ROH Death Before Dishonor XV
September 22, 2017
Sam’s Town Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

Meet our reviewers:

Kelly Harrass: While you normally find Kelly writing WWE pay per view reviews, he decided to jump in on this ROH show. He’s ordering the show on traditional PPV because, as we all saw today, streaming isn’t permanent, but cable TV is forever. Find Kelly on Twitter at @comicgeekelly.

Sean Sedor: As always, Sean is here to review another ROH PPV. While he normally watches these events on ROH’s website (because it’s cheaper), he’s also going with the traditional PPV rout tonight. You can follow Sean on Twitter @SASedor2994, and you can check out his wrestling reviews blog at http://dxvsnwo1994.blogspot.com.

#1 Contender’s Match – The Briscoes & Bully Ray def. The Kingdom

Kelly Harrass: Remember back when Maria’s butt was the centerpiece of the Kingdom? I can’t lie, I enjoy the group of weirdos we have now more than the original incarnation of the group. On the other side of the ring, you have the man with the highest ratio of in-ring talent to awful hair; Jay Briscoe along with his brother and Bully “Remember ECW? Please say you remember ECW” Ray. For an opener, this wasn’t bad. The action was hot and the crowd was into it, but I can’t help but feel like it went a bit too long. This never felt like a match where one of these two teams will have to wrestle again later tonight. Setting that aside, this was a fine opener. The spot of the match had to be TK O’Ryan teasing a dive in the same building that he broke his shin in, only to flip off the fans. It was still a flip of sorts, I suppose. The biggest news of the match is the teased strife between Jay Briscoe and his partners, something which I’m sure will come into play later tonight. ***

Sean Sedor: The winner of this one gets their shot at the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles later on in the night. This actually the first time we’ve seen The Kingdom in trios action since TK O’Ryan broke his leg (in this very building) at the 15th Anniversary Show back in March. This was a pretty solid opening match. In was in the perfect spot, especially given that the winners were getting their title shot later on. There was good action throughout, though I think they could’ve wrestled with a little more urgency (again, because the winners had another match later). One of the stories coming into this one was whether The Briscoes & Bully Ray would be able to overcome some of the internal issues they’ve been having over the last few months. They seemed to fine for the first half of this match, but there was spot towards the end where Mark Briscoe tagged in Bully Ray. Jay Briscoe was not pleased with this, and he soon tagged himself in. Despite some communication issues (Jay got knocked into Bully Ray), Mark Briscoe & Bully Ray got the win for their team to earn themselves a title shot. Once again, Jay Briscoe wasn’t happy that his brother won the match with Bully Ray, and not himself. Ever since this angle started, I had a feeling that someone was turning heel (if not all of them). Based on what happened here, it looks like Jay Briscoe might be going to the dark side. Again, the match itself was perfectly acceptable for a PPV opener, but the finish was a sign of things to come. ***1/4

“The Villain” Marty Scurll def. Chuck Taylor

Kelly Harrass: This should have opened the show. The match was a ton of fun, the crowd was way into both men, and they didn’t overstay their welcome. Chuck should have been in ROH years ago, but it’s good to see him finally get his time to shine. Chuckie T and Marty have very good chemistry together. They both wrestle a style that’s the perfect mix between serious and comedy wrestling, making them a great match. This was absolutely what Chuck’s debut singles match in ROH needed to be. He looked great, even in loss. Marty could have dominated Chuck, but he only managed to squeeze out a win with the help of a momentary slip up. While many seem to think that Taylor is only a comedy guy, he really showed what a great wrestler he is in this match. ***1/2

Sean Sedor: It’s “The Gentleman” vs. “The Villain” as Chuck Taylor competes in his first singles bout in ROH against Marty Scurll. I have to say, it’s so cool to FINALLY see Chuck Taylor in ROH. I don’t know why it took them so long to bring them in. This was really good match, which should be a surprise to anyone. From start to finish, there was plenty of entertaining action, as a whole, I thought Chuck Taylor had a very strong showing here. He nearly had Scurll beat on a number of occasions (including a great nearfall after Scurll got his foot on the ropes following an Awful Waffle), and really too the fight to the former ROH World TV Champion. It seemed like the crowd was more into Scurll than Taylor initially, but it sounded like the crowd was into Taylor by the end, especially after he hit a series of dives, both over the ropes to the floor, as well as over the guardrails. Scurll eventually took advantage of a distracted referee to get the submission win with the Chicken Wing. Despite coming up short, Taylor definitely looked impressive, and hopefully that bodes well for his future in ROH. ***3/4

