ROH Death Before Dishonor: Review, Grades and Analysis
Credit: RING OF HONOR//ROHWrestling.com
Jay Lethal (c) vs. Will Ospreay – ROH World Championship
Lethal and Ospreay locked up, and Lethal told Ospreay that Will was in his house. Both men exchanged shoulder blocks, but neither got the advantage. Ospreay slapped Lethal and then knocked him down with one. After an exchange of move attempts and counters, neither man was able to get the advantage.
Ospreay hit a forearm, but Lethal managed to dump him to the outside and hit two suicide dives before going for a third and driving Ospreay into the front row. Lethal hit a chop and threw Ospreay back into the ring. Lethal hit a backbreaker, but Ospreay kicked out. Lethal locked on a chinlock, and then went for his cartwheel dropkick. Ospreay tried to dodge and kick up, but Lethal countered and cartwheeled again and hit the dropkick.
Ospreay managed to hit a corner dropkick on Lethal and the momentum of the match shifted. Back to another corner, Lethal managed to kill Ospreay with a chop. Ospreay ate it and asked for another. He asked for a third and chopped him even harder. Lethal invited Ospreay to chop him, and Ospreay did and hit a series of strikes and a suicide dive that drove Lethal headfirst into the guardrail.
Lethal hit a few chops and Ospreay ended up under the ring. Opsreay dragged a ladder out from under the ring, and it was left on the floor. Ospreay hit a 619 to the back of Lethal’s head, and then hit an AJ Styles type forearm on Lethal, but Lethal kicked out. Lethal hit a Lethal Combination, but Ospreay kicked out. Both men exchanged strikes from their knees and slowly stood up and continued striking.
Lethal ran at Ospreay, but Ospreay hit a hurricanrana that took Lethal to the outside. Ospreay went for a Sasuke Special, but Lethal dodged. Lethal went for a powerbomb through the timekeeper table, but Ospreay went for a suplex as a counter. Lethal countered that and went for a superkick, but Ospreay ducked, and Lethal hit Bobby Cruise who threw the ROH title into the air, which Ospreay caught.
Lethal told Ospreay to hit him with the title if that was how he needed to win, but Ospreay refused. Lethal hit a flatliner into the guardrail, nearly killing Ospreay. Lethal setup a ladder against the guardrail. Both men ended up back in the ring and exchanged moves ending with Ospreay hitting a huge sitout powerbomb. Ospreay ended up powerbombing Lethal onto the ladder, which had to suck.
Ospreay hit a springboard dropkick, and a superkick that dropped Lethal. Ospreay went for the OsCutter, but got nailed with the Lethal Injection! Lethal went for it again, but Ospreay superkicked him in the back of the head. Ospreay grabbed the title again, and looked at it and faked Lethal out by dropping the title and hit a series of kicks and the OsCutter! Lethal ended up kicking out! Ospreay hit an enziguri and went to hit a super hurricanrana, but Lethal countered it into a powerbomb off the top rope and hit a Lethal Injection! Jay Lethal retains his championship!
Result: Jay Lethal
Rating: ****3/4 (4.75 stars out of 5)
This match was so awesome. Great effort from both men, and I honestly believed Ospreay was going to win the title towards the end of the match. Wonderful storytelling. The red balloons came out from under the ring, and The Kingdom attacked Jay Lethal! Vinny Marseglia and TK O’Ryan attacked Lethal! Jonathan Gresham ran out to make the save, but couldn’t do anything against the odds. As Lethal fought back, Matt Taven ran out and nailed Lethal with a heavy red bag.
Matt Taven took a title out of the red bag, and it had a purple strap – the colors of The Kingdom. Taven held the belt up, and it looked the same as the ROH World Championship. As the show closed, Matt Taven screamed “I’m the real world champion!” Great closing angle to the PPV that is setting up Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal at Final Battle, I think.
Final Thoughts
Show Rating: ***1/2 (3.5 stars out of 5)
This was a fun show, overall. We saw some angles going forward with Tenille Dashwood being attacked backstage, and with Matt Taven attacking Jay Lethal to close the show. Overall, ROH delivered some very good matches, and there’s not too much else you could ask for. Going forward, it’s going to be interesting to see if Taven will be the one to take the title from Jay Lethal. I expect that Taven will win the championship at Final Battle and move forward from there.
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What hurt the show was a few of the finishes, especially in the tag title match, TV title match, and the tables match. The crowd fully wanted a tag title change and wanted Flip Gordon to defeat Bully Ray and Silas Young. It made sense for Punishment Martinez to defeat Sabin, so that can be dealt with, but the other two are where I would have went in a different direction. With that being said, the final two matches more than made up for the poor finishes earlier, especially as Jay Lethal and Will Ospreay tore the house down.