ROH Death Before Dishonor Preview: July 21, 2023
Ring Of Honor presents their ROH Death Before Dishonor Pay-Per-View tomorrow night live from Trenton, New Jersey. The event is headlined by a ROH World Championship clash between champion, Claudio Castagnoli and challenger, PAC.
Claudio was originally scheduled to face Mark Briscoe for the championship, but due to a knee injury, Mark was pulled from the match and will be sidelined for the foreseeable future. Fans quickly questioned who would face Claudio at the event, but then, just Wednesday night, we got our answer. Claudio and PAC partook in a Blood & Guts match as partners on AEW Dynamite. But, during the match, PAC was getting frustrated with his Blackpool Combat Club team, mainly, Claudio. PAC ended up walking out on his team and by proxy, cost his team the win. Castagnoli was not happy with this and demanded a match against PAC at the ROH Pay-Per-View. With the championship on the line, PAC quickly accepted the challenge, making the match official. Unfortunately, the injury to Mark Briscoe put a bump in the road for the build to this main event, but with the caliber of talent like Claudio and PAC, surely the match won’t disappoint.
As far as the Women’s Championship goes, the champion, Athena, has been on a tear. undefeated in ROH since becoming champion and she feels nearly unstoppable. But, it was a loss in AEW that sent her over the edge. During AEW’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament, Athena was matched up against Willow Nightingale on an episode of AEW Rampage. Willow ended up picking up the win and went on to win the entire tournament. Athena was furious that Willow beat her, calling it a fluke, considering on the first episode of the new age of Ring Of Honor, Athena defeated Willow in singles action. Now, the win over the champ in the tournament has earned Willow a title match. Athena has tried to talk to management to get the match cancelled, possibly out of fear of losing to Willow with the title on the line. But, its been made clear that the match will take place. With each holding one win over each other, who will win the rubber match and walk out at ROH Women’s Champion?
Samoa Joe will defend his ROH TV Championship as well and now we know it’ll be against former champion, Dalton Castle. Joe has been saying that no one was worthy of facing him for the title, so, a tournament was set up in order to crown a new number one contender for the championship. On Thursday, the finals took place, with the two finalists being Dalton Castle and Shane Taylor. After a hard fought battle, Dalton Castle picked up the win and will now face Samoa Joe for the Television Championship at Death Before Dishonor.
A highly anticipated match for the ROH PURE Championship will also take place between champion, Katsyori Shibata and challenger, Daniel Garcia. This one is simple, Daniel Garcia is a former champion looking to get his title back, but the hard hitting Japanese legend stands in his way. One question from the fans looms, though. Can the man nicknamed “The Wrestler” bring out the wrestling side of the self proclaimed Sports Entertainer in Daniel Garcia? Fans are clamoring to see Garcia bring that ruthless side out of him, and maybe he will Friday night.
A huge ROH Tag Team Title Match is going down when the Lucha Bros defend their gold against three other teams, such as, The Kingdom, Aussie Open and Best Friends. The Tag Team Champions have been down in Mexico lately, but they’re back in the states to defend the titles in a match where the odds are stacked against him. with four teams in the match, it’s sure to be pure chaos. Can the champions overcome the odds?
The Righteous has stolen Stu Grayson away from the Dark Order. Dutch and Vincent have brainwashed Stu to believe they’re who he should stand beside and not his former Dark Order teammates, Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds and John Silver. The tension has been building between these teams for weeks, with The Righteous trying to really bring out the ‘dark’ side of Dark Order. Finally, in recent weeks, Evil Uno has snapped, and beat his opponents with a chair, but promised much more harm on The Righteous. A match this heated deserves no rules, and anything goes. So, it’s been made official, The Dark Order vs. The Righteous will be a Fight Without Honor. In this match, anything goes, all weapons are legal and bodies will be broken. Can Dark Order beat some sense into their former partner? Or, will The Righteous turn Dark Order to the dark side?
Two other matches have been added to this card, one being for the ROH Six-Man Championships. The champions, Brian Cage, Kaun and To a Liona, collectively known as the Mogul Embassy, want to defend their titles against anyone. So, Leon Ruffin has stepped up and found some partners from New Japan Pro Wrestling in Master Wato and Ryusuke Taguchi. Can the unlikely trio capture the titles? Well, see at the big event. Plus, Komander vs. Gravity has been added to the card. Usually, ROH likes to give the fans a luchador special attraction match and thats exactly what this is. Two high-flying luchadors going at it for the fans amusement!
ROH Zero Hour also takes place one hour before Pay-Per-View for free on the ROH YouTube channel. On the free show, we will see Trish Adora battle Leyla Hirsch, AR Fox against Shane Taylor, a Pure Rules Match between Josh Woods and Tracy Williams and a tag team match between The Workhorsemen and Action Andretti and Darius Martin.
ROH Death Before Dishonor Card
- ROH World Championship: Claudio Castagnoli(c) vs. PAC
- ROH Womens Championship: Athena(c) vs. Willow Nightingale
- ROH Tag Team Championships: Lucha Bros(c) vs. The Kingdom vs. Aussie Open vs. Best Friends
- ROH PURE Championship: Katsyori Shibata(c) vs. Daniel Garcia
- ROH Television Championship: Samoa Joe(c) vs. Dalton Castle
- ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championships: Mogul Embassy(c) vs. Leon Ruffin, Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi
- Fight Without Honor: The Righteous vs. Dark Order
- Komander vs. Gravity
ROH Death Before Dishonor is live on Pay-Per-View on July 21, 2023 at 8PM ET.
Death Before Dishonor Zero-Hour
- PURE Rules Match: Tracy Williams vs. Josh Woods
- AR Fox vs. Shane Taylor
- Leyla Hirsch vs. Trish Adora
- Darius Martin & Action Andretti vs. The Workhorsemen
ROH Zero-Hour is live for free on the ROH YouTube Channel one hour before the Pay-Per-View at 7PM ET.
By: Brady Alexander
Also, read: Ring Of Honor Results – July 20, 2023