Las Vegas Street Fight
Punishment Martinez def. Jay White

Kelly Harrass: Jay White is a tremendous pro wrestler. This was the first time that I saw him in a plunder match and he excelled in this environment. I can’t underplay the contributions of Punishment Martinez though as he was fantastic here too. The insane dive that Martinez does over the ring post is one of the most insane things you’ll see in wrestling. I still can’t believe a man that big can fly like that. Being the big man in the match means that he plays the role of the base, while Jay flies around, lands on Punishment, and takes crazy bumps. And boy, did Jay ever take some sick bumps. White made a chair contraption only to be slammed onto it twice, but even that couldn’t finish him off. Martinez had to introduce thumbtacks into the match and slam White onto them to finally pick up the win. While I wouldn’t call this a MOTYC, I loved this match. Both men have a bright future, but this match only served as more evidence that Jay White is a future star. ****1/4

Sean Sedor: Jay White (wearing white jeans!) snuck up from behind and attacked Punishment Martinez with a chair to kickstart this Street Fight. These two have been feuding for a few months now, with White being the only person to have multiple victories over Martinez. This was an incredibly entertaining hardcore brawl. I was very intrigued to see how Jay White did here, because this kind of hardcore environment is out of his element, and he ended up doing pretty well. Obviously he was dressed for the occasion (as I mentioned earlier), but he wasn’t afraid to take the fight to Martinez, frequently using steel chairs and trash cans to dish out punishment (no pun intended). Meanwhile, Martinez inflicted just as much damage, if not more. There were a number of crazy spots in this one, particularly in the closing minutes. Unfortunately for Jay White, he was on the receiving end of most of those bumps. Not only did Martinez hit his over the ring post dive to the floor, but he gave White a Last Ride AND a Psycho Driver onto a bridge of chairs, before chokeslamming him onto a bunch of thumbtacks for the win. I’m usually a sucker for ROH hardcore matches, and this one suited my fancy. Both guys worked extremely hard, and their efforts paid off in spades with a match that was super enjoyable to watch from beginning to end. ****1/4

ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles
The Bullet Club (The Young Bucks & “The Hangman” Adam Page) def. The Briscoes & Bully Ray

Kelly Harrass: Is it weird to say that this might be Adam Page’s best single performance? He came into the ring with such a fire in him and cleaned house, even though he was bound with tape. Why was he bound with tape? Well, because he was kidnapped by a WWE stooge of course. That really only makes sense if you watch Being the Elite, which you absolutely should do. Back to the match at hand, Page impressed me here. The top rope moonsault to the outside that he hit while his hands were bound was beautiful and completely insane. This wasn’t so much a match as it was an extended angle with the return of Page and the heel turn of Jay Briscoe. What we got was solid, but there wasn’t much depth. **¾

Sean Sedor: I mentioned in my preview of this PPV that the “Where’s Hangman?” storyline from Being The Elite could play a role in this one, and well, it did…initially. The Young Bucks came out by themselves, but then Adam Page ran in through the crowd into street clothes, with his hands wrapped in, and his mouth covered with, duct tape. This led to an awesome spot where Page did a moonsault from the top rope to the floor with his hand still tied together. That was freaking impressive! The match itself went for a few minutes before Jay Briscoe turned on Bully Ray by smacking him in the face with a table that they were looking to use. I don’t think it’s fair to give a real rating here, as this was more of long segment than an actual match, with the resolution of the “Where’s Hangman” story and the Jay Briscoe heel turn. I’m very intrigued to see where The Briscoes go from here. It appears as though Jay was jealous over the fact that Mark seemed to be working well with Bully Ray. I’m guessing we get a Jay Briscoe/Bully Ray singles match at some point in the future (Final Battle?) with Mark Briscoe being caught right in the middle. N/R

ROH World TV Title
Kenny King def. KUSHIDA ©

Kelly Harrass: A hard fought match like this does a lot to rehab a wrestler like Kenny King, who spent many of the past months involved in one of the worst stables that ROH has ever seen. While he was stuck in the Rebellion, I honestly forgot how great he was in-ring. KUSHIDA and King fought a back and forth war with a fantastic second half. The first half had its slow points, but it was far from being bad. KUSHIDA had a great run as the TV champion, but all good things must come to an end. As I said earlier, King needs to be rehabbed following his run in the Rebellion and giving him the TV Title is the perfect thing to do it. KUSHIDA doesn’t need the title, but a guy like King absolutely does. This is ultimately the best move for both the career of Kenny King and for the health of ROH as a company. ***½

