For the second year in a row Ring of Honor is holding two shows in two nights at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall. The shows last year played an important part in ROH angles for several months afterwards.

Last year’s shows involved 2 titles changing hands. Tomohiro Ishii defeated Roderick Strong for the ROH TV Championship in the main event of night 1 last year. The next night Omega and the Young Bucks defeated the Briscoes and Yano for the 6-Man Tag Team Championships.

ROH and NJPW present Honor Rising. https://t.co/0vHEBc9s6O See it on @njpwworld Be sure to sign up now! https://t.co/kt8cXhJivp pic.twitter.com/bNDjXfEJGG

— ROH Wrestling (@ringofhonor) February 24, 2017

Honor Rising 2017 Night 1 (Feb. 26th 6:30pm Tokyo time, 4:30AM est.)

David Finlay, Juice Robinson, and Kushida vs. Gedo, Jado (CHAOS) and Silas Young
Finlay and Robinson have both been moving up in the rankings as of late, but Juice more than Finlay. In the short time that the former CJ Parker has been in NJPW he has gone from the bottom of the ranks to a solid mid-carder. He now regularly tags with Hiroshi Tanahashi and other big name NJPW guys.

Never Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships
Bushi, Evil and Sanada (Los Ingobernables)(c) vs. Delirious, Justin Liger and Tiger Mask
ROH booker, Delirious, likes to get involved in these shows. In previous years he had wrestled Gedo, who just so happens to be NJPW’s booker.
The 6-man championships change hands frequently. No team has held onto the belts for more than 2 title defences. Los Ingobernables won the belts on February 11th after defeating Tanahashi, Nakanishi and Taguchi.

Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Roa and Takahashi (Bullet Club) vs. Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay and Yoshi-Hashi (CHAOS)
A good old fashioned CHAOS vs Bullet Club match. There isn’t really any upcoming NJPW or ROH match this is setting up for down the line. It’s just a match.

War Machine vs. the Young Bucks
The Young Bucks are the ROH Tag Team Champions, but this match appears to be non-title. If War Machine wins they’ll get a title shot down the road however, ROH rarely fails to follow through on such things. The live reaction to this match should be interesting, as NJPW fans don’t see heavyweight tag teams take on jr heavyweight tag teams too often.

Dalton Castle, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Taguchi vs. Hiromu Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito (Los Ingobernables) and Punisher Martinez
Kevin Sullivan’s protege, Punisher Martinez, joins forces with Naito’s Los Ingobernables. We’ve seen Naito be less than receptive to ROH wrestlers trying to join forces with his faction in the past however. Jay Lethal seemed to want to align with the group, but Naito turned on him in the end.
Dalton Castle and Taguchi will probably do a lot of comedy here.

Cody (Rhodes) and Hangman Page (Bullet Club) vs. Jay Lethal and Katsuyori Shibata
Cody still hasn’t done much in Japan, so it’ll be interesting to see what the reaction to him is like. Shibata is preparing for an eventual match with Minoru Suzuki, which was played up recently on the Togi Makabe anniversary show.
Hangman Page sure has moved up the rankings in ROH and NJPW this last year. He even beat Jay Briscoe clean on a PPV.

Adam Cole and Kenny Omega (Bullet Club) vs. the Briscoe Brothers
Adam Cole, leader of ROH’s Bullet Club, tags with the leader of NJPW’s Bullet Club, Kenny Omega. Neither guy really refers to themselves as the leader, but they are clearly the top guy from the faction in their respective organizations. Omega lives in Japan and is a full-time NJPW guy, and Cole lives in the states and is a full time ROH guy. This match will most likely be played up as ROH vs. Bullet Club, seeing as the Briscoes are ROH originals.