NJPW legend Hiroshi Tanahashi will return to ROH at Supercard of Honor to face Daniel Garcia.
Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite main event saw Adam Cole return to the ring with a win over Garcia. After the match, AEW/ROH boss Tony Khan came out for his standard pre-Rampage tapings speech for the local crowd, bu Garcia interrupted him and issued the challenge to Tanahashi.
Khan then confirmed the first-time-ever bout, and made it official on Twitter.
“The former ROH Pure Champion Daniel Garcia has challenged wrestling legend Hiroshi Tanahashi, and NJPW’s Ace has accepted the sports entertainer’s challenge for THIS Friday at Supercard!,” he wrote.
Supercard of Honor will mark Tanahashi’s first ROH stand-alone match since his loss to Adam Page on May 27, 2018 at the ROH UK live event in Doncaster, England. He did compete at the ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard event in 2019 at Madison Square Garden, losing to current NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr., who had his RevPro British Heavyweight Title on the line. Tanahashi previously competed at another ROH Supercard of Honor show in 2018, teaming with Jay Lethal for a loss to ROH Hall of Famers The Briscoes, who were the ROH World Tag Team Champions at the time. Tanahashi’s history with ROH goes back to the ROH/NJPW Global Wars in 2014. He’s worked almost 30 events under the ROH or ROH/NJPW banner.
The 2023 ROH Supercard of Honor pay-per-view will air this Friday, March 31 from the Galen Center in Los Angeles, CA. Below is the updated card, along with Khan’s full tweet:
ROH World Title Match
Eddie Kingston vs. Claudio Castagnoli (c)
ROH World Television Title Match
Mark Briscoe vs. Samoa Joe (c)
Reach for the Sky Ladder Match for the Vacant ROH World Tag Team Titles
The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero M, Rey Fenix) vs. Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher, Mark Davis) vs. Top Flight (Dante Martin, Darius Martin) vs. The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Mike Bennett) vs. La Facción Ingobernable (Rush, Dralistico)
ROH Pure Title Match
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Wheeler Yuta (c)
ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles Match
AR Fox, Blake Christian and Metalik vs. The Embassy (Brian Cage, Toa Liona, Kaun) (c)
ROH Women’s World Title Match
TBA vs. Athena (c)
Challenger may be Yuka Sakazaki.
AAA Mega Title Match
Komander vs. El Hijo del Vikingo (c)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Daniel Garcia
