Ring of Honor: Death Before Dishonor X iPPV LIVE Recap

Hey everyone, this is Ari Berenstein, current Podcaster of Honor here. Chris GST called in a favor and tonight I’ll be providing you live coverage of ROH’s tenth annual Death Before Dishonor show, live on internet Pay Per View in Chicago Ridge, Illinois at the fabled Frontier Fieldhouse. The show kicks off at 8:30PM Eastern. It’s been a while since I’ve attempted live coverage, so I beg your indulgence and patience for any slow typing fingers.

Jump down the page to get quick results from the show. Be sure to refresh throughout the night for updates as well.

Be sure to check out http://PWXpro.com as they will host Hardy vs Steen on Oct 5 which could have the ramifications of tonights show with Hardy being in attendance.

The card: Kevin Steen defends the ROH World Title against Rhino, the ROH World Tag Team Title Tournament will be decided with the finals and semi-final round featuring Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander versus S.C.U.M. (Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs) and The Briscoes vs. Rhett Titus & Charlie Haas, The ROH TV Title is on the line when Adam Cole defends against Mike Mondo, ACH debuts vs. Kyle O’Reilly, Tadarius Thomas wrestles Silas Young for the eleventh spot in the 2012 Survival of the Fittest tournament, Jay Lethal tries to show killer instinct against Homicide, The House of Truth (Michael Elgin and Roderick Strong) wrestle The Irish Airborne and apparently, both Davey Richards and Matt Hardy each will make his presence known during the show.

-Let’s start with some BREAKING NEWS as per Pro Wrestling Pondering’s own Jerome Cusson. Ring of Honor WILL RETURN to Chicago Ridge, Illinois on March 2nd, 2013 for their Eleventh Anniversary Show.

-AAAAND we start the iPPV with me not being able to connect to the link with the feed. Awesome.

-Reported attendance from several ROH fans was between 500-600
Credit to @FlairChops on twitter and Marcus Seeting & James Gunch for emailing us

-Dark match result: Mike Sydal (brother of Evan Bourne) beat Matt Sterling

-8:38PM EST: “The website that you’re trying to reach is having technical difficulties and is currently unavailable.

We are aware of the issue and are working hard to fix it. Thank you for your patience.”

-8:43 PM EST: Apparently ROH is stalling the live show in order to fix whatever technical issues happened this time around on their website. Let’s see how things progress.

-8:50 PM EST: I’m still having massive issues attempting to even get the ROHwrestling.com page to load. The one time I was able to get to the “My PPVs” section I received the stream unavailable message. Still going to keep trying here. Apparently the opening match is up and running, but I’m flying blind here.

Opening Match: ROH World Tag Team Title Tournament-Semi Final:  Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander vs. S.C.U.M. (Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs)

-Winners: Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs, advancing to the Invisible Finals of the Invisible ROH World Tag Team Title Tournament.

-9:00PM EST: Still cannot access the ROHwrestling.com website. I am watching / listening to Leverage Season 4 DVD Commentary tracks on my television in the meantime. Hope everyone else is enjoying the show.

-9:04PM EST: OOOH Progress! After numerous “node timeout” messages I finally have a fully loaded ROHwrestling.com main page to access. Can I get any further? Well, we shall see! OR NOT SEE, as the case may be!

In the mean time:

Winner Gains Entry into the Survival of the Fittest 2012 Tournament: Tadarius Thomas vs. Silas Young

-Winner of the Invisible Match: Tadarius Thomas, advancing to wrestle against Adam Cole, in what may or may not be an invisible television show featuring the Survival of the Fittest Tournament.

9:15PM: Ring of Honor insists the stream is available, but after mercilessly refreshing my browser, it’s not happening for me.

9:15PM: Elliot just wiped the floors with three dudes using only Duct Tape (“The Radio Job”). *** fight.

ACH vs. Kyle O’Reilly

Winner: Kyle O’Reilly via Triangle Choke. I am SO pissed for having missed ACH’s debut for Ring of Honor. Refreshing still doesn’t work.

9:23PM: Sophie makes a great grift as a pregnant woman, thus convincing the local LEOs to call in Homeland Security, thus tying up both departments in a “who’s got the lead?” debate. **** grift. Meanwhile, Parker and Hardison have a ton of fun with deserted patent inventions. Nate still has to figure out how to get his father and his team out of the building with local, SWAT and now Homeland Security surrounding the building.

