ROH Death Before Dishonor 4

There have been some surprising events in the world of professional wrestling over the years. Whether it's Eric Bischoff appearing on Raw, David Arquette winning the WCW World title or Mae Young giving birth to a plastic hand, you must never say never in the world of pro wrestling. And so it was, with a little surprise, that we found Ring of Honor promoting it's 4th Death Before Dishonor show, by main eventing it with a 'Cage of Death' match (the signature event of fierce rivals, Combat Zone Wrestling). Could this really be a sign of things to come for ROH?

Fortunately not. The ROH vs. CZW has revitalized Ring of Honor at a time when competition for a wrestling fan's hard earned dollar is getting more competitive than ever. However few could have predicted 12 months ago, that Chris Hero or Necro Butcher would be regular members of the ROH roster. Or that ROH would be embroiled in a violent feud with it's arch rival of CZW in the rings of the Philaphia wrestling arenas, not behind the scenes as they did in 2002/3. However where ROH has prospered, unfortunately CZW has not followed suit. Despite a number of reasonably high-profile appearances by ROH regulars, CZW has failed to capitalize on the buzz that has generated around this feud and as such it is at a Ring of Honor event (albeit one headlines by a CZW staple) that sees the climax of the feud, rather than at a CZW show.

It's is rare that a show can truly be called a one-match card, but alas DBD4 is one of those cases. It's not that the under card is bad, more that it is simply not as good as the main event. As is so often the case with an ROH show, the undercard features matches which are better than many other indie show's main events, but in this case, they all played second fiddle to the main event. In the matches of note Nigel McGuinness defeated Roderick Strong by count-out to retain his Pure Title, the Briscoes helped continue the development of new tag team Irish Airbourne by giving them a solid thrashing and AJ Styles and Davey Richards proved that great workers can still have average matches. Even the world title match that saw Bryan Danielson take on 'CZW's own' Sonjay Dutt was overshadowed by the main event. Despite a strong outing from both men, this match was cut short and was more memorable for the very partisan crowds rather than the in-ring action. (One clever touch ROH has added to these shows, is the precence of 'CZW bleachers' which allow the crowd to be much more vocal and unbiased and as such create a much more fervent atmosphere which you can still feel even on DVD.)

Prior to the main event, Jim Cornette continued one of the main angles coming into this show and discussed his request of Homicide to be the 5th member of Team ROH. Homicide had said he would only be in Team ROH if he was granted 3 wishes, which Cornette said would give him too much power in ROH. This brought out ROH World Champion Bryan Danielson who said he would join Samoa Joe, Ace Steel, Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer in the cage and would not ask for any wishes from Cornette.

With all these elements in place, as well as the mysterious 5th member of team CZW and the presence of former 4 Horsemen manager JJ Dillon guarding the gate door our main event was on. ROH would win the coin toss and have the man advantage which meant that you know things would not be going ROH's way. The arrival of Samoa Joe to be the first man in the cage was somewhat of a surprise given the regard in which Joe is held by ROH fans however this was not his match and so it made sense for him to be first in. As a result of what would happen later in the match it led to many speculating that this 'easy ride' that Joe was given in Cage of Death was because of his commitments to TNA. Whether this was the case or not, is not a matter for debate here, however ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky has maintained there was no pre-meditated plan to keep Joe 'safe' during the first part of this match. Certainly the way that Joe's summer has panned out in regards to his feud with Bryan Danielson would back that argument up, however on intial viewing it does seem strange for such a prominent member of the ROH roster to play such a minor role in this major match.

It's a good thing then that the performances of the other men involved in the match more than makes up for the lack of Samoa Joe. Once Danielson takes Joe out of the match by clipping his knee, ROH is left with the numbers disadvantage that few would have foreseen when they saw ROH win the coin toss and as such sets up the arrival of Homicide to the match perfectly. The fact that prior to this, CZW revealed it's 5th member to be Eddie Kingston, a man who has nothing but bad words to say about ROH, made this matter even more dramatic as the story of Cage of Death unfolded perfectly before the fan's eyes. With both this surprise entrant and the (albeit obvious) arrival of Homicide to save the day, ROH proved that no matter how smart your fanbase, good story telling can outdo great workrate and technical perfection any day. The fans were taken along on a fantastic journey with this match and the climax of Homicide pinning Nate Webb after a a copkiller into a barbed wire board perfectly captured the whole essence of the ROH vs. CZW feud and provided yet another highlight reel moment from the brief history of ROH.

The angle which followed the climax of Cage of Death saw Jim Cornette grant 2 out of 3 of Homicide's wishes (a world title match in New York and a rematch with long term rival Steve Corino) but he would stop short of allowing Low-ki to return. This led to an heel turn which saw Cornette, Pearce and Dillon seal Homicide in the cage and put the boots to him, setting up a Homicide vs. Cornette feud for the remainder of the year. In a lot of ways this felt like an angle too far after the emotionally draining show that had come before it. However this was the perfect time to do it as it was fresh in the people's minds and helped retain the momentum that ROH so desperately needs in order to keep itself relevant in the modern wrestling world.

Overall verdict: A+
"As good a Ring of Honor show as you'll see and a prime example of how even the smartest of smart fans can still enjoy a good old fashioned brawl between good guys and bad guys."