Ring of Honor’s (ROH) Death Before Dishonor event returned to the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on Friday night and the fans in the iconic pro wrestling venue got to witness some of the best matches of the year.
Title changes were few and far apart on the show, but it wasn’t for the lack of trying.
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Bandido put the Ring of Honor World Championship on the line against Nick Wayne. The two pro wrestlers put on one of the best matches of the entire year. Wayne was left bloodied after his face was scraped against the side of the steel steps.
The "Most Wanted" man and "The Prodigy" were building momentum to an insane finish. They each hit German suplexes on each other before Wayne nailed a cutter on Bandido. The sequence continued with a poisonrana from Bandido, but Wayne ate it and planted Bandido with a crucifix driver.
Wayne thought he was going to win the match at the end. He hit Bandido with the Prodigy Plex but Bandido was able to catch him off guard and roll him up with a crucifix pin.
Bandido’s victory was just an appetizer for the main event.
Athena was looking to continue her historic Ring of Honor Women’s Championship reign against Stardom’s Hazuki. Two of the best women’s pro wrestlers in the sport right now, Hazuki seemed to have an answer for everything Athena was throwing at her.
But it was pure grit that kept the "Fallen Goddess" alive in the match. She took a huge splash from Hazuki while lying on the announce table. Hazuki also hit her with a suplex on the aisle of the entrance ramp. Sure, Billie Starkz and Diamanté may have been at Athena’s side to back her up, but that’s what they were supposed to do.
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Athena finally got a chance to hit the O-Face and pinned Hazuki for the win. Athena’s title reign is up to 1,350 days.
Meanwhile, two ROH championships changed hands.
Action Andretti received help from Hook and Anthony Bowens to help defeat Lio Rush and capture the ROH TV Championship. It is Andretti’s first singles championship as a member of the Ring of Honor roster.
In a Fight Without Honor match, Andretti did what he could to leave Rush bloodied and a little more broken than before he came into the ring. Andretti nailed a gnarly 450 splash on Rush through the table.
Earlier in the night, The Outrunners (Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd) and Dalton Castle put the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championship on the line against Lethal Twist (Jay Lethal, Blake Christian, Lee Johnson).
Christian was able to get the pinfall with the help of Lethal’s leverage on the outside.
The intensity of the crowd felt familiar as the chants of "this is awesome," rang out through the arena consistently. Now, Ring of Honor looks toward the fall in what’s shaping up to be a solid end of the year for some of its key wrestlers.
