ROH Death Before Dishonor 2023 notes and results: Athena and Willow Nightingale close the show

July 21, 2023 Neal Flanagan NEWS, Show Reports
Image Courtesy: ROH

** The regular Ring of Honor commentary team of Ian Riccaboni (on double duty this weekend along with AEW Collision tomorrow) and Caprice Coleman were on the call from the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, New Jersey.

** A packed Zero Hour preshow featured four matches, which were free to stream on YouTube and ROH’s social media channels. Josh Woods submitted Tracy Williams in a Pure rules match. Action Andretti & Darius Martin defeated The WorkHorsemen (Andretti pinned Anthony Henry). Leyla Hirsch defeated Trish Adora and attacked her after the match. Skye Blue ran out to make the save. AR Fox defeated Shane Taylor in the final match of the preshow.

** After their win, it was announced that Andretti and Martin would face Bullet Club Gold on AEW Collision on Saturday night. It was also announced that Skye Blue would take on Taya Valkyrie on Collision.

** The main card got underway with Komander vs. Gravity in a predictably exciting opener that got the crowd stirred up. Gravity got the win with a quick inside cradle. After the match, Ian Riccaboni announced that Gravity would face PAC on Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite.

** The ROH TV Title was up for grabs next as Samoa Joe defended against Dalton Castle. Castle got plenty of offense in this match, but after The Boys were ejected at the behest of Stokely Hathaway, Joe got in a low blow and the Coquina Clutch to retain.

** In the second of six title matches on the card, the four-way match for the ROH World Tag Team Championships followed. All the teams played their part in this encounter, which was punctuated by some impressive moves by the Lucha Bros and Aussie Open, who would end up with the win.

** The ROH World Six-Man Titles were retained by The Mogul Embassy after a pretty emphatic win over the makeshift team of Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi, & Leon Ruffin.

** Next up was the ROH Pure Championship defense by Katsuyori Shibata against challenger Daniel Garcia. There was a mixture of hard-hitting strikes and kicks, mat wrestling, and amusing spots as Garcia did his trademark dance to Shibata’s displeasure. Shibata retained after hitting the Penalty Kick. After the match, Garcia flipped Shibata the bird instead of the code of honor handshake. Shibata grabbed the finger and enforced the handshake.

** Baseball bats, barbed wire, ladders, thumbtacks, chairs, and the dreaded Lego pieces were all employed in the Fight Without Honor Match between The Dark Order and The Righteous. In a nasty-looking spot, Evil Uno took two powerbombs on a mixture of thumbtacks and Lego bricks. Stu Grayson took the pin after a brutal ladder powerbomb through a table to the floor, followed by the Ragnarok onto the Lego and thumbtacks.

** In the first half of the double main event, PAC challenged Claudio Castagnoli for the ROH World Championship. Castagnoli would ultimately retain after an excellent match. The heel vs. heel dynamic was made to work as these two brought their A-game, mixing it up with their trademark move-sets. In the final stretch, PAC attempted to remove a turnbuckle cover but was prevented by Wheeler Yuta. Castagnoli then immediately hit an uppercut and the Ricola Bomb for the win.

The Lucha Brothers emerged to assist PAC and beat down Castagnoli and Yuta until The Best Friends made the save. Orange Cassidy came out to help. He teed up the Orange Punch on Yuta, who ducked, with Castagnoli taking the strike.

** The second half of the main event was the ROH Women’s World Championship encounter between Athena and challenger Willow Nightingale. This was an excellent match, with multiple tribute spots to the Ring of Honor women who had come before them and the crowd daring to hope that Willow could dethrone the dominant Athena. There was an absolutely enormous reaction in the closing stretch when Willow kicked out of the O-Face. However, a second O-Face and a crossface led to the champ retaining.

ROH Death Before Dishonor 2023 full results:

Main card

  • ROH Women’s World Championship: Athena (c) def. Willow Nightingale
  • ROH World Championship: Claudio Castagnoli (c) def. PAC
  • Fight Without Honor: The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds, & John Silver) def. The Righteous (Vincent, Dutch, & Stu Grayson)
  • ROH Pure Championship: Katsuyori Shibata (c) def. Daniel Garcia
  • ROH World Six-Man Tag Titles: The Mogul Embassy (Brian Cage, Bishop Kaun, & Toa Liona) (c) def. Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi, & Leon Ruffin
  • ROH World Tag Team Championships: Aussie Open def. Lucha Bros (c), The Kingdom & Best Friends
  • ROH Television Championship: Samoa Joe (c) def. Dalton Castle
  • Gravity def. Komander

Zero Hour Preshow

  • AR Fox def. Shane Taylor
  • Leyla Hirsch def. Trish Adora
  • Action Andretti & Darius Martin def. The WorkHorsemen (JD Drake & Anthony Henry)
  • Pure Rules Match: Josh Woods def. Tracy Williams
About Neal Flanagan 804 Articles
Based in Northern Ireland, Neal Flanagan is a former newspaper journalist and copy editor. In addition to reporting for POST Wrestling, he co-hosts The Wellness Policy podcast with Wai Ting and Jordan Goodman.
Twitter