Six title matches highlight this years edition of Death Before Dishonor!
- Komander vs. Gravity
- ROH World Six Man Championship: The Mogul Embassy vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Master Wato, & Leon Ruffin
- Fatal Four-way for the ROH World Tag Team Championship: Lucha Bros (c) vs. Best Friends vs. Aussie Open vs. The Kingdom
- The Righteous vs. The Dark Order
- ROH Pure Championship: Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Daniel Garcia
- ROH Women’s World Championship: Athena (c) vs. Willow Nightingale
- ROH World TV Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Dalton Castle
- ROH World Heavyweight Championship: Claudio Castagnoli (c) vs. PAC
ROH Death Before Dishonor 2023
Live from the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, New Jersey!
Match #1 – Komander vs Gravity
Joined in progress because attempting to view this on WatchROH.com is not easy. Komander does his ropewalk moonsault stuff for a close two count. Top rope rana by Komander, but Gravity sneaks a small package for the surprise pin.
Winner: Gravity
Tony Khan immediately books Gravity vs PAC for Dynamite on Wednesday because reasons.
Match #2 – ROH TV Title: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Dalton Castle
Castle won an eliminator tournament to get this opportunity. His entrance is still pretty entertaining. Stokely Hathaway is on commentary. They lock up after both men do some stalling and Castle gets the early advantage with a DDT. Big boot by Castle and a front facelock. Joe fights back with chops and a big boot of his own, followed by a senton. Castle tries to fight back to no avail as Joe drops an elbow and maintains control. Enzuigiri by Joe and he locks in a neck vice. Snap suplex by Joe only gets a one count. Castle gets tossed to the outside but the Boys throw him back in, irritating Joe. Snap powerslam by Joe gets two. Joe charges the corner and misses, allowing Castle to attack and low bridge Joe to the outside. Tope suicida by Castle but Joe moves out of the way, only for Castle to get caught by the Boys and then hit another tope attempt. The Boys put Joe back in, and Castle gets a suplex and a German suplex as Joe rolls to the outside. Stokeley leaves commentary and convinces the referee to eject the Boys from ringside. Joe punts Castle low and locks in the Coquina Clutch and Dalton passes out.
Winner: Samoa Joe
Rating: **1/2. This was deliberately paced and ok. Crowd was into it throughout.
Match #3 – ROH World Tag Team Championship: Lucha Bros (c) vs. Best Friends vs. Aussie Open vs. The Kingdom
Taven and Taylor start. Dropkick by Taven and tags to Bennett and then Trent. They have a chopfest and the Kingdom maintains control. Fenix and Fletcher in now. Aussie Open double team Fenix but only get two. Fenix fights them both off, hits a cutter and tags Penta. Penta with a double DDT and we get a series of superkicks. Kingdom and Best Friends back in now and Trent gets his death defying eye rake. The Aussies come back and knock Best Friends to the floor. Taven hits a huge dive to the floor, followed by stereo dives from the Lucha Bros. Trent then superplexes Bennett to the floor onto the pile. Taven hits a frog splash on Trent which gets a two count. Kingdom gets some nice double team moves but gets two and Taylor breaks it up. Trent fights off the Kingdom and gets a missile dropkick. Trent with a tornado DDT and tags Penta. He enters with a crossbody on the Kingdom and a driver for a two on Taven. Fletcher tags in and the Aussies run wild with a cutter and double boots to Taylor. Whirlybird gets two. Kingdom double teams Fletcher and only gets two, with Taylor breaking up the pin. Trent tags in and gets an assisted superplex on Taven. Bennett cuts of the hug spot but eats Sole Food and a snapdragon suplex. Maria distracts Taylor but he hugs Trent instead. Snap piledriver on Taven. Cradle piledriver on Fletcher, but Davis gets a piledriver of his own on Trent. Luchas back in with the double stom piledriver on Davis, but Bennett breaks it up. Kindgom gets the Hail Mary on Penta but he kicks out and Penta’s up! They set up for the Proton pack but Penta counters. Trent tags Penta out and the Best Friends hit Strong Zero and the Luchas barely pull the ref out at 2.9999. The Aussies jump in double clothesline Barretta and hit their finisher to win the tag titles.
Winner and new Champions: Aussie Open
Rating: ***1/4. Pretty nonstop action here and Aussie Open gets a pair of tag titles back which is nice to see.
