BRM Reviews ROH Death Before Dishonor

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Death Before Dishonor- Elizabeth, NJ- 1(7/19/2003)

The show starts off with a GREAT promo from Punk, followed by a good, natural transition into an okay promo from Cabana


GARY MICHAEL CAPPETTA INTERVIEWS HOMICIDE- Gary Michael Cappetta came off like a moron (a worse version of JB, if that is even possible), but for this segment, he was supposed to, because the point of it was for Cide to chew him out for it.

LOW KI KILLS SPECIAL K- Once the show is actually supposed to start, the ring announcer comes out, but Special K’s rave makes it impossible for him to do his job. Then they start to shove him. The music then changes to disco, and the Christopher Street Connection (w/Ariel) come out. The crowd starts chanting “YOU SUCK DICK!” at CSC (great), and one of the CSC members grabs the mic and says “okay… but can anybody tell me if we spit or swallow” (genius). CSC start doing some disco, but they get jumped by Special K… Then LOW KI comes out (to a huge pop). Special K scatters, leaving just Cloudy, Hijinks, and Deranged in the ring. Ki bitchslaps Cloudy, then puts Hijinks in the Dragon Clutch. Deranged then hits Ki with a low blow, leading to…

LOW KI vs. DERANGED- 4.75/10
Deranged worked over Ki’s injured arm, until Ki got some offense in, at which point he basically destroyed Deranged. The rest of Special K came back to the ring, distracting Low Ki so that their FREAKIN HUGE bodyguard, Slugger, could grab Ki from behind with a reverse bear hug. Ki escapes this predicament 3rd grade style… by grabbing and squeezing Slugger’s(to borrow a phrase from Taz) “yam bag.” Ki then continues to murder Deranged.
While the match itself was extremely one-sided, it was fun, got the fans into the show (as a good opener should), and was a great way to bring Low Ki back from injury in a suitably dominant fashion.

We get an awkward expository promo from Daniels, who is in Japan.

JIMMY RAVE vs. MATT STRYKER- 6.5/10. VERY good wrestling match. Lots of good chain wrestling.

WEAPONS MATCH: The Carnage Crew vs. Rudy Boy Gonzalez, Hotstuff Hernandez, Fast Eddie, & Don Juan- 7/10. Lots of weapons. Lots of violence.

OUTCAST KILLAZ vs. THE PURISTS (Tony Mamaluke & John Walters)- 4.75/10. Not too exciting, but it wasn’t supposed to be. The most interesting thing was the purists finisher, which is a double submission.
Dunn & Marcos come out and make fun of the Outcast Killaz, but Xavier returns and kicks their asses. Xavier cuts a pretty good promo, and inserts himself in the Field of Honor.

DOUG WILLIAMS vs. TOM CARTER- 6.75/10. Great wrestling, but the announcing brought it down. After the match Allison Danger tries to recruit Tom Carter into The Prophecy, but he brushes her off.

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH FOR THE #1 CONTENDERS TROPHY: Dan Maff (w/Allison Danger) vs. Colt Cabana vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes) vs. BJ Whitmer- 7.5/10. Great action! The good kind of clusterduck.

SCRAMBLE MATCH: The S.A.T. & The Backseat Boyz vs. Special K (including Mikey Whipreck)- 5.75/10- spotfest.
- After the match, the Backseat Boyz turn heel and attack the S.A.T.

JEFF HARDY vs. KRAZY K vs. JOEY MATTHEWS- 4.5/10. Not long or exciting, and a bit sloppy, but there were some nice spots.
We got “F*CK YOU, HARDY!” and “HARDY SUCKS!” chants before Jeff even came out. He also wore his Will of the Wisp mask, and slipped during his entrance. Jeff also got chants of “YOU GOT FIRED!”*clap!* clap!*clap!*clap!*clap!* and “WE WANT MATT!!” The fact that both Jeff and his student, Krazy K were a bit sloppy didn’t help him at all, either.
Gabe said it best: “He has about 100 teenage girls screaming for him,, and about 1100 ROH fans booing him.”
Another great line from this match was “Joey Matthews just turned babyface by knocking him (Jeff) off the top rope.”
Personally, I don’t think the fans gave Jeff a fair shot, but I think that Jeff’s sloppiness justified the hate post-facto.

DOG COLLAR MATCH: Raven vs. CM Punk- 8/10
AWESOME pre-match promo by Punk. The fans really hate him.
After the match, Punk uses athletic tape to tape Raven to the ropes. He then pours a beer down Raven’s throat to “send you tell, hell, but first, I’m going to send you back to rehab, you drunk.” Punk taunts Rave but then TOMMY DREAMER jumps out of the crowd and hits Punk with a chair, then with a DDT. Dreamer then tapes Punk to the ropes, and unties Raven, who then pours a beer down Punk’s throat. Good aftermath, getting a pop from the crowd and giving Punk motivation to continue the feud.

ROH TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: AJ Styles & Amazing Red(c) (w/Alexis Laree) vs. the Briscoe Brothers- 7.5/10

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Samoa Joe(c) vs. Paul London- 7.75/10. Great match. Made you believe that London had a shot, even though it was his last match.
After the match, lockerroom comes out to say goodbye to London. London gives his farewell speech.

After the match, we get great promos from Raven and the Carnage Crew, a pretty good promo from Daniels, and a great segment with Rob Feinstein trying to get a response from Punk to Raven's challenge for a cage match.

Overall, a pretty good show, but not great. The London farewell is very nice, if you are into that sort of thing. The show was very long, and kind of hard to sit through, though.