ROH World Tag Team Title Tournament-Semi Final: The Briscoes vs. Rhett Titus & Charlie Haas (w/ Shelton Benjamin)

Winner: Charlie Haas & Rhett Titus defeat the Briscoes via rollup. Thanks to Benjamin’s interference. Finals of the ROH Invisible World Tag Team Title Tournament is the HORRIFICALLY MISMATCHED AND DISAGREEING DUO  of Haas & Titus versus The OSTENSIBLY HEEL TEAM THAT EVERYONE LOVES, Corino & Jacobs.

9:30PM EDT: Elliot, posing as an inside man on the side of the law has to do the job to three guys with Homeland Security watching outside through a huge window-filled annex. Once they go off-screen, Elliot can be his bad-ass self. He easily trounces those fools **** fight, lots of drama (It is a TNT show after all).

9:33EDT: Nate and his team use a huge distraction to escape from the building. Sadly, his father, a con man himself looking for one last score, slips away. Nate, however, has figured out who is behind this nefarious plan, and is desperate to find his dad before it’s too late.

9:36 EDT: Nate’s dad ducks into a warehouse, while Nate screams over the phone not to go into the building. Nate and his team are on the  way. Will they get there in time?

9:39PM EDT: A bad guy in a suit tosses Nate’s dad Jimmy Ford a bag with a crapload of money, but in those famous words “IT’S A TRAP!” and someone hits him from behind with a slapjack (not Stevie Ray), knocking the old man out. That looked damn painful.

Davey Richards Inteview

-Davey announces he is going to be the twelfth man to enter the Survival of the Fittest 2012 tournament. Calling the final two right now as Richards and O’Reilly.

9:44PM EDT: STILL NO FEED. Jimmy Ford wakes up and realizes he’s been double crossed. In his woozy state of half-consciousness he realizes the place has been booby trapped and wired to explode. He calls his son and says his last goodbyes as Nate begs his Dad to just walk out of the building.

9:46PM: The Big KABOOM. For the first time in his life, Nate hears his dad tells him that he loves him, just as that warehouse  goes all to hell. We’re talking ***** explosion here kids. Nate Ford goes flying back, while the rest of his team is shown in slo-mo (copyright Northstar Express) and running to him to pull him away. Meanwhile…

9:49PM: Cut to inside a penitentiary, where we see the reveal of the Big Bad who is behind this…it’s Victor Dubenich, the first man to be taken down by the Leverage Team, in the very first episode of Season One! Awesome cliff hanger to end the penultimate episode of Season 4. That all leads into the last episode of that season, “The Last Dam Job”. Get that DVD or check it out through out mediums to see what happens next.

Jay Lethal vs. “The Notorious 1-8-7” Homicide

Finally, and thanks to the kind help of those at ROHWorld.com, the feed is working now, IF you choose the 360p and NOT the 720p. I will do my best to call the action.

Homicide goes for a lariat, but it’s reversed into a Lethal Combination. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker by Lethal. DVD by Lethal. Homicide kicks out. Overhead Belly-to-Belly and closeline  with Marty Jannetty flip-over sell gets two. Ace Crusher and Homicide looks for the closeline but is met by a superkick to the jaw and running suplex. Hail to the King hits and Lethal Combination gets two. Once again, but still a kick-out. Homicide fires up, superkickto the head, Fisherman’s buster and AGAIN Homicide kicks out! Lethal stands over Homicide, hands akimbo, Homicide SPITS at him, Lethal fires back, with a HOOKING DDT and that’s enough for the win.

-Winner: “Killer Instinct” Jay Lethal via pinfall.

Oh GREAT, just in time for INTERMISSION. AWESOME.

-More nifty ROH mess-ups. Playing over the second half introduction music while the Rhino promo is playing. Good times, but I’ve seen that mistake before.

The House of Truth (Michael Elgin & Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini) vs. Irish Airborne (Dave & Jake Crist)

-Truth babbles on about love, pain and hoopla (which by the way, isn’t really all the cute or clever and we’re going to hear that word repeated twenty million times). He comes-on to Veda Scott. Audience clapping prevents me from hearing the second half of his promo. Maybe that’s a good thing. He vows to take his pants off, or something. His hair is atrocious.

