ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 - Quickfire Reaction
It's been another wild month of wrestling, continuing on with ROH's second Khan-era PPV.
A stacked card begets a lot of potential to be a great show, doubly impressive when in the middle of G1 and Summerslam season, but can it top Forbidden Door? Let's see
Spoilers for the Show
Zero Hour
It's a little sad that Colt isn't repping Dark Order anymore but good to see him back in a ring. Same for Anthony Henry, the Workhorsemen are a good tag team well-suited for ROH (even though I must admit I love the Wingmen too)
Match was good for getting the crowd involved, Henry did a lovely piledriver and Frog Splash for two different nearfalls but Cabana powers through
I've heard news about the Trustbusters from some AEW Dark spoilers, but for first impressions: good music, good talent in Slim J, probably gonna do well as weaselly midcard heels until they get some muscle
Eli Isom impressed me a lot more this match than he did in Supercard against Gates of Agony
I dunno who this Prince Nana is but buying TBE seems weird to me, is Tully not gonna be a part of it anymore? Seems like it with them being called The Embassy, maybe Tully will just be with Gresham?
I said it at Supercard and I'll say it again, Cage is best when he's just hossing
Zayne (fresh off of BOSJ), Christian and Deppen did really well too, they built Christian's hot tag really well, Deppen did a lot of workhorsing and Zayne undoubtedly was great
How can you not love Willow? Her music is great too
Nice little blend of technique and power in that match
4 matches in 1 hour, you see that WWE?
Main Card
Kicking off with the world title!? That is bold
Love Claudio's new theme music btw, I wouldn't have minded if all of BCC had classical remixes but I get why Mox sticks with Wild Thing, plus Yoots still has a good theme tune
Gresham didn't come out with Tully though, so wonder what that's about? Regal joins commentary too to enrich us more
Classic story of ligament damage vs power
Gresham has struggled with AEW crowds getting him but GOD he is so clean
CLAUDIO DID IT! HE FINALLY WON A WORLD TITLE!
I appreciate the BCC elbows helped transition to the Ricola Bomb, we pushing that BCC agenda and I am here for it, I think I liked that match more than the ZSJ match
Claudio's joy is also infectious, that's an opener!
Glad to see more Dalton, dude is charismatic for years
This is the first I've seen of the Righteous, their music is unique, they have kinda cult energy with a dash of Big Lebowski, I'd happily see more of them
I enjoyed the match more than I thought tbf, lots of charisma, lots of fun, commentary made me grin too, I had predicted Castle and Boys to win but it surprised me that they went 2 title changes in a row
Garcia still rocking the kangol XD And using the Regal colours
Could we possibly just get Regal on commentary like every title match? He's so joyous but also technical, you learn so much
Production has gone up with the PURE rules UI, timer and the rope break bars
Yoots has a great German Suplex, not Takeshita level but still great
It's a very interesting but valid strategy to see Garcia and Yoots work the ears, you don't see it a lot
I was also glad to hear that there's intent towards Yoot not going for a rope break, because his last few Pure matches have had him be the first to lose a rope break and I always felt that feeling like weakness
Loved the submission swapping relating to JAS and BCC too
That is the best PURE match I've seen so far in the Khan era, if it weren't for Claudio challenging Gresham I would've picked Garcia for this, but I wanted that BCC agenda and I'm getting it, Bryan needs to come back so he's next
Dragon Lee. Lawn Darted RUSH. Through a Table!?
This is pure Penta vs Fenix energy in the best way, both have the same kind of builds and mentality
Seriously, no build, no title, and yet this still was a banger
I wonder if Lee will join La Faccion Ingobernable down the line, because I know RUSH and Andrade are facing the Lucha Bros but I see it going into trios, maybe Andrade taking the All-Atlantic title from PAC
Every American one time or another will call Worcester 'War-chester' XD to be fair us Brits do too but we learn quickly because of Worcestershire Sauce
No surprise that Serena vs Mercedes is extremely technical
Match got a little slow in the middle but it was good, really thought though that Serena would be given her due, she's showed up against Shida, Rosa and Mercedes and the ROH women's title did feel like a good fit for her
Lethal sent Singh and Dutt away which is interesting
Joe pulling a Suzuki look as they go straight at it!