Sean Sedor: Kenny King’s daughter was at ringside for this one. Of course, King is coming off his run on the most recent season of ABC’s The Bachelorette. Meanwhile, KUSHIDA’s mom was at ringside (yes, you read that right)! This ended up being a very good match overall. The opening minutes featured a nice back & forth exchange before KUSHIDA took control after he took King out on the floor right in front of his daughter. From there, King was forced to fight from underneath as KUSHIDA was in control for a fair amount of time. It was certainly interesting to hear the crowd reactions as the match progressed. King definitely got a good amount of cheers (being in his hometown), but he received some boos as well. At the same time, KUSHIDA also got a positive reception, though it wasn’t as large as usual. The middle part of this match was a tad slow, but the action definitely picked up in the second half. Eventually, King was able to hit the Royal Flush to capture the ROH World TV Title. Again, this was really solid from start to finish. It was far from KUSHIDA’s best outing in ROH, but his in-ring work was still great (as it always is), and he played his role well. I know Kenny King is someone who gets a lot of slack, but I’ve never had any issues with him. That’s not to say I think he’s outstanding, but he’s a very good in-ring talent, and he put forth an impressive performance here en route to winning his singles title in ROH. It’s a great comeback story for King, especially considering how he left the company in 2012. He got to celebrate with his daughter in the ring following the match, which was a sweet moment. ***3/4

Last Man Standing Match
Silas Young def. Jay Lethal

Kelly Harrass: I think Last Man Standing matches just aren’t for me. I enjoyed the first half of this match quite a bit, but that was before the constant ten counts started. The major downside of a match like this is the amount of time that is spent standing around watching a guy try to make it back to his feet. Both men worked incredibly hard, but once the stipulation came into play in a major way, I started to tune out. Of the matches these men had together, this may have been my least favorite. The action was fine, I just disliked the structure of the match. Silas looked great coming out of this match, outlasting Jay Lethal and getting what might be the biggest win of his career. There was blood, tables, ladders, belts, and a whole lot of counting that went into this brutal, brutal match. I enjoy all of the ingredients, I just wasn’t the biggest fan of the final dish. ***1/2

Sean Sedor: Here we have the second hardcore match on the card that’s serving as the culmination of a long feud. The issues between Jay Lethal & Silas Young date back to as early as September of last year, and their rivalry has gotten to the point where a Last Man Standing Match was necessary to settle the score. From start to finish, this was pretty awesome! I mentioned earlier that I have a soft spot for hardcore matches in ROH (I can’t explain why), especially when they’re one of the final clashes in a much longer rivalry. These two battled back and forth for several minutes, and at one point, Lethal got a belt (that Young took off Bobby Cruise) and absolutely went to town on Young. He whipped Young viciously, to the point where he left marks all over Young’s back. Attempted interference from The Beer City Bruiser would backfire in a big way, as he crashed through a table before Lethal put Young through a table himself. This Last Man Standing Match was equally as a brutal as the Las Vegas Street Fight we saw earlier. Lethal & Young just beat the crap out of each other over and over and over again. They both wanted to put an end to this rivalry once and for all, and went to incredible lengths to get the job done. Lethal was eventually busted open, and the match built to a thrilling spot where they both fell off a Ladder that was set up on the floor, and crashed through a table. They struggled to their feet, but Young just edged out Lethal, beating the ten count at the last possible moment. I have to say that I didn’t expect Young to win this one, but the fact that he did is a huge moment for his ROH career. This was probably his biggest win on ROH PPV to date, as he’s seemingly won a rivalry with the former ROH World Champion. Both men worked their asses off here, and it resulted in a great conclusion to their feud. ****1/4

ROH World Tag Team Titles
The Motor City Machine Guns def. The Young Bucks (c)

Kelly Harrass: There was a moment where I thought this whole match was ruined. While the proceeding minutes had been an incredible contest, when the Addiction showed up, I feared the worst. Thankfully, the regrettable interference spot wasn’t the end of the match and didn’t end up factoring into the finish either. Take that interference out of the match and you have a prime example of why the Bucks and the MCMG are two of the very best teams in wrestling today. These four men put on an absolute clinic and I had a hell of a lot of fun watching it. Sabin and Shelley picked up the win and are your new Tag Team Champions. I have no doubt that this isn’t the end of this rivalry and I look forward to their next clash. ****1/2