-Strong outwrestles Dave Crist and hits a dropkick, then mocks Elgin for his supposed strength. A dose-e-do ends with Dave tagging in Jake, who barely lands a springboard quebrada. A double team boot and quebrada works better Elgin in and uses his strength to dismantle Jake. Dave comes in to dropkick his brother down onto Elgin, double boot and sloppy double knee. I don’t know if it’s nerves or what, but Irish Airborne aren’t impressing me here. Backbreaker onto Dave. Roddy jumps down and avoids a tag. Outside Elgin and Roddy have their issues, and Roddy shoves Elgin into flight-path, but Elgin catches Dave until Jake flip dives (and barely touches them). In the ring, double carry-thing by Elgin gets two and now Roddy wants in. Elgin refuses to tag in and Roddy complains to Truth. Elgin hits the BUCKLE BOMB and Rotating Power Bomb, but Jake comes in and while Elgin HURLS him out of the ring, Roddy sneaks the blind tag and gets the cover and the three-count. Elgin pulls away from truth after the celebration. No turn by either man here so the SLOW BURN MUST CONTINUE.

Winner: The House of Truth

ROH TV Title Match: Adam Cole (c) vs. “No Fear” Mike Mondo

-Matt Hardy is in to commentate on THIS match in particular, greeted by a nice round of boos by the Chicago crowd. Well, not like we didn’t know that was happening Nigel in the ring, trying to interview him, while fans still boo. He tries to babyface his way and quickly throws it to the introductions of the wrestlers. NO Fear gets NO REACTION coming out. I just realized I waited two hours plus of transmission issues to watch a Mike Mondo match. Don’t I feel lucky. Mondo wants this under “Ring of Mondo Rules”, no count out, no time limit, something something, we fight until the cows come home, tick tock the party don’t stop. He asks Cole if he’s a man. Cole says yes and accepts the rules to the match.

-Aggressive collar and elbow tie-up spills to the outside. The production is spending as much time with the camera on Hardy as it is on the in-ring action. Way to go. Mondo stops Cole from flying out of the ring, stare-off, I mean, stare-down. Hardy calls what he received a “mixed reaction”. Like Clint Eastwood’s speech at the RNC received a “mixed reaction”. Eniguri to the leg of Monod, setting up some leg work to get to his figure-four. Lots of work on the patella and knee-cap. Flying dropkick from the second rope to Mondo’s knees. Cool move, gets no reaction (or the crowd isn’t mic’ed well, who knows). Mondo again stops the flight plan with a single-arm divorce court. Now Mondo goes to work on the arm. Sunset flip for two by Cole and Mondo reverses and puts his elbow to the back of Cole.  Keylock attempt into a cross-armbreaker but Cole prevents it from fully locking in. A few two-counts, jumping enzigiri to the head and Mondo goes back to the arm but Cole irish whips Mondo and his knee goes out. Cole superkicks Mondo outside and finally gets his flying plancha to the outside. Cole throws Mondo into the barricades a few times. Mondo reverses a third time. Double Arm DDT on the floor attempted, but Cole reverses and hits an OVERHEAD GERMAN SUPLEX on the floor. DANGEROUS! Just thought I’d throw that in for old times sake. Cole can’t win via count-out, so he has to drag him into the ring but Mondo reverses and throws Cole into the barricade. Nigel says Adam Cole has been compared to a young Matt Hardy. I don’t know WHO has been comparing Adam Cole to a young Matt Hardy. Not me. State of equalization in the ring as both men crawl on their hands to stand up. Forearm trade and Cole gets the best of it. Weird S&M like thing where Mondo stops Cole from throwing a forearm by grabbing Cole’s tongue. Cole was like “WTF?” for a minute. Superkick and German Suplex by Cole and Mondo again kicks out. MIKE MONDO WILL NOT DIE! That was sarcastic. Listen to Nigel oversell this one. Florida Key attempt, reversed and switched out into the Double Arm DDT, but two-count and Cole gets his foot on the ropes. Mondo looks to curbstomp him, but holds up not once, but twice, because Cole’s face is too pretty to be messed up. Mondo wants to do it from the top, but Cole avoids it. Superkick avoids it but Cole gets him down into the Figure-Four. Mondo is in it for a good twenty seconds, but turns it over. Cole reverses it and back to the middle of the ring and Mondo has to tap out. Cole retains the TV Title and the world is saved.

