Hijo Del Vikingo

Grade: A

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Notable Moments and Observations

• The Righteous, Dutch and Vincent, showed up at the end of the previous match between Grayson and Slim. It looks like they may be feuding with The Dark Order. 
• Komander had great entrance music. 
• The first pinning combination Komander used looked cool, but it took a little too long to set up. 
• Nigel tried his best to explain why Komander landed on his feet when he tried to hit a 450, but you could tell it was just executed slightly wrong. 
• Walking the ropes before attempting a shooting star press is the kind of thing you only see from a luchador. 
• Names don't even exist for about half a dozen moves that we saw in this match. 
• Komander ran across the top rope from one corner to another before hitting a huge corkscrew moonsault in one of the most impressive spots you will see all weekend.  

Brian Cage, Toa Liona and Kaun put the ROH six-man titles on the line against the trio of AR Fox, Blake Christian and Metalik.

All six men started brawling as soon as the bell rang, but once the dust settled, it was Metalik who found himself on the receiving end of a lot of power moves.

The action in the match looked good, but it was kind of all over the place. They were going from spot to spot instead of trying to weave together a cohesive story from bell to bell. It was fun, but it could have been much better.

Cage was able to secure the win with a piledriver to Metalik to retain the six-man titles for his team.

Winners: The Embassy

Grade: B-

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Cage had a green mohawk to match his gear, but it wasn't the same shade of green. 
• The way Fox just floats over the ropes when he does a dive is so impressive. 
• Metalik sells power moves so well.  

Athena debuted a brand new women's title belt during her entrance for her defense against Yuka Sakazaki.

They started with a steady pace as Sakazaki took control and hit a big dive out of the ring to the floor. When Athena took control, she began to get more confident and taunted her opponent with some dance moves.

Despite a late-match comeback from Sakazaki, Athena was able to put her away with the Oh Face from the top rope.

This was a competitive match with a lot of physicality from both women. Athena has really embraced this heel side of her persona and produced some great matches along the way.

Winner: Athena

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Sakazaki is one of those people whose energy is just infectious. Bayley and Kylie Rae are two others who have displayed something similar in the past. 
• The dive Sakazaki hit from the top rope to the floor looked great. 
• The triple powerbomb spot was great. 
• Yuka may not be known for her strength, but she showed some surprising power with a few moves in this bout, such as a superplex and a few slams. 

Samoa Joe and Mark Briscoe met for the Television Championship in one of the most highly-anticipated matches on the entire card.

To play some mind games, Joe rolled out of the ring to avoid making contact at the beginning of the match.

Mark began to use some redneck kung fu, but Joe was dishing out just as many strikes. The tag team specialist hit an impressive Samoan drop, but once Joe rolled out of the ring, he was able to collect himself and take control.

Joe's chest began to look purple after Mark unleashed a flurry of chops and palm strikes, but he was almost laughing about it. Soon, they began to bring tables and chairs into the fight.

This was a highly entertaining and brutal fight between two guys who love to inflict pain. Mark winning would have been a feel-good moment, but Joe ended up winning by referee stoppage after he locked in a submission.

Joe shook his hand before leaving the ring to show respect to the man who took him to the limit.

Winner: Samoa Joe

Grade: A-

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Notable Moments and Observations

• It was cool to see Mark still carrying the old tag title to honor his brother, Jay. 
• Most of the titles received a new design this week, but the TV title was kept the same. 
• Joe's belly-to-belly suplex at ringside looked great. 
• Mark's chair-assisted dive was a nice spot. 
• When Mark hit the neckbreaker from the apron, he took more of the impact through the table than Joe did.  

Daniel Garcia was out first for his match against New Japan Pro-Wrestling star Hiroshi Tanahashi.

They started with a simple lockup and an exchange of holds. They weren't in a rush to pick up the pace, and Garcia kept it slow by hitting a throat strike and ripping Tana to the mat by his hair.

The 24-year-old began taking the 46-year-old veteran apart by focusing on his knee with strikes and submissions. Tanahashi sold everything as if he was in the most pain he has ever felt in his life.

This was a solid display of technical ability from both competitors. This might not stand out compared to some of the other bouts on this show, but on any other night, this would have been a show-stealer.

Tanahashi was able to rally late in the match and scored the pinfall over Garcia to get the win.

Winner: Hiroshi Tanahashi

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Garcia is never going to look right wearing those leather pants. He could wear them for three years and it would still look weird. 
• Tanahashi was right on the edge of overselling at times, but he did a good job walking that line. 
• Garcia refused to shake Tana's hand after the match.   