Didn't last long, Singh came back to help Pillmanize Joe's shoulder, match hadn't started yet so fair game. But the ref ejects Singh before ringing the bell, which is clever, didn't eject Dutt though when he brought in a pipe (to feint so Lethal could use the belt)
Crowd have been rabid for this match, I was okay about it, the build and the interferences made me less invested
Woof, Fight for the Fallen ain't messing around; Mox vs RUSH, Swerve vs Sterling & Nese, Danielson returning vs Garcia, good stuff
Surprised Dax didn't wear his 'Fight like an 8 year old' shirt, AEW made them to donate to children's heart charity
The pop for the bell ringing wasn't as loud as last time which was a shame
Jay and Dax went 200 miles an hour there, but it looks like it hurt him a bit since they had him checked by medical, post-show reports say it's precautionary which is fortunate
Doesn't stop his capacity for the hot tag though
After the first fall we got some clever psychology from the Briscoes
Cash has a great hot tag too
The camera is looking for something but it's not quite finding it
Is 2 out of 3 no rules? Because I feel like being hit with a bell is a DQ
Everyone's showing some colour now
It's been a good night for clean looking piledrivers
Ref bump seems to be to give the Briscoes a visual win with the Jay Driller, though FTR also had a visual win with the Big Rig after, maybe a part 3 is in waiting? Iron Man maybe?
They did the Revival vs DIY/American Alpha spot with holding hands during a submission
JESUS! Chekov's table from Lethal/Joe comes back for Cash super back body dropping Mark!
Jay Driller just for 2!
SUPER PILEDRIVER
The finish was great, I think I slightly preferred the Supercard match but gosh that was a great match
Oh sure give me FTR vs BCC, I've got a vein to inject it into
Conclusion
This was a great PPV.
I think I preferred Forbidden Door by an inch, but it has to be on a similar level because ROH didn't suffer so much from abrupt endings and injury, but the match quality for Forbidden Door was slightly higher, but it was better than Supercard overall which is a plus.
The matches were all really good, very happy to see Claudio win a world title finally. Khan booked the PPV strongly and hopefully it pays off for him, I don't see how tv companies wouldn't be considering ROH right now.
Hopefully a new chapter will begin.
Results (and Predictions)
Zero Hour:
Colt Cabana def. Anthony Henry (w/JD Drake) - Pinfall via Moonsault
Trustbusters (Ari Daivari & Slim J) def. Cheeseburger & Eli Isom - Pinfall on Isom by Daivari via Frog Splash
The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun & Toa Liona w/ Prince Nana) def Alex Zayne, Blake Christian & Tony Deppen - Pinfall on Deppen by Cage via Dominator/Big Boot combo
Willow Nightingale def Allisyn Kay - Pinfall via Gutwrench Powerbomb
Main Card:
Claudio Castagnoli (w/William Regal) def. Jonathon Gresham (w/Prince Nana) (c) - Pinfall via Ricola Bomb - TITLE CHANGE!!!
Dalton Castle & The Boys def. The Righteous (Vincent, Bateman & Dutch w/ Vita VonStarr) (c) - Pinfall on Bateman by Castle via Bangarang - TITLE CHANGE!!
Wheeler Yuta (w/William Regal) (c) def. Daniel Garcia - Pinfall via Seatbelt
RUSH (w/José the Assistant) def. Dragon Lee - Pinfall via Bull's Horns
Mercedes Martinez (c) def. Serena Deeb - Submission via Dragon Sleeper Stretch
Samoa Joe (c) def. Jay Lethal (w/Sonjay Dutt & Satnam Singh) - Submission via Kirifuda Clutch
FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) (c) def. The Briscoes (Jay and Mark) [2-1 Falls]
Fall 1: Briscoes (1) def. FTR (0) - Pinfall on Dax by Mark via Doomsday Device
Fall 2: FTR (1) def. Briscoes (1) - Pinfall on Jay by Dax via Big Rig
Fall 3: FTR (2) def. Briscoes (1) - Pinfall on Jay by Dax via Avalanche Piledriver
