Last night Ring Of Honor held their pay-per-view Death Before Dishonor in Lowell, Massachusetts. Each ROH championship was in for grabs on the 7 match main card preceded by a 4 match kickoff show (ROH Zero Hour).
Ring of Honor Zero Hour Card/ Results:
Colt Cabana vs Anthony Henry
Winner: Colt Cabana
Shinobi Shadow Squad vs. Trustbusters
Winners: Trustbusters
Tony Deppen, Alex Zayne and Blake Christian vs. Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony
Winners: Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony
Willow Nightingale vs Allysin Kay
Winner: Willow Nightingale
*Pauses before talking about the main card*
*Cue the dramatics*
You know those moments where the stars align and there’s something really great happening in the ring and it just chokes you up a little bit? Seeing Tony Deppen, Alex Zayne, and Blake Christian teaming up on this PPV made me happy to an unexpectedly extreme level.
And let’s talk about Willow Nightingale for a second. WHAT A FUCKING WRESTLER. Ohhh Antony Rafiq Khan you better get on the graphic.
*Unpauses to talk about the main card*
Death Before Dishonor Card/Results:
Claudio Castagnoli vs Jonathan Gresham (c) for the ROH World Championship
Winner and NEW ROH World Champion: Claudio Castagnoli
Dalton Castle and Brandon and Brent ( The Boys) vs The Righteous (c) for the Six-Man Tag Team Championships
Winners and NEW Six-Man Tag Team Champions: Dalton Castle, Brandon and Brent
Wheeler Yuta (c) vs Daniel Garcia for the ROH Pure Championship
Winner and STILL ROH Pure Champion: Wheeler Yuta
Rush vs Dragon Lee (*gasps* Brother vs Brother)
Winner: Rush
Serena Deep vs Mercedes Martinez (c) for the ROH Women’s Championship
Winner and STILL ROH Women’s Champion: Mercedes Martinez
Samoa Joe (c) vs Jay Lethal for the Ring of Honor Television Championship
Winner and STILL ROH Television Champion: Samoa Joe
FTR vs The Briscoes for the ROH Tag Team Championships in a 2-out-of-3 falls match
Winners and STILL Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions: FTR
Can we just talk about FTR forever. Oh my GOD. This match. These guys. Holy shit, what can even be said that hasn’t been said already? I’ve loved tag team wrestling from the instant I started watching wrestling. Unfortunately, it isn’t always good. But right now? It’s SO. GOOD. I don’t think there’s a single fan out there who isn’t loving FTR. Maybe some of them aren’t kissing the ground they walk on (a lot of us are!) but I think the one universal opinion amongst fans currently is how good FTR is at tag team wrestling (and promos, they’re the total package). I will be coming back to this match for a long, long time.
Next up on the discussion board…. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI!!!!
You didn’t think I’d write an article mentioning Claudio Castagnoli without yelling, did you?
CLAUDIOOOOOO CASTAGNOLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh I love this guy so much. Not only does he deserve this big world championship win so much, the Blackpool Combat Club (comprised of four members and William Regal) now has a combined three championships to their names. Crazy stuff right there (but more on that in tomorrow’s piece). This match was such a good opener and set the tone for the rest of the night. The action was great, Claudio has always been such a great wrestler. Honestly, the match could have sucked and I’d still be sitting here writing this because did you see the look on Claudio’s face when he realized he won? I’m getting a little teary-eyed just thinking about it. For him to -in my opinion- be overshadowed and overlooked for so long, but finally get his big win was so heartwarming. You can tell he’s really happy and is enjoying himself already. Ugh, who doesn’t love some Claudio???
Overall Thoughts:
As someone who never watched Ring of Honor live while it was still going and has since gone back to learn and watch much of it, I’m very excited for this new chapter of ROH. I’m sure Tony Khan has a lot up his sleeve (he always does) and ROH will consistently have great showings like we saw at Death Before Dishonor. There’s so much to look forward and even more wrestling to watch, can you believe it! For now, I’m going to go back to thinking about FTR.
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