The Reach For The Sky Ladder Match to crown new ROH tag team champions featured Aussie Open, Top Flight, The Kingdom, LFI and The Lucha Brothers.

There is no way to accurately recap what happened in this match because it was five teams of two fighting all over and around the ring. There was so much going on at any given time that it was hard to decide where to look.

We saw just about every kind of high spot and double-team move you could imagine in this match. There were tombstone piledrivers on the stage, several moves involving the ladders, and more than a few dives that took out multiple opponents.

At one point, Penta hit Dante Martin with a Canadian destroyer from a ladder on to four tables and Dante immediately grabbed his leg. You could see officials checking on him off to the side as The Lucha Bros won the match to become the new ROH tag team champions.

This match was a lot of fun, but let's just hope Dante is able to recover quickly. You could tell his leg was hurt as soon as he landed.

FTR and Mark Briscoe came out to congratulate everyone on a great performance.

Winners: The Lucha Bros

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

• The new tag titles look similar to the new world, pure and women's titles. The only belts that didn't get new designs are the six-man and TV titles. 
• There was a funny moment when Penta hit a dive and took a bunch of guys out. Mark Davis just sort of laid down even though he didn't get hit. 
• Matt Taven and Mike Bennett hit a combination suicide dive and doomsday device that looked awesome.  
• The sunset powerbomb Dante Martin hit on Bennet off the ladder was nuts. 
• Darius and Fletcher took a nasty spill on to a ladder at ringside. 
• Alex Abrahantes and Jose got into a bit of a scuffle.  

The Pure Championship was on the line in the penultimate match when Wheeler Yuta took on his former mentor Katsuyori Shibata. Jon Moxley was with Yuta to provide some BCC support.

Pure rules matches are always a bit more on the methodical side, but these two used a slightly quicker pace to sell their aggression. This was about more than just a title. This was about pride for both men.

Yuta was the first one to use one of his three rope breaks, so Shibata had him on defense for quite some time. Yuta tried to fire off some shots, but Shibata just no-sold them, so the champ reduced himself to using a low blow and a closed fist, earning his one warning of the match.

The challenger was in control for most of the match, and he put Yuta through the wringer with some stiff kicks and chops. Shibata ended up scoring a somewhat surprising win with a running kick. This was an excellent match with a genuinely shocking outcome.

Winner: Katsuyori Shibata

Credit: A-

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Shibata is one of those guys who just has a cool presence about him. You can't really explain it. He just has it. 
• Pat Buck, Madison Rayne and Christopher Daniels were the judges. 
• There is something kind of funny about somebody having such a basic nickname like The Wrestler. He earned it by being awesome, but it's so simple that it's shocking it wasn't used more often before him. 
• Shibata keeping the ref distracted while he kicked Yuta in the chest was hilarious.  

The main event of the night was the World Championship match between Claudio Castagnoli and Eddie Kingston.

It took less than two minutes for Kingston to try to bring a chair into the ring, but the ref made him get rid of it before he got himself disqualified.

The whole story of this match was about how much these two men hate each other, so this was more of a fight than it was a wrestling match. The champ used more traditional maneuvers than Kingston, but that is to be expected because of their personal styles anyway.

This was a war of attrition. Both men were drained by the end of this because they had given and taken everything they had. They delivered a performance worthy of the main event spot.

Both men hit each other with the best moves but couldn't keep each other down until Castagnoli was able to reverse a pin to score the win. The crowd had a mixed reaction to this finish, but it probably means this isn't the last we have seen of these two. Kingston should have won, but Castagnoli winning isn't a bad thing at all.

Yuta came out to celebrate with the champ, and they prepared to attack Kingston, but Shibata came out to stand by The Mad King's side.

Winner: Claudio Castagnoli

Grade: A-

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Kingston trying to bring in a chair almost immediately was really funny. He has zero chill. 
• Castagnoli hitting a suplex through the ropes to the floor was a great spot. 
• The slap fight they had was better than anything on that Power Slap show. 
• Castagnoli hit a double stomp at one point that looked like it landed right on Kingston's face instead of his chest. Thankfully, it didn't slow them down. 
• The elbow strikes from Castagnoli looked brutal. 
• The way they landed when Kingston took the gutwrench suplex from the apron to the floor was almost a disaster. Had he not rotated at the last second, Kingston would have landed right on his head.