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Csonka’s ROH Death Before Dishonor 2018 Review
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Csonka’s ROH Death Before Dishonor 2018 Review
OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Kenny King defeated Jushin Liger @ 12:20 via pin [**½]
– ROH Tag Team Championship Match: Champions The Briscoes defeated The Addiction @ 17:45 via pin [***]
– Women of Honor Championship Match: Champion Sumie Sakai defeated Tenille Dashwood @ 12:40 via submission [**¾]
– ROH TV Championship Match: Champion Punishment Martinez defeated Chris Sabin @ 8:10 via pin [**½]
– Elimination Tables Match: Bully Ray & Silas Young defeated Flip Gordon & Colt Cabana @ 13:40 [*]
– Bullet Club defeated CHAOS @ 21:25 via submission [****]
– ROH Championship Match: Champion Jay Lethal defeated Will Ospreay @ 22:45 via pin [****¼]
– Follow all of my reviews at this link.
– I did a column, “Where Are They Now, The Cruiserweight Classic Finals Performers” which you can check out at this link.
– You can check out my top 51 matches of AUGUST list at this link.
– Read my full preview at this link.
* Dark Match: Shane Taylor defeated Cheeseburger
* Dark Match: Jonathan Gresham defeated the Beer City Bruiser
– Since Colt is wrestling, Caprice Coleman is on commentary in his place tonight.
Kenny King vs. Jushin Liger: Liger’s theme music continues to be an all time great. They lock up, work into some back and forth as Liger grounds things but King makes the ropes. Liger now works a head scissors, but King easily escapes. They work into shoulder tackles, King takes Liger down but Liger dumps him and hits the apron cannonball. Back in and Liger teases a suplex to the floor, King cuts that off misses kicks and then trips up Liger and follows with a slingshot tornillo. King slams Liger to the apron and rolls him back in and covers for 2. King starts focusing on the back, hitting back breakers and covering for 2. King grounds the action, and locks on the crab. Liger fights and makes the ropes. King misses a corner elbow, Liger fires back and hits a shotei and rolling kick for 2. King fights off the brainbuster, hits the chin checker and enziguri for 2. Liger again fires up with chops and slaps, but King cuts him off with another backbreaker for 2. King heads up top and Liger cuts him off, follows him up and hits the superplex. They slowly work to their feet; Liger counters the royal flush into a cradle for 2. Shotei by Liger, the bulldog follows and Liger heads up top and the frog splash gets 2. Liger is slow to follow due to his back, the ref backs off King as he checks on Liger. King mockingly claps for Liger, and offers a handshake and then hits the spinebuster and gets the pin. Kenny King defeated Jushin Liger @ 12:20 via pin [**½] This was a solid opener, designed to reinforce the new heel King with him thanking Aries post match for him finally seeing the light.
ROH Tag Team Championship Match: Champions The Briscoes vs. The Addiction: Sky is at ringside. These teams have faced three times and the champions are 3-0 against the challengers. Jay and Daniels look to begin, but it immediately breaks down and they all brawl. The champions powder and get chairs but drop them. Kaz and Mark in now, they lock up and trade shoulder tackles and Kaz lays in rights. Daniels tags back in and work double teams and then double team Jay. Mark tosses in a chair, and Daniels throws it back at him allowing Mark to attack Kaz. Everyone to the floor and Mark is cut off by Daniels. Jay low bridges Daniels to the floor and Mark follows with a blockbuster. They slam Daniels to the barricade and then double team Kaz. Back in and the champions double team Daniels in their corner. Mark lays the boots to Daniels, Jay tags in and more double teams follow. Jay now lays in uppercuts, and then grounds Daniels, isolating him in their half of the ring. The double teams continue and Mark slams Daniels to the barricade. Jay joins in for double teams, Mark rolls Daniels back in and Jay covers for 2. Mark tags back in and continues to punish Daniels in the corner. Mark hits a rolling DVD, heads up top but rolls through on the elbow drop and runs into a blue thunder bomb but Jay cuts off the tag. Daniels rolls and tags in Kaz, who runs wild on the champions. The back stabber follows and then a corner dropkick. The DDT/Stunner combo gets 2 for Kaz. The slingshot RANA to the floor connects but Jay cuts him off and gets chairs. He sets them up and Daniels wipes out Jay, suplexes Mark, and rolls Jay back in. Kaz back in and double teams follow as Kaz covers for 2. Daniels tags back in and hits a stomp and follows with a tope into Mark. Kaz hit as the slingshot cutter and Daniels covers for 2. The Addiction looks for doomsday, Jay fights it off but Daniels tosses him and hits a plancha, but Kaz gets slammed into a chair and busts the back of his head open. Sky checks on Kaz, as the champions isolate Daniels and Mark hits a brainbuster for 2. Trainers are out to check on Kaz, but the champions hit redneck boogie on Daniels for 2. Mark tags in and Daniels continues to fight them off, hits the double clothesline and looks for a tag, but there is no Kaz. The champions look for doomsday, but Daniels counters into a cradle and dumps Jay. Uranage by Daniels and the BME connects for a great near fall as Jay makes the save. The dump Daniels and Jay hits the Jay driller on the floor. He rolls Daniels back in and covers for 2. Jay looks for another and hits it and Daniels is done. Champions The Briscoes defeated The Addiction @ 17:45 via pin [***] This was great strategy by the champions, taking out one man from the challengers, and allowing Daniels to play the ultimate babyface. It was a good match with a good story, but the lack of overall heat really hurt the match.