Sean Sedor: The story being pushed coming into this one was that Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley had yet to win the ROH World Tag Team Titles, and the video package that was shown beforehand featuring Sabin & Shelley did a good job to build this story up. This shouldn’t come as a major shock, but these two teams were having a great match. I say “were”, because towards the end, Paul Turner ate a superkick, which was the sign for The Addiction to run out and attack both teams. The whole reason this rematch came about was because Daniels & Kazarian got involved in their match on ROH TV several weeks ago. Fortunately, both teams were able to give The Addiction their comeuppance in the form of a double Indytaker on the floor. In the end, we did get a clean finish, which saw The Motor City Machine Guns capture the ROH World Tag Team Titles for the first time. There was strong tag team action throughout this one, but I’d be lying if I said that the interference from The Addiction didn’t hurt the match to a degree. The result wasn’t that shocking in hindsight, as when a person or team is pushed as having never won a particular title, they usually win it. The Young Bucks will definitely get a rematch for the titles at some point, and with The Addiction getting involved, I have a sneaking suspicion that we might be revisiting a certain stipulation match, which occurred around this same time last year with these same three teams, at this year’s Final Battle. ***3/4

ROH World Title
Cody © def. Minoru Suzuki

Kelly Harrass: This main event was going to be the biggest test of Cody’s title reign yet. The main question I had going into this was if Cody could hang with a guy like Suzuki. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cody work with a shooter style wrestler like Minoru Suzuki before, so this was going to be a first. Thankfully, Cody was able to hold up his end of the match and things went pretty well. To me, it felt like Suzuki didn’t take this match very seriously. He wasn’t the avatar of violence that we’ve come to expect from him in New Japan. Suzuki was having fun here, but he seemed to be going through the motions. Essentially, he was just there to play the hits and then go home. I was expecting a mess of a match, so I was pleasantly surprised at what we got. And then it just ended. There was no real lead up to the finish, Cody hit the Cross Rhodes and then it was over. Initially I was worried that someone got hurt and they quickly called for the finish, but that didn’t seem to be the case. For a match that was fairly strong, the ending left a lot to be desired. I’m having a hard time summing up my thoughts on this match because it doesn’t feel complete. There was a large chunk of the match that felt like it was cut out as the ending suddenly happened. If this was a midcard match, I wouldn’t be so disappointed. As a main event, it was lacking substance that would make it something worth remembering. The day that Minoru Suzuki came to ROH won’t be remembered as anything more than a future trivia question. ***

Sean Sedor: My one hope was that the crowd would sing along to Kaze Ni Nare, and they did, which filled my heart with joy. Cody came out with his wife Brandi and bunch of Vegas Showgirls. In case you missed it, on a recent episode of ROH TV, Cody introduced an actual “Ring of Honor”, and he wants people to kiss this ring instead of shaking hands. Of course, when Cody called for Suzuki to kiss the ring, Suzuki responded by biting his fingers, which was PERFECT. Coming into the show, this match was easily the biggest question mark. We all saw how Cody’s match with SANADA at the War Of The Worlds UK iPPV last month in Liverpool turned out. It had the potential to be good, but it easily could’ve been a dumpster fire. While it really wasn’t anything special, it was absolutely better than the aforementioned SANADA defense. They played up the fact that Cody was afraid of Suzuki in the first few minutes, but once things got going, the action was solid enough. The fans were really into seeing Suzuki, but he basically just did his greatest hits, and it didn’t seem like he put it a huge amount of effort. There was a few nice exchanges in the final few minutes, but then the match just….ended. Cody hit the Cross Rhodes out of nowhere, and that was it. The finish came off incredibly flat, as “The American Nightmare” retained his title over Suzuki in surprisingly clean fashion. It was a fine match as a whole, but it definitely was a disappointment when you consider the fact that this was the main event of a PPV. Ultimately, that’s probably what we’re going to continue to see as long as Cody is ROH World Champion. If he’s not facing someone that can get a truly great match out of him (like Okada did a the G1 Specials in Long Beach), then you’re going to see more title defenses like this. Completely inoffensive, but not memorable in any way. ***