ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard fallout: Okada reigns at MSG

More or less ready to rumble

With the two big matches out of the way, let’s head back to the Honor Rumble, a 30-man over-the-top-rope battle royal, with the winner earning a future shot at the Ring of Honor World Title.

After Kenny King entered first, as per his request, the second entrant was revealed to be a different kind of king, a better king, The King, Minoru Suzuki. This was the first in a series of huge pops for some of the New Japan talent, and getting to sing “Kaze Ni Nare” live was a real treat.

By far, the biggest reactions went to the three legends who entered into the rumble: King Haku, Jyushin Thunder Liger and — the biggest shock of them all — The Great Muta. Having it seemingly come down to Liger and Muta drove the crowd wild, at least until King emerged from nowhere to eliminate them both and thoroughly anger the crowd. Seeing as the reward is a shot at the ROH World Title though, it at least made sense. Finally doing what he could never do on The Bachelorette — or Bachelor in Paradise — King went the distance and won the whole thing. Plus, he then got red-misted by Muta, allowing the crowd to give the retiring Liger a proper curtain call, so everyone was happy in the end.

A couple of other amusing moments: The clothesline train on Bushi as coached by Taguchi, Cheeseburger staving off elimination via being caught by his friends and Yano giving his spot up to new best friend Colt Cabana. Overall, fun stuff, would be entertained on a pre-show again.