Women of Honor Championship Match: Champion Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood: Sakai takes things to the ground right away, and takes mount and lays in strikes. She follows with kicks, and Dashwood firs up and shoves her down. They trade strikes and Dashwood hits a clothesline, but Dashwood counters smash mouth and they work into a standoff. Dashwood trips her up and hits taste of Tenille for 2. Dashwood lays in elbows, but Sakai cuts her off with a belly to back suplex. The missile dropkick follows and Sakai then stomps away on Dashwood and kicks her to the floor. Sakai back up top and hits the high cross to the floor. Back in and Sakai covers for 2 and then looks for an arm bar. Dashwood fights, but Sakai gets the arm bar and Dashwood makes the ropes. Dashwood counters Smash mouth into a cradle for 2. Clotheslines follow for Dashwood, and the neck breaker gets 2. Dashwood takes Sakai up top and follows her up. The superplex follows and both are down. Dashwood finally gets a delayed cover for 2. Dashwood is favoring her taped up shoulder, but now locks on a bow and arrow style submission. She breaks and then curb stomps Sakai and covers for 2. Dashwood heads up top and Sakai cuts her off, follows her up and Dashwood fights and slips out but Sakai counters the powerbomb into a RANA. Sakai hits a fisherman’s neck breaker and the running knee strike gets 2. Smash mouth connects and Sakai covers for 2. Sakai now looks for an arm bar on the bad arm, Dashwood rolls and makes the ropes. Dashwood cuts her off with kicks, suplexes her to the buckles and fires up. The tarantula follows, and Dashwood powerbombs Sakai to the floor. Back in and Dashwood covers for 2. Dashwood hits a German and covers for 2. They trade strikes, going crazy fists; Dashwood hits a powerbomb but Sakai transitions into an arm bar. Dashwood fights but passes out. Champion Sumie Sakai defeated Tenille Dashwood @ 12:40 via submission [**¾] I’m guessing Dashwood hasn’t signed a deal because otherwise, her losing here makes no sense. The match was pretty good and told a good story, but the overall lack of heat again hurt the match. I liked that they worked this more like an ROH match than a “WOH” match. But unless Dashwood hasn’t signed or is legit injured, Sakai retaining here is extremely questionable and completely deflated the crowd.
ROH TV Championship Match: Champion Punishment Martinez vs. Chris Sabin: Martinez attacks, but Sabin cradles him for 2. Sabin attacks the knees, hits dropkicks, and superkicks Martinez to the floor. Sabin hits the apron PK and follows with a high cross to the floor. Martinez cuts him off and chokeslams him to the apron. Martinez rolls him in and hits a huge lariat for 2. Martinez to the ropes, Sabin hits an enziguri, and follows him up and hits a RANA. They trade strikes; Sabin keeps firing, and dumps Martinez. The plancha follows and then a suicide dive. Sabin up top and hits the high cross to the floor. Back in and Sabin up top and hits the missile dropkick. Martinez fights off cradle shock, they tease a ref bump and then we get one. Martinez hits a spin kick on Sabin, gets a chair, but Sabin cuts him off and hits a tornado DDT onto the chair for a near fall. The ref takes the chair, and Martinez cuts off Sabin, hits psycho driver and the curb stomp. The chokeslam follows for the win. Champion Punishment Martinez defeated Chris Sabin @ 8:10 via pin [**½] This was essentially an extended squash for Martinez. It was solid, but disappointing overall. The ref bump was also not needed in any way.
– Post match, Jeff Cobb arrives and has a standoff with Martinez. Martinez hits him with a chair and Cobb no sells him and hits a suplex. Cobb grabs the title and stand over Martinez and stands tall; good post match angle.
