The final stop before Friday’s Death Before Dishonor has arrived with this week’s Ring of Honor on HonorClub.
Blackpool Combat Club’s Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta will take on Shane Taylor Promotions’ Anthony Ogogo & Lee Moriarty.
Ahead of their Survival of the Fittest match on Friday, ROH TV Champion Atlantis Jr. will team with Lio Rush against Shane Taylor & Johnny TV.
Former MLW Tag Team Champion EJ Nduka will make his promotional debut as he challenges Jon Cruz.
In a 10-man tag team match, Top Flight, Action Andretti, Komander & the returning Fuego Del Sol will take on the Iron Savages, Nick Comoroto, Jacked Jameson & Anthony Henry.
Marshall & Ross Von Erich will be in tag team action against Dark Order’s John Silver & Alex Reynolds ahead of a trios clash on Friday.
Lexy Nair will interview Queen Aminata and Red Velvet ahead of their respective title challenges of ROH World Women’s Champion Athena and ROH Women’s TV Champion Billie Starkz Friday.
Abadon will make her return to ROH action this week as well.
-The show starts with video of Roderick Strong pinning Tomohiro Ishii from Collision last week and then being confronted by Mark Briscoe. That segued into a quick Blood and Guts recap and a backstage promo by Mark Briscoe where he was confronted by Mike Bennett. Bennett told Briscoe there are more important things than wrestling. Of course this was all a set up so Matt Taven could attack him from behind. Roderick Strong told him he may be ROH Champion now, but he’ll never be Mr. ROH.
Lexy Nair interviewed Bennett and Taven, who don’t have opponents for Death Before Dishonor. Bennett said TK hasn’t been answering his messages, so they must be getting the day off. Taven was in the middle of thanking TK when Paul Wight walked in with good news and bad news. The good news is Wight is now on the ROH Board of Directors. The bad news is because of the shenanigans they have pulled, they will now defend at Death Before Dishonor against Ishii and Kyle O’Reilly.
Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta defeated Lee Moriarty & Anthony Ogogo w/Shane Taylor
Just a reminder, Yuta is the ROH Pure Champion and apparently they are now babyfaces because Claudio is slapping the fans hands. Tomorrow is Yuta vs Moriarty.
Moriarty and Yuta start and we get some nice wrestling with a lot of mirror spots. Yuta has a really nice armdrag. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but I will always appreciate a good armdrag. Ogogo tagged in and demanded Claudio tag in as well, so of course, Claudio obliged. Ogogo hit a punch to the liver, but Claudio quickly took back over and tagged out. Thanks to a distraction by Moriarty, Ogogo got the heat on Yuta. Yuta played babyface in peril really well and the crowd popped a little for the Claudio hot tag as the former ROH Champ ran wild on Moriarty. Claudio went for The Big Swing, but Moriarty fought and made the ropes. Claudio ran around the outside with a European Uppercut to Moriarty and fell through the barricade, which hadn’t been properly secured. Ogogo took back over, but missed his Discuss Punch and got hit with a pop up uppercut, but the fall was broken up by Moriarty. A 4-way broke out, highlighted by a Yuta Suicide Dive to Moriarty. Finally Claudio used The Big Swing on Ogogo and pinned him after a lariat in around 13 minutes. After the match, Yuta and Moriarty had to be separated, but Shane Taylor punched Yuta in the jaw.
-Lexy Nair was in the ring to introduce the challengers in the Women’s title matches at Death Before Dishonor: Queen Aminata and Red Velvet. Aminata challenges Athena for the Women’s World Title and Velvet faces Billie Starkz for the TV Title. This was actually taped last night at Dynamite, while the matches happened last Saturday.
Lexy asked Velvet a question and then pulled the microphone away. Then she asked Aminata how she sleeps last night after what she did to Athena and pulled the mic away again. This time Aminata ripped the mic away and said the bitch got what she deserved.
This brought out Athena, who was carried to the ring by an ROH staff member. Athena hobbled into the ring and got held up by Lexy. Athena said Lexy did her best, but these two are too uncultured to do an interview segment. Athena said ever since she beat the tar out of those two, they were nothing but tyrants and bullies. Athena noted they called her Ashy and called Billie “trashy”. Athena said Aminata is not ready for the opportunity she usurped and the two of them are raggedy ass lot lizards. This brought out Billie Starkz, who attacked the challengers from behind. Billie is wearing matching gear and Lexy took off Athena’s boot because of course she’s not actually injured.
