G1 Supercard

The G1 Supercard is an upcoming professional wrestling supershow co-produced by the American Ring of Honor (ROH) and Japanese New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotions. The event will take place on April 6, 2019, at the Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, United States. The events name refers G1 due to the G1 Climax tournament in NJPW and Supercard for ROH's annual event Supercard of Honor. The event will air live on traditional PPV outlets, Fite TV, Honor Club and the NJPW World streaming services.

The event is notable for being the first non-WWE promoted professional wrestling event to held in the Madison Square Garden since 1960 and the second professional wrestling event in the United States after All In to sell 10,000 tickets.

Background
On June 11, 2018, Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley told on an interview on the Baltimore Business Journal that Ring of Honor would run a show at Madison Square Garden in 2019. According to Ripley, the plan was part of a strategy to move Ring of Honor to bigger venues. It was also noted that Madison Square Garden has been reaching out to other professional wrestling promotions, due to WWE not been running at the venue consistently and preferring to run Barclays Center, which MSG officials were upset about. Wrestling Observer Newsletter journalist Dave Meltzer reported that AAA also had a date to run Madison Square Garden in September 2018 and that WWE was trying to stop ROH from doing the event. Six days later, Pro Wrestling Insider reported that Ring of Honor had lost its date with Madison Square Garden. During an interview with ROH Chief Operating Officer Joe Koff, it was revealed Madison Square Garden was backing out of the event after communications from the WWE, which led Sinclair Broadcast Group legal team to work on finding a resolution.

On July 12, ROH and New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced the "G1 Supercard" a co-promoted supershow between the two promotions, with Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito and Hiroshi Tanahashi being advertised for the event. It was later revealed that under threat of legal action by Sinclair Broadcast Group, MSG officials agreed to the original deal following weeks of negotiations and terms were finalized two days prior to the announcement of the event. WWE would respond the allegations made by Joe Koff saying "MSG is [...] free to work with ROH [...] however they want". Pre-sale tickets went on sale on August 8 for ROH Honor Club subscribers, while MSG hosted their own pre-sale on August 9 and tickets went on sale for the general public on Ticketmaster on August 10, costing from $30 to $300. On August 8, Pro Wrestling Insider reported that sources within ROH told that the promotion had already sold out about half of MSG, which were later confirmed to be 12,000 tickets in pre-sale. On August 10, it was revealed that tickets for general public sold out in nineteen minutes and was also among the quickest sellouts for a professional wrestling event in the history of the arena. This led to on September 5, ROH announcing additional tickets to being put on sale, priced at $56.00. Additionally, on August 10, ROH announced the first group of wrestlers taking part in the event; Marty Scurll, Bully Ray, Matt Taven, The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe). On August 23, it was reported by Pro Wrestling Insider reported that NJPW had filled a trademark in the United States over G1 Climax, and G1 Supercard.

In February 2014, the Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion announced a partnership with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, which led to the two co-producing the Global Wars and War of the Worlds events in Toronto and New York City, respectively, the following May. A year later, the partnership continued with War of the Worlds '15 and Global Wars '15, which were both two-day events, taking place in Philadelphia and Toronto, respectively. On August 21, 2015, representatives of NJPW and ROH declared that the relationship between the two promotions was stronger than ever, announcing another North American tour for May 2016, featuring new locations and wrestlers, as well as the first co-produced shows between the two promotions in Tokyo. The two-day event, entitled Honor Rising: Japan 2016, took place on February 19 and 20, 2016. Since July 2017, NJPW began promoting event independently in the United States selling out their G1 Special in USA and Strong Style Evolved events. Both ROH and NJPW would break attendance records in April and July 2018, with NJPW's G1 Special in San Francisco selling 6,333 tickets, while ROH's Supercard of Honor XII sold 6,100 tickets.

On February 7, 2019, NJPW and ROH announced a two-day fan festival named New Japan Matsuri and G1 Supercard Festival of Honor with the event being held on April 4 at the Japan Village and April 5 at the Hulu Theater. On February 12, NJPW announced that the winner of the 2019 New Japan Cup would get an opportunity for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. On February 21, it was announced would be broadcast on pay-per-view and also on the Fite TV, ROH and NJPW's streaming services Honor Club and NJPW World, respectively. On March 8, it was announced the return of the Honor Rumble (a match with WWE's Royal Rumble-style battle royals where entrants join the match at time intervals), with participants from both NJPW and ROH and was set for the pre-show of the event.

Storylines
G1 Supercard will feature professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches. The G1 Supercard will feature a double title match for the IWGP and ROH World Tag Team Championships in a "Winner Takes All" match. On February 22, 2019, at the first night of the Honor Rising: Japan, Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) and The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe) took part in an eight-man tag team match against Tomoaki Honma, Toa Henare, Juice Robinson and David Finlay. Afterwards, the Guerrillas of Destiny turned on The Briscoe Brothers. The following day, the Guerrillas of Destiny defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL and SANADA) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Later that night, The Briscoe Brothers defeated LifeBlood (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) to retain the ROH World Tag Team Championship. After the match, The Briscoe Brothers called out the Guerrillas of Destiny and challenged them to a "Winner Takes All" match at G1 Supercard, for both the IWGP Tag Team Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championship, which they accepted. Prior to G1 Supercard, The Briscoe Brothers had a scheduled title defense against Villain Enterprises (Brody King and PCO) on March 15 at ROH 17th Anniversary Show, instead, NJPW announced the winners of the match on March 16 would face the Guerrillas of Destiny at G1 Supercard. At ROH 17th Anniversary Show, Villain Enterprises (Brody King and PCO) defeated The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe) to win the ROH World Tag Team Champions in what was called by Guerrilas of Destiny, thus replacing The Briscoe Brothers in the match.

In the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match, Taiji Ishimori will make his third title defense against Dragon Lee and Bandido. On March 6, 2019, at NJPW's 47th-anniversary show, after Ishimori retained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Jushin Thunder Liger, Ishimori challenged anyone from Ring of Honor to face him in a match at G1 Supercard for his title. Afterwards, Ishimori's challenged was accepted by Dragon Lee, who confronted him and instead he would be representing Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). Later that day, Bandido, who is representing ROH, also announced he wanted to be added to the match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at the event. The title match was announced on the following day.

At the G1 Supercard press conference on March 13, it was announced that Marty Scurll who won the Survival of the Fittest tournament to earn an ROH World Championship match invoked his title opportunity at G1 Supercard, where he faced champion Jay Lethal for the title.