ROH Supercard Showdown Review - May 14, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH Women's World Champion Athena, Billie Starkz and Marina Shafir def. Lacey Lane, Maya World and Yuka Sakazaki

This essentially served as a preview of the Survival of the Fittest match for the ROH Women's World Championship coming up at Supercard of Honor. Granted, Shafir and Lane won't be a part of it, but the other four will be. We usually get "star-studded" matches like this on ROH TV, so that was refreshing. It was well wrestled as you'd expect. The tension between Athena and Starkz will obviously carry over into the pay-per-view.

The Death Riders (Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta) def. Adam Priest and "Dynamite Kid" Tommy Billington

We were getting Death Riders matches on ROH TV pretty frequently for a while and they seemed to slow down, thankfully. I don't know why they were brought back here to beat one of Ring of Honor's regular teams, but at least the match was decent. I wouldn't mind if Death Riders challenged for the ROH World Tag Team Championship even just once to make this win more worthwhile, but I doubt that actually happens.

Satnam Singh def. James Tapia and Co Bennett in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match

This is the second match Singh has had on ROH TV this week. If he's not going to be on the Supercard of Honor card, then putting him on the shows leading up to the event feels like a waste of time. I'm aware his squashes don't last long, but he's been treading water for a few years now, so it's worth asking why they even bother televising his matches if they aren't leading to anything.

Josh Woods def. Angelico in a Pure Rules Match

As I've said before, I'm happy to see Woods back, but him continuing to do his thing in the Pure division feels like old hat. If he's not going to win the ROH Pure Championship (a title he's unsuccessfully challenged for multiple times already), then I'd prefer to see him do something else. If nothing else he came across like a badass here, and I liked the last-minute setup for him facing Nigel McGuinness at Supercard of Honor.

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Shane Taylor Promotions (The Infantry and Shane Taylor) def. Mance Warner, Eddie Kingston and Ortiz

I'm glad Kingston and Ortiz got a shot at the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship after beating The Infantry on last week's episode, though it was weird it happened on this show and not at the pay-per-view. I guess something else is planned for Shane Taylor Promotions? At any rate, this was fun. I thought Warner had nice chemistry with Kingston and Ortiz.

Blake Christian def. Evil Uno

This would explain why Uno got a random win on Tuesday's edition of ROH TV. I don't think you needed to build up Uno with a win just for him to lose two days later (it's not like that made this win for Christian more meaningful), but whatever. This was all about giving Christian an additional momentum boost before he fights for the ROH World Championship. His post-match promo was good, too.

ROH Women's Pure Champion Deonna Purrazzo def. Kaci Lennox in an ROH Women's Pure Championship Proving Ground Match

Purrazzo keeps having the same matches over and over again. I don't blame her at all, it's more so the situations she's being put in. I'm all for seeing more of Purrazzo, but the Proving Ground formula is lazy and overdone. We get it, she's a dominant champ. All this did was give her yet another squash win before she defends her title against Diamante on Friday night.

Dalton Castle and The Outrunners def. Charlie Malachite, Baby Keef and Xander Maddox

You can add Castle and The Outrunners to the list of people who are basically stuck in a loop on this show, having the same matches with no end in sight. The only obvious next step is them winning the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, which should have happened months ago if we're being honest. The best thing I can say about this is that it was short and sweet.

Zayda Steel def. Hyan to Qualify for the ROH Women's World Championship Survival of the Fittest Match at Supercard of Honor

Persephone had to be pulled from the Survival of the Fittest match after suffering a legitimate injury. That's unfortunate. Then again, the injury must not be too bad if she's been announced for the women's Owen Hart Cup. In this case, her loss was Steel's gain. I like Hyan, but Steel is a better all-around performer at this point and deserves the spotlight at Supercard of Honor. This was perfectly passable.

AR Fox def. Nick Wayne to Win the ROH World Television Championship

Well, that came out of nowhere. I'm not complaining because Wayne wasn't doing a damn thing with that Television title, but they should have given Fox the belt a long time ago. This was a super enjoyable outing and the crowd was happy to see Fox win. You'd think they would've done this at Supercard of Honor, but apparently not. Fox will defend against Lio Rush at the event instead.

Premier Athletes (Stori Denali, Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari) def. Jacey Love, Ricky Martinez and Ernest R. Alexander

Premier Athletes are also having the same squashes week after week and it's exhausting. The group was lame to begin with and, despite what Tony Khan might think, giving them wins over enhancement wrestlers doesn't make them credible. This was fine, but I'd rather see Denali get more matches on her own because there isn't anything remotely interesting about Nese and Daivari.

ROH World Champion Bandido def. Action Andretti in an ROH World Championship Proving Ground Match

Closing the show with a Proving Ground match that Andretti was never going to win was certainly a choice. I know Bandido is the biggest name on the roster, but closing with Fox's title win would've made more sense. Nonetheless, this was a quality contest. Christian emerged afterward to face off with Bandido in what was simple final hype for their championship clash.

Overall Show

If you include the Zero Hour pre-show, Supercard of Honor is going to be over four hours on Friday night, so it was unnecessary for the go-home edition of ROH TV to be so lengthy. Alas, I can't say I'm shocked. On the bright side, there was plenty of build for the pay-per-view as well as a notable title change. Those things alone made this an above-average show by ROH TV standards.

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