Elimination Tables Match: Flip Gordon & Colt Cabana vs. Bully Ray & Silas Young: You have to put both members of a team through a table to win. Flip hits the ring and runs wild. He and Cabana run wild with double teams and take out Young. They dump Bully and follow to the floor for brawling. Young slams Flip to the barricade as Bully cuts off Cabana. Flip takes out Young with kinder surprise and he and Cabana hit the wazzup on Bully. Flip gets a table and slides it in. They set it up and attack Young, but Bully moves the table for the save. Flip fires away with kicks on Bully but Young cuts him off. Cabana moves the table and saves Flip and then hits the moonsault press onto the heels. Flip now hits a step up 450 to the floor as Cabana misses a plancha. Bully attacks with chair shots on Cabana, talks shit to Ian and continues his attack. Ian now hits the ring and checks on Cabana. The worst part about this is that Coleman is left alone on commentary. Flip hits suicide dives on Bully & Young, Ian gets a chair and hands it to Cabana. Cabana attacks Bully with chair shots, but Bully fights back and low blows Ian. Bully then powerbombs Cabana through the timekeeper’s table for the elimination. Young & Bully now attack flip, slide a table into the ring and Bully sets it up in the corner. Bully & Young double team Flip and lay in several chops on him. Young accidentally hits Bully, allowing Flip to fight back. He’s quickly cut off, Bully & Young argue, and then brawl. Flip flies in and misses a dropkick, looking like a fucking geek. The heels take too much time, allowing Flip to send Bully through the table in the corner. Young then turns Flip inside out with a clothesline to the floor. Back in and Young looks to put Flip through table, and we get another ref bump. Flip hits the springboard spear. Flip puts Young in the table and puts him through with the 450… but of course we have no ref. Bully attacks, moves Young and places Flip into the table rubble for the win and absolutely shit finish. Bully Ray & Silas Young defeated Flip Gordon & Colt Cabana @ 13:40 [*] Because we needed another match with another ref bump. This feud/angle with bully continues to be the worst in ROH. The matches aren’t good, and no one his getting over. The finish is a fine heel finish but if you’re going to do it, don’t do the ref bump in the previous match and make it mean more. Flip continues to look like a complete idiot at the hands of Bully; this was bad.
– Post break, Bully kicks the shit out of Flip with chain shots and parts of the table.
– In the back, Dashwood has been laid out and injured.
CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Trent, Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, and Chuckie T) vs. Bullet Club (The Young Bucks, Cody, Marty Scurll, and Hangman Page): The crowd is alive for the first time (for now) during the entrances, it’s clear they are here for Bullet Club & The NJPW guys. Nick Aldis is on commentary. Page and Ishii start us off, and they work shoulder tackles, trade strikes, and Big Tom Ishii fires up and lays in big time strikes. Page cuts him off with a rolling elbow and big boot but Ishii hits the suplex. Okada tags in as does Marty. Marty wants revenge for All In, but Okada tags out to Romero. Marty attacks, Romero picks up the pace and hits a RANA. He dumps Marty and Matt cuts him off and Marty attacks with strikes until Trent distracts him. Chuckie tags in and Nick now tags in. They work into back and forth, Matt in and they double team Chuckie until Trent arrives and the Best Friends cut them off and hit the lawn dart cutter. CHAOS clears the ring, Romero hits a suicide dive, and finally gets him hug. Back in and Chuckie tags in Okada. Cody also tags in. They lock up, clean break from Okada so Cody attacks. The sliding uppercut follows but Okada hits the flapjack and Trent now tags in and lays into Cody with chops. Cody fights off the tornado DDT and dumps Trent to the floor. Trent avoids the step up dive, and hits a tope, but Page hits the apron shooting star as it breaks down into dives. Chuckie hits a dive off of the stage onto the pile. Ishii heads up top and dives onto the pile and wipes everyone out. CHAOS takes control, with Trent working over Cody. Brandi in and low blows Trent. Bullet Club now takes control, the Bucks are in and they work triple teams with Cody. They dump Chuckie and Marty tags in. The superplex on Trent follows and that gets 2. Cody is back in and lays the boots to Trent. Trent hits a desperation lariat and tags in Romero as Page also tags in. Romero runs wild with RANAs, and now hits forever clotheslines on all of Bullet Club. He then realizes he’s alone and eats superkicks from all of Bullet Club. Romero finally tags in Okada, he attacks and DDTs the Bucks and Trent & Chuckie join him, The neck breaker follows for 2 as Matt makes the save. Okada hits the slam, heads up top, and Nick cuts him off, Matt takes out Chuckie and Trent then cuts him off. Ishii and Marty in and Ishii head butts him. Ishii no sells the Cody kick and clotheslines Cody & Page. The Bucks take him out and isolate Okada, but the Meltzer diver is cut off. Okada & Chuckie hit a spiked tombstone and Okada looks for a rainmaker, but page makes the save, but accidentally takes out Matt. Cody hits cross Rhodes on Okada and tags in. He looks for cross Rhodes again, but Okada hits the rainmaker for the double down. Page tags in and Ishii joins him. Page hits the buckshot lariat, but Ishii hits a lariat. It breaks down and Romero tags backing and Ishii dumps Cody, but Cody pulls him to the floor and slams him to the barricade. Romero works over Marty, but Marty superkicks him and hits the powerbomb for 2. He looks for a chicken wing, Matt then accidentally superkicks Marty, but the Bucks then get ran together. Trent piledrives Nick on the apron, step up dive to the floor by Cody, Marty chicken wings Romero and he taps. Bullet Club defeated CHAOS @ 21:25 via submission [****] This was easily the best thing on the show, with a hot crowd, and a great sense of urgency with everyone busting their ass and most importantly it was just a ton of fun. This was great stuff that the show really needed.