Match #4 – ROH World Six Man Championship: The Mogul Embassy vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Master Wato, & Leon Ruffin
Cage (wearing long tights) starts with Taguchi. Wato quickly comes in for some double team moves to give the challengers the early advantage. Doesn’t last long as Cage suplexes Wato and Taguchi at the same time. Kaun and Ruffin tag in. We get some outside shenanigans where Ruffin and Kaun legitimately collide heads. Back in as Prince Nana interferes on the outside to keep the heels in charge. Cage in tosses Ruffin overhead as we see Big Bill watching backstage. I hope he watched the other matches too because this one isn’t great. Kaun steps on Ruffin’s chest for a two count. Ruffin finally is able to fight back and hit a DDT and cold tag Wato. Wato with a bulldog and leg lariat to Cage. A Zig Zag gets two on Kaun. Things break down as Liona just comes in and destroys Wato. Taguchi tags in with a series of hip attacks and gets an anklelock on Kaun. Liona busts that up but Wato takes him out. Cage with a 619 on Wato. Taguchi and Ruffin double team Cage but Kaun gets a low blow on Taguchi. Taguchi gets his own and a close two count off that. Ruffin gets a springboard cutter on Cage and a series of kicks to Liona but runs into a swinging backbreaker for two. Triple team slam by the Embassy gets the three and retains.
Winners: The Mogul Embassy
Rating: *1/2. This had basically no heat. It was also not good.
Match #5 -ROH Pure Championship: Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Daniel Garcia
Chris Daniels, Jimmy Jacobs and Jerry Lynn are the judges at ringside. Shibata controls early and gets a quick inside figure-four forcing Garcia to use his first rope break. Garcia puts Shibata to the outside and mocks him. Shibata fires up and tosses Garcia to the barricade and boots him over. Garcia comes back and gets a wristlock and continues work on the arm. He then stops to do his dance moves around Shibata because of course he would, but Shibata just sits down. Garcia dances into a seated position but Shibata thankfully slaps him in the face to break up the nonsense. The champion gets a hesitation dropkick in the corner and a suplex for two. Garcia manages to counter and get the Dragon Tamer, but only briefly and transitions to the STF. They exchange rolling vertical suplexes and both men are down. They slug it out from their knees as they exchange strikes and double clothesline each other for another stalemate. Shibata nails a bicycle kick but Garcia blocks a ripcord clothesline and gets the Dragon Tamer once more. Shibata counters out but Garcia hits a t-bone suplex. Sleeper by the champion and the PK finishes for Shibata.
Winner and still ROH Pure Champion – Katsuyori Shibata
Rating: ***. A solid, but not blowaway match. Honestly the dancing stuff in the middle kind of took the flow out of it for me.
Match #6 – Fight Without Honor: The Righteous vs. Dark Order
The teams go at it quickly as Uno and Grayson slug it out in the middle. Grayson gets a running spear through the ropes through a table to the outside. Silver gets a 2×4 while Dutch gets a barbed-wire 2×4. Johnny Hungee gets the better of that exchange, dropkicking the barbed wire into Dutch and raking it on his face cutting Dutch open. Reynolds gets the barbed wire but can’t get it on Vincent. Dutch comes back and tosses Reynolds into the barbed wire. Reynolds now cut open. Silver attacks and empties a bag of thumbtacks in the ring. Dutch gets a Bossman slam on Silver in the tacks. Uno jumps in with chairshots to Grayson. Interesting that Dark Order are babyfaces here but heels on AEW tv. Vincent jumps Uno from behind and rips at the mask. Uno is now busted open. Silver saves Uno from a burning hammer but almost gets triple powerbombed through a table if not for Reynolds saving him. Silver and Reynolds double team Dutch and get two. Uno is back with the barbed wire to Vincent. He’s got another bag which is filled with Legos. The Righteous escape that and Dutch powerbombs Uno into the Legos. Vincent misses Silver on the dive through the table but Grayson fixes that. Another powerbomb for Uno which gets a hot two count. Thought that might be the finish. A barbed wire table emerges now. Grayson carries Reynolds to the ramp with the intent to toss him off, but Reynolds DDTs himself out of it. Dutch splashes him on the stage but can’t get a Bossman slam there. Reynolds then pushes him off the ramp through the barbed wire table. Silver has tacks on his kickpad and repeatedly drills Vincent with kicks. Grayson and Uno face off once again and Grayson sets up Uno on two tables outside. He sets up a 12 foot ladder inside the ring, but Uno moves off the table and tips the ladder over sending Grayson through the tables. Dark Order hits a triple team crucifix slam to Grayson, onto the tacks and Legos for the win.
