ROH "Death Before Dishonor" iPPV Blog
July 24, 2015
Baltimore, Md.
By Sean Radican, PWTorch columnist

(1) Silas Young beat Will Ferrara in the opener. Young won with misery. Nice back and forth finishing sequence. Not much else to it. (**)

After the match, Dalton Castle's boys fanned Young. They ended up riding Young like a pony.

(2) Cedric Alexander beat Moose in a grudge match. Alexander won after hitting Moose with the wrench. Lots of shenanigans on the outside. The match was a lot of just trading big moves. (**)

(3) The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) beat RPG Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta). Briscoes won after a Jaydriller and a Froggy-bow from Mark. Really good action from bell-to-bell. The highlight was Mark doing his kung fu with Baretta's bandana on. (***3/4)

(4) Adam Cole beat Dalton Castle. Castle got in a lot of offense and went toe-to0toe with Cole until the end when Cole hit a superkick to the back of the head and a neckbreaker over his knee. (***1/2)

After the match, Cole picked up Castle and shook his hand. Young then ran down and destroyed Castle's boys.

Next, B.J. Whitmer came out and announced he had just had ACL surgery. He said he can still mentor Adam Page and be a father figure to Colby Corino. Whitmer said his job tonight was at the commentary table. Whitmer told Steve Corino to lay out and learn a thing or two.

(5) Adam Page (w/The Decade) beat A.C.H. in a No DQ match. This was really good. A ladder came into play and Page took a sick bump on the ladder. Page hit the right of passage through a table off the apron for the win. That was insane! (***3/4)

(6) ROH tag champions The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Kazarian) beat The Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven), War Machine (Ray Rowe & Hanson), and ReDragon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) in a four corners match to retain the ROH Tag Titles. Addiction hit Celebrity Rehab on Fish for the win. Adam Cole sat in on commentary. He complained about not being invited to The Kingdom's meeting before this match. Bennett took Chasing the Dragon, but Addiction broke it up. Cole ended up leaving the commentary table. For the finish, Kazarian made a blind tag and Addiction hit celebrity rehab on Fish for the win. Very good car crash-style tag match. Still not much character definition for The Addiction since they turned, though. (***1/2)

Afterward, Mike Bennett asked announcer Kevin Kelly what Cole was saying before he walked away during the match. Kingdom tension continues...

ROH matchmaker Nigel McGuinnes joined commentary for the ROH World Title main event...

(7) ROH World champion Jay Lethal (w/House of Truth) vs. Roderick Strong went to a 60-minute time limit draw; Lethal retained the ROH World Title. The action was a bit methodical during the first half of the match, especially with Lethal in control. Lethal teased a Jaydriller at one point, but Strong backdropped him. The HOT put the boots to Strong on the floor with the ref distracted. The match went a really long time and the action was standard with both guys going back and forth. The HOT interfered again when Strong was setting up for a running kick in the corner. Lethal then nailed him with a kick and got the upper hand.

Strong ducked a dive from Lethal and wiped out Donovan Dijak and J. Diesel with a dive to the floor. The fans finally woke up at this point. Martini interfered later in the match, which allowed Lethal to hit his signature series of dives to the outside. Strong got the Stronghold late and Lethal teased tapping before getting the ropes. Lethal hit Strong with the Book of Truth late after Martini distracted the ref, but he kicked out at the last second. Strong hit a big combination of moves capped by a sick kick late in the match for a great nearfall. Lethal hit the Lethal Injection a short time later, but Strong kicked out at the last second. Lethal hit a superkick and the bell sounded signaling the 60-minute time limit expired.

Afterward, they announced the official decision was a draw. Strong and Lethal were both down in the ring. The fans chanted "MOTY" and both men were shown down on the mat. Kelly called it the greatest match in ROH history and signed off.

STAR RATING: (***) - They were going for an all-time classic time limit draw, but large portions of the match dragged and around the 40-minute mark it appeared they were headed towards a draw. The last 15 or so minutes of the match were really good, but this wasn't the all-time classic match it was hyped to be in commentary.

To close the broadcast, a commercial aired hyping the "All-Star Extravaganza" iPPV on September 18 from San Antonio, Texas.

- Overall Thoughts: easy thumbs up show. It wasn't on the level of the cable PPV last month, but it was a darn good show. The undercard was solid with a string of good to very good matches leading into the main event.

It was disappointing to see Lethal and Strong having to fill 60 minutes of action with a lot of back and forth methodically paced wrestling. Strong has been on fire in 2015, but he couldn't really dial it up until the final portion of the match. Replay recommended, though.

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