– Aldis announces his rematch with Cody will be best 2 of 3 falls.
– Cody joins commentary and says that he accepts the 2 of 3 falls match.
ROH Championship Match: Champion Jay Lethal vs. Will Ospreay: No handshake from Ospreay. They lock up and battle for position. They work to the ropes, and we get a clean break. Ospreay takes a seat, and looks for kicks but Jay fights out and looks to work the arm. Jay grounds the action, Ospreay counters out and they trade shoulder tackles. Ospreay slaps jay and then tackles him down. They pick up the pace, Jay lay is in chops and they trade. They counter cutters and work into a stand off. Ospreay follows with strikes, lays in chops but Jay cuts him off and knocks him to the floor. The suicide dive follows, hits another, and the third also connects, sending Ospreay over the barricade. Jay now lays in chops, rolls Ospreay back in and lays the boots to him; the back breaker follows for 2. Jay hits the lethal combo and that gets 2. Ospreay hits the back handspring kick and then follows with a series of kicks. Ospreay follows with forearms and uppercuts, and the corner dropkick connects for 2. Jay fires back with chops, and Ospreay dares him to throw more and just walks through them and asks for more again. Jay keeps throwing, but Ospreay fires back. Ospreay lays n rapid-fires strikes, dumps Jay and follows with a suicide dive as Jay hits the barricade. Ospreay continues to throw strikes, follows with kicks, but Jay fires back with strikes and a clothesline. Ospreay pulls out a ladder, Jay cuts that off, and back in, Ospreay hits the springboard forearm for 2. Jay counters the switch kick and hits a lethal combo for the double down. They trade strikes from their knees, and now back to the feet as they continue to throw. Jay hits a bicycle kick but Ospreay RANAs him to the floor. Jay avoids the Sasuke special and Jay then accidentally superkicks the timekeeper, Ospreay catches the title belt as it flies into the air. Jay talks shit to Ospreay and Ospreay refuses to use it as they brawl at ringside. Ospreay slams him to the barricade but Jay cuts him off and hits a flatliner into the barricade. Jay sets the ladder against the barricade, Ospreay cuts him off and takes him into the ring. Jay plants him with a DDT and heads up top. Drops down, but Ospreay cuts him off with a reverse RANA. Ospreay now hits the sitout powerbomb for 2. Jay goes the apron, Ospreay then hits the sunset bomb onto the ladder. I’m surprised Jay took that as last time he took one he got concussed. Ospreay now breaks the count, rolls Jay back in, and hits the missile dropkick. The head kick follows and Ospreay looks for storm breaker but Jay counters out and hits a desperation cutter. The lethal injection is countered by an Ospreay kick. Ospreay gets the title belt and teases using it, drops it and lays in a flurry of kicks and the OsCutter for a great near fall! Ospreay hits stomps, Jay counters storm breaker, and they workup top. Ospreay looks for a super RANA but Jay hits the superbomb and lethal injection for the win. Champion Jay Lethal defeated Will Ospreay @ 22:45 via pin [****¼] This was a great main event and one that easily stole the show. While many questioned giving Lethal a second run, he’s delivered big time in his run so far with a great match against Haskins, a great one here with Ospreay, and an excellent match with Gresham. Both Lethal and Ospreay delivered big time here, with Ospreay working a different, and more serious style on top of some of his usual flashy stuff. Ospreay has also put on weight and many have speculated that he’s on his way to heavyweight soon in NJPW and this may have been a test run for that. This was a great match, deserving of the main event spot, and easily the best thing on the Death before Dishonor show.
– Post match, O’Ryan & Marseglia from the Kingdom attack and beat down Lethal. Gresham arrives to try and make the save, but he’s cut off/ Lethal fights back but Taven arrives and lays out Lethal. Taven reveals his personalized/purple ROH title belt, proclaiming that he’s the real world champion. Good closing angle to setup Taven as the next contender.
– End Scene.
– Thanks for reading.
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”