-Hardy puts over the match and fans boo. He believes in the Code of Honor and he shakes Mondo’s hand. He shakes Cole’s hand and says that many people over the last three months have compared Cole to a young Matt Hardy (again, not true). He says he was better than Cole when he was his age, and he’s better than him now. So, Hardy leaning heel for an inevitable match vs. Cole. At least he won’t be main-eventing Final Battle vs. Steen. Thank goodness for small graces.

Winner: Adam Cole

ROH World Tag Team Title Tournament-Championship Finals: SCUM (Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs) vs. Rhett Titus & Charlie Haas w/ Shelton Benjamin

-We get a picture of the new tag team belts. They look nifty enough. Kelly mentions the five-year anniversary of the formation of The Age of the Fall. Benjamin has on some swank denim jeans. I’d like to know where he got them from. Haas goes all Larry Zybysko stall on the crowd so, Titus tags in. Corino with a ddep armdrag and an armdrag exchange ensues. Corino tags in Jacobs and runs right into an armdrag. Back body drop by Titus. Corino levels Titus from behind. Some gouging in the corner by Corino. Haas cuts Jacobs off with a knee to the back. Haas chops Titus as a tag, the two are not getting along. Haas chokes Jacobs and curses out the crowd, stomping on Jacobs. Jacobs bites back and Corino hits Haas to retaliate. Corino in now with some heelery. Titus in for a mini-rally but Corino shuts it down with the Colby Shock. More choking on the ropes. This is a thrilling match, much better than Briscoes vs. SCUM would have been as a finals. My eyes are rolling deep into my head by the way. Backbreaker and Senton combo by SCUM for a two-count. Titus with a neckbreaker to Jacobs, knee to Corino and Javelin Snake Eyes to Jacobs. He could have tagged Haas but didn’t and gets a tilt-a-whirl side slam for two. Razor’s Edge but Corino breaks it up. Haas in, boots Corino out and the Olympic Slam on Jacobs and again Corino breaks it up. All four men in the ring. Jacobs gets the spike out, Shelton on the outside doing nothing. Titus blocks the spike landing on the head, but both men’s heads collide on a criss-cross. Shelton in and SUPERKICKS Jacobs head off! Now the Paydirt on Titus! Jacobs crawls over while Haas is held by Corino outside. 1-2-3. New champions! Good finish to an average match.

Winners: S.C.U.M. (Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs) new ROH World Tag Team Champions.

-Post-match Haas has some questions for Shelton about what just happened. Shelton puts it all on Titus, who has about enough and launched fists on both men. Haas and Benjamin soon overwhelm him. Double team powerbomb on Titus lays him out.

-Looks like it’s up to Kevin Steen to save the show for the iPPV buyers.

ROH World Title Match: Kevin Steen (c) vs. ”The Man Beast” Rhino w/ Truth Martini

-Cornette is out on the microphone. Makes the match Anything Goes. Obvious stipulation is obvious. Brawl to start, flying shoulderblock and leg lariat by Steen wakes the crowd up big time. On the outside the two exchange blows and then Steen throws Rhino into the guardrail. Steen with some commentary “really taking it to Rhino.” Yup. The two continue to exchange throws into the barricade. RANDOM CAMERA SHOT OF THE BARRICADE WHEN BOTH MEN ARE IN THE RING. Good job production team! Rhino spinebuster in the ring to Steen. Stomps and knees to the back. Chinlock using the ropes by Rhino. “We Want Tables” chant from the crowd. Rhino avoids Steen in the corner and gets a Belly-to-Belly Suplex throw for two.  Forearm shiver to Steen’s back. Steen kicks the ropes on Rhino coming in and then does the draping DDT to turn things around. Cannonball for two. Rhino gets dropped outside and again into the guardrail. Steen’s charisma and the fans’ thirst for tables is enough to keep this going, for now, but otherwise, not too much to it. Steen looks for and finds the table, to the Chicago fans’ delight. Truth tries to distract but Steen still blasts Rhino into the rail back-first. That looked good. Steen wanted to get Truth but he BLASTS Veda. Truth blasts Steen with The Book of Truth and then Rhino plasters Steen through the table! In the ring, close two-count! Rhino with a chair to the gut and to the back but Steen kicks out at two. Steen throws Rhino into the turnbuckle with a chair propped up in it, roll-up for two count. Up to the top, SWANTON for two! Now Steen with a chair, puts it onto Rhino, up top, but Rhino cuts him off. Rhino SUPERPLEXES Steen onto the chair in the ring. One-Two-CLOSE two-count. Rhino props the table up on the turnbuckle, but Corino is in, to chants of “ECW’. GORE to Corino! GORE to Todd Sinclair! GORE by Steen TO RHINO! Paul Turner is in for a close two-count! F-5! two-count. Truth is in and piggybacks on Steen, but Steen throws him down! PACKAGE PILEDRIVER! Strong is out, but he goes over the top rope! Spinebuster by Rhino. Sets up for the Gore but Steen dodges out of the way and GORES HIMSELF through the table. F-5 By Steen and that’s the three count!