Winners: Dark Order
Rating: ***1/2. Sue me, I enjoyed this. It’s hard to top the violence of the recent Blood and Guts match, but these guys did their best. It had an actual storyline going into it with legitimate emotion between Grayson and Uno which helped it in my view.
Match #7 – ROH World Heavyweight Championship: Claudio Castagnoli (c) vs. PAC
After a feed blip, Claudio is swinging PAC on the ramp. Neutralizer attempt is foiled with a backdrop. PAC with a moonsault from the top rope to the floor. PAC curiously pulls out a table but Claudio hits a Euro uppercut sending PAC flying over the table. To the inside, PAC gets a shotgun dropkick for two. Claudio eats some kicks and gets hit with a super brainbuster off the top for two. Claudio takes over and gets a press slam, tossing PAC through the table on the outside. My goodness. To the top, Claudio gets an elbow drop for two. Repeated elbow strikes but once again the Neutralizer fails as PAC gets an enzuigiri. Springboard rana is caught and countered into an inverted flapjack. Neutralizer hits this time for a close two count. They exchange forearms and PAC gets a pump kick and a snap German suplex, but Claudio rebounds with a lariat to put both men down. Superkicks by PAC and a deadlift bridging German gets two. PAC to the top but gets cut off with a Euro uppercut. Claudio to the top and PAC attempts a top rope rana but Claudio catches him. Ricola bomb is countered with a rana by PAC. Black Arrow misses. Big lariat by Claudio. Ricola Bomb countered with the Brutalizer by PAC. Claudio then manages to standup, climb the ropes with PAC on his back and gets an air raid crash to break the hold. PAC goes to undo the turnbuckle pad but is cut off by Wheeler Yuta running in, letting Claudio get the Ricola Bomb to retain.
Winner and still ROH Champion: Claudio Castagnoli
Rating: **** This was fun, with some cool spots highlighting Claudio’s strength.
Post match the Lucha Bros run out to help PAC beat down Claudio and Yuta. Now Best Friends arrive to take them out, and here’s Orange Cassidy with an Orange Punch to both PAC and Claudio.
Match #8 – ROH Women’s Championship: Athena (c) vs. Willow Nightingale
Willow recently beat Athena in semis of the Owen Hart Cup Women’s tournament. Lockup to start and they trade armdrags. Battle of forearms next which Willow wins and gets an enzuigiri. Rolling suplexes countered by Athena with a small package for two. Willow with a PerfectPlex for two. To the apron where Athena runs Willow into the buckle and gets a side suplex. Back in, Athena maintains control with an elbow attack and low kick. Willow gets a jawbreaker but misses a senton and Athena remains on offense. She stops to deal with the referee however and gets pounced by Willow. Willow on the attack now and gets a spinebuster for two. Athena battles back and gets a kick to the back of the head knocking down the challenger. Backbreaker into the knees gets two for Athena. To the apron again but Athena can’t get the suplex this time. Instead Willow gets a crossbody to the floor. Apron bomb by Willow, but somehow Athena manages a dropkick sending Willow into the steps. Athena charges but Willow moves and then she hits a cannonball into the steps. Inside that gets two. Cradle gets two for Willow and Athena pops up with an enzuigiri and standing moonsault. Willow catches her however and gets Smash Mouth for two. Royal Butterfly gets two for Willow. Snap Mare driver gets two for Athena as they call back to prior ROH women’s competitors. Swinging reverse DDT by Willow gets two. To the middle rope, Obliteration hits for Athena and a seated powerbomb gets two. Athena to the top but Willow cuts her off with an avalanche Spicolli Driver for two. They roll to the outside and Athena throws Willow to the steps and back in. The O Face hits but Willow kicks out at two. Big crowd reaction for that. Gutwrench powerbomb by Willow gets a close two. To the top rope but Athena knocks her off and gets the O Face followed by a Crossface. Willow rolls over into a two count, but quickly back into the hold and she passes out to give Athena the win.
Winner and still ROH Women’s Champion: Athena
Rating: ***3/4. This was really good! Lots of drama and near falls at the end. But dang Tony Khan books the heel champion to win in the main event of a PPV again.
Post match Athena raises Willow’s hand in a show of respect.
Final Thoughts: There were some rough spots on this show but the two main events delivered. The tag title match and the Fight Without Honor also were entertaining. Other than the main event finish being a total downer for the second ROH ppv in a row, a solid effort overall. 7/10.