Gates of Agony defeated Angelico and Serpentico
This was a lot more competitive than I expected it to be. Actually, Angelico and Serpentico got a lot of offense on Bishop Kaun. Of course, the Gates finally took over and specifically on Angelico. Serpentico eventually got the hot tag and did a flying crossbody to Toa, but got caught and dropped with a powerslam. That was probably a Pobody’s Nerfect moment, as they pretty much immediately ignored it and Serpentico ran wild for a few seconds, before he got cut off and pinned after Open The Gates.
EJ Nduka defeated Jon Cruz
Nduka is like a foot taller than Cruz. Apparently he’s a legitimate 6’8 and I believe it. Nduka held Cruz up for a vertical suplex and held him there for around 10 seconds before tossing him. He did it a second time for a count of 11 from the crowd. Nduka used Snake Eyes and a flying shoulder tackle, called The Hammer, before picking up the win with Exodus, which is a spinning back suplex.
-We got a video package for the MXM Collection, who will debut tomorrow at Death Before Dishonor.
Johnny TV & Shane Taylor w/Taya Valkyrie defeated Lio Rush & ROH TV Champion Atlantis Jr
The bell rings, but the match can’t start until TV and Taya make out. Taya gets on the apron to yell at Lio Rush, but he runs at her, so she falls off into Johnny’s arms, but then Johnny has to drop her, as Lio is flying through the ropes at him. Taylor got tired of the shenanigans and booted Lio’s head off. Atlantis got in and worked really well with TV. Rush was in with Taylor and it honestly looked ridiculous with the size difference that Taylor needed interference by Taya on the floor to cut Lio off. Taylor slapped around Lio and bad mouthed him in the corner, which got the crowd to react, but they were yelling for Taylor to slap him around more. Taylor did mockingly get the crowd to chant for Lio briefly, however. We had a bit of a contrived spot where Lio rushed between Shane’s legs and then had to literally stop because it wasn’t time to make the hot tag yet and Johnny TV, who blind tagged in, needed to to get in the ring, run across and cut him off. Of course, seconds later, TV was playing to the audience and let Atlantis get the tag. A 4-way breaks out and Lio did this neat move where he bounced off the bottom ropes with his thighs and hit a Stunner. Finally Atlantis accidentally superkicked Lio and got pinned by Taylor after a Package Piledriver.
It was a fine match, but it felt like it could have been a lot better.
In reality no one would have complained had the show ended here. We got a 1-hour show with 4 matches and a lot of good stuff to plug DBD. However, we needed more.
Abadon defeated Dulce Tormenta
Well if the show had ended, I wouldn’t have gotten to see my favorite non-binary wrestler win a squash match. Dulce got to do a little bit, but Abadon got the win with a Black Dahlia.
Komander, Action Andretti, Top Flight & Fuego Del Sol w/Alex Abrahantes defeated Iron Savages, Nick Comoroto & Anthony Henry
This is Fuego’s first AEW match since February 2023. Well, it’s his first ROH match, but you know what I mean.
Everyone got the chance to tag in, do something, get cut off, sell for a minute and tag out to start the match. Bronson and Boulder threw around Komander like he was a 161 pound Luchador and they were 2-300 pounders. Fuego made up for lost time by being dropped on the pretty black mats by Henry and then got quadruple-teamed in the heel corner. In case you haven’t seen Nick Comoroto since The Factory broke up, he looks A LOT different without the beard. He has grown out sideburns and looks like the perfect 80’s/early 90’s heel and that’s not a bad thing. Bronson teased a standing moonsault, but instead did a sit down splash. Dante Martin eventually got the hot tag and him and Darius ran wild on all 5 heels until they had their heads knocked off by a double clothesline by Comoroto. Outside the ring, Iron Savages were teasing doing something to Fuego, but they got stopped and we had a crazy dive sequence by Dante, Action and Fuego. Finally in the ring, all the babyfaces hit a splash on Comoroto and Dante Martin pinned him.
-Backstage Queen Aminata and Red Velvet both vowed to win their matches.
Tomorrow night at Death Before Dishonor:
Athena vs Queen Aminata for the Women’s World Title
Billie Starkz vs Red Velvet for the Women’s TV Title
Mike Bennett & Matt Taven vs Kyle O’Reilly & Tomohiro Ishii for the ROH Tag Team Titles
Wheeler Yuta vs Lee Moriarty for the ROH Pure Title
Diamante vs Legit Leyla Hirsch in a Texas Death Match
Atlantis vs Lee vs Lio vs Shane vs TV vs Brian Cage in a Survival of The Fittest Match for the ROH TV Title
Komander vs The Beast Mortos
Dark Order vs Dustin Rhodes & The Von Erichs where the winners get an Undisputed Trios Title Match at Battle Of The Belts on Saturday
Mark Briscoe vs Roderick Strong for the ROH World Title
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