Ring of Honor-New Japan G1 Supercard Sells Out Madison Square Garden
The first non-WWE wrestling show at the legendary Madison Square Garden sold out in a matter of minutes.
Tickets for April’s G1 Supercard presented by Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling went on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. ET on Friday. A pre-sale for ROH HonorClub members on Wednesday saw about 60% of the available seats sold.
All tickets were sold out 19 minutes after sales were opened to the public, according to PWInsider.
The show will be held on April 6, the night before WrestleMania across the river at MetLife Stadium, competing against WWE’s NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn at the Barclays Center. While ROH has been running Supercard shows in conjunction with WrestleMania weekend since 2006, the company has never attempted to book a venue as large as MSG. SuperCard of Honor XII, held last April in New Orleans, attracted 6,000 fans to an arena that seats nearly 9,000. The Garden seats 18,500 for wrestling.
WWE has a long history with The Garden and though it has decided to run its premier New York events at the newer (and cheaper) Barclays Center in Brooklyn, ties between MSG and WWE remain strong, to the point that WWE allegedly attempted to strongarm MSG into reneging on its agreement with ROH.
The Week in Wrestling: Did WWE Really Try to Block ROH’s Date at Madison Square Garden?
Chris Ripley, CEO of ROH parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group, said in an interview with the Baltimore Business Journal in June that ROH was planning on running a show at MSG in 2019. But ROH COO Joe Koff told PWInsider a week later that WWE had intervened and attempted to get MSG to back out of the deal.
“We had a deal with [Madison Square] Garden and they then told us they were backing out after communications from the WWE,” Koff told PWInsider. “We are not able to get any other dates in any kind of discussion.”
The show was officially announced on July 12.