Winner: Kevin Steen -retains the ROH World Championship.

-Post-match, Michael Elgin is out to confront Steen. Steen immediately spits on him. Elgin kicks to the gut and looks for the powerbomb, but Corino pushes Strong into Elgin to stop it. Kelly tries to question if it was Strong intentionally doing it but it was obviously Corino and I don’t know if it also wasn’t too apparent for Elgin. Regardless, Elgin gets angry while Steen and Corino quickly get out of dodge. Strong wants to shake Elgin’s hand, but Elgin kicks him and smashes him with the Rotation powerbomb. They play the House of Truth’s music to end the show. So, um, is Elgin done with the HOT then? Or not? I don’t know. : Shrug::

Overall Thoughts

-ROH really blew it once again with the log-in errors and website being down. I and many others missed nearly the entire first-half. Furthermore, Ring of Honor did almost nothing to help with customer service, and as delayed as their response was during Border Wars, this even further pushed the boundaries of respect because unlike with that fiasco, this time there was no attempt to acknowledge the issue on Facebook or attempt to update the fans on any efforts to correct the problem.

I was SO disappointed not to be able to see Tadarius Thomas and ACH in their matches. The rest of the show was unspectacular aside from Michael Elgin’s impressive feats of strength. The tag title match was obvious considering S.C.U.M. needed the belts to stay on roster. The Briscoes would have been the the better match. Steen and Rhino had a good main-event, but clearly built around the Gore and the few table spots. It was nowhere near as violent or impressive as many previous ROH matches with No-DQ stipulations, but at least the Chicago Ridge crowd seemed to like it.

It would be unfair not having seen the first-half of the show to give a recommendation either way, but that’s even more a notch against Ring of Honor. It is simply inexcusable at this point to have these issues with iPPV. I cannot recommend to anyone to buy further Pay Per Views through their service and I will not be purchasing Glory By Honor in November, as I originally intended to do so should this show have been error-free. Instead, I got to watch the show, or at least some of it via Pro Wrestling Ponderings, but I felt more frustrated than satisfied because of it.

Anyway everyone, thanks for joining me for this Death Before Dishonor coverage and following along as best as you could.I’m sure myself and either Chris, Matt or even Jerome will be back on a future Podcast of Honor here at pwponderings.com to discuss this show and all things ROH.

On this week’s Inside Ring of Honor on Ring of Honor Television, they announced matches for Glory By Honor XI: An Unbreakable Hope on October 13th:
— Ring of Honor World Title Match: Kevin Steen versus Michael Elgin

— Ring of Honor World Television Title Match: Adam Cole versus Eddie Edwards

— Mike Bennett versus Mike Mondo

It was also announced that the new Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions will be defending their titles at Glory By Honor.

Quick Results:

-Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs d. Caprice Coleman & Cedric Alexander

-Tadarius Thomas d. Silas Young

-Kyle O’Reilly d. ACH

-Charlie Haas & Rhett Titus d. The Briscoes

-Jay Lethal d. Homicide

-The House of Truth d. Irish Airborne

-Adam Cole d. Mike Mondo to retain the ROH TV Title

-S.C.U.M. d. Haas / Titus to become new ROH World Tag Team Champions

-Kevin Steen d. Rhino to retain the ROH World Title