Another name was added to the Ring of Honor SuperCard of Honor XIV show as on Thursday, ROH announced that Amazing Red would be making his return to the company for the first time in eight years.
An early legend/pioneer of the indie style that has become so commonplace in wrestling, Amazing Red began training when he was just 16 years old, under the tutelage of Mikey Whipwreck and the House of Hardcore school. Red debuted professionally in the East Coast indie scene, quickly becoming a staple for Pennsylvania’s Premier Wrestling Federation, Combat Zone Wrestling, Jersey All Pro Wrestling and Maryland Championship Wrestling just to name a few. In 2002, Amazing Red debuted for three companies that at the time, were just in the early stages of their success as he wrestled for Major League Wrestling, IMPACT/TNA Wrestling and of course, ROH.
AMAZING RED SIGNED FOR SUPERCARD OF HONOR APRIL 4 IN LAKELAND, FLORIDA!@AmazingRed1 is #GoingToLakeland
Full details: https://t.co/cKRYzAdph2
Tickets are on sale now! Join us LIVE in Lakeland ☀️
Streaming LIVE for #HonorClub pic.twitter.com/x4So1ErQsb
— ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor) January 23, 2020
Debuting on the promotion’s inaugural card, The Era of Honor Begins, Amazing Red wrestled regularly for ROH in both 2002 and 2003, having the opportunity to face Low Ki, Jay Briscoe, CM Punk, American Dragon (WWE‘s Daniel Bryan), Christopher Daniels and Jody Fleisch. But perhaps the biggest feather in Red’s cap during those first two years with ROH, was when, alongside AJ Styles, he won the tag team championship. As Amazing Red became more of a focal point for TNA and its burgeoning X-Division, where he is a four-time champion, ROH fell by the wayside. In fact, according to Cagematch, Red wrestled just two matches for ROH from 2004-present.
In addition to TNA, Amazing Red started to become a staple in the New York indie scene, specifically with New York Wrestling Connection as well as NWA New Jersey/New York. Red also found himself working in Japan for the first time with All Japan Pro Wrestling. In 2006, despite being just 23-24 years old at the time, Red briefly retired from the sport and didn’t return to the ring until almost two full years later in December 2008 for two matches. The following year, Red rejoined TNA, where he would remain primarily until 2011.
In 2012, Amazing Red made the next big step in his career, creating what would become a very successful New York indie, House of Glory. HOG’s inaugural show, High Intensity, featured appearances of Jay Lethal, Eddie Kingston, and at the time, an up-and-coming tag team in the Young Bucks. While running HOG had become Red’s focus, he continued to wrestle in the East Coast on the indies as well, mainly for Pro Wrestling Syndicate and Victory Pro Wrestling, up until 2015. Over the next three years, he wrestled very sporadically, totaling just 12 matches, nine of which took place in a HOG ring.
But then in 2019, something perhaps unexpected happened. In the midst of WrestleMania Week that year, Amazing Red announced he was retiring for the second time in his career, though this time around, it felt like it was going to stick. He canceled his scheduled appearances for the week and stayed off the radar for several months, reappearing in a ring in August for NJPW‘s Super J Cup. It was Red’s debut with the promotion and in his very first match, he faced Will Ospreay, who had told Red through a prior Twitter exchange, that if Red were willing, he’d provide the man his final match. It may have seemed at the time that August 22nd’s Super J Cup first-round meeting against Ospreay was the end, but two days later, Amazing Red teamed with fellow retiring wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger in the first of two tag matches. Red returned to NJPW a month later, where he took part in the promotion’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed tour and again in November, where he worked NJPW’s California events.
Amazing Red has yet to wrestle in 2020, though he does have at least one other booking on his calendar, as he is scheduled to team with Low Ki for Fight Club Pro‘s Dream Tag Team Invitational the week following SuperCard. Whether we are looking at a retirement tour about to hit its year-end mark or rather a renaissance of one of the early game-changers of independent wrestling remains to be seen.
Amazing Red joins Will Ospreay, Jay White, El Phantasmo, KENTA and Taiji Ishimori as non-ROH contracted talent set to appear at SuperCard of Honor XIV. The card is already shaping up nicely but stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch ROH Replays as well as exclusive events at HonorClub.
