BRM Reviews ROH Death Before Dishonor III

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Death Before Dishonor III (6/18/2005)- Morristown, NJ

The show starts out with Colt Cabana telling us that he will have CM Punk on his Good Times, Great Memories show, but Punk no-shows. This was an angle that would run throughout the show.

After a brief promo form Generation Next, the Embassy comes out to the ring for their match. Fast Eddie gets some great heat here, including pausing to check out her ass while Jade Chung is being the footstool.

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Fast Eddie & Jimmy Rave (w/The Embassy) vs. Jimmy Jacobs & BJ Whitmer (c)-4.5/10. Not very exciting.

ANYTHING GOES MATCH: The Carnage Crew vs. The Ring Crew Express- 5/10. Short, but also fast-paced, violent, and enjoyable.

LACEY VIDEO PACKAGE- TERRIBLE! 100% failure. Lacey says that all men are scumbags and goes on some rants. This character was thankfully quickly abandoned (because it was just sooo contrived, as watching this segment shows- it had the same problem as a racist heel- the way she talked, you clearly knew that she didn’t believe a word she was saying- the character also made very little sense, since she showed utter disdain for men, but rather than compete as a woman [which she showed she could do], she chose to manage male tag teams, thus admitting that she needed men to get to the top), but it did spawn the beginnings of those AWESOME Lacey rants at “DISGUSTING PERVERTS” that she would become famous for during her Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew days. The only other positive of this segment was Lacey beating the crap out of a young (but no less sketchy looking) Shane Hagadorn.

ROH PURE TITLE MATCH: Samoa Joe(c) vs. Colt Cabana- This was a really good match. It made Joe the underdog by having Cabana trick him out of his ropebreaks early. Joe responded by working over Cabana’s arm- 7.25/10. After the match, Nigel McGuinness came out and taunted Cabana.

Next we got a good promo from James Gibson talking about his desire to win the ROH World Title, and a good promo from Jay Lethal to hype his match with Low Ki


Prince Nana comes out to the ring and introduces the man whom he has brought in to face AJ tonight, but gets interrupted by the returning (and all of a sudden hot-looking) Alison Danger. She announces that Christopher Daniels will be returning a week earlier than first thought.
Nana’s challenger for AJ… Petey Williams!
AJ STYLES vs. PETEY WILLIAMS (w/Prince Nana & Jade Chung)- 7.5/10- GREAT match. The usual athleticism you would expect from these two.
After the match, Nana orders Jade Chung to get in the ring a “slap the hell out of” AJ. AJ goes after Nana, but Jade low blows him. Jimmy Rave (who AJ was feuding with) then comes out and hits AJ with the Rave Clash.

LACEY'S ANGELS (Izzy & Deranged) (w/Lacey, Cheech, & Cloudy) vs. RODERICK STRONG & JACK EVANS- Solid but spotty. Lots of fun, and lots of cool double team moves- 6.75/10.

FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Azrieal vs. James Gibson vs. Nigel McGuinness vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes)- Really exciting and filled with great wrestling, this match used the four-man dynamic to its fullest. 8/10.

LOW KI (w/Julius Smokes) vs. JAY LETHAL- 7/10. Pretty good match. Smokes interferes when Lethal was just about to win… but the ref, for some reason, decides that the match should be a no-contest, rather than DQing Low Ki.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Austin Aries(c) vs. CM Punk- 10/10 (with a 10/10 on the aftermath as well!)
Honestly, I thought that the wrestling here was only 9.5/10, but the crowd was just SOOOOO into it that I got sucked into it. Even spots I knew were coming like Punk kicking out of a Pepsi Plunge by Aries at 1 (this particular spot I didn’t think I would enjoy)… I enjoyed. WOW. This match was freaking AWESOME. I wouldn’t say it was as good as other matches that I have given 10/10 to (both HBK vs. Taker matches at Mania, Angle vs. HBK, Dragon vs. KENTA from GBH V, Night 2, Davey vs. Tyler from DBD VIII, etc.) but it still deserves the rating.
Punk gets chants of “THANK YOU PUNK!,” “PLEASE DON’T GO!,” and “WE WILL MISS YOU!”… then turns heel, and says that he will give the belt to Vince… Then Daniels return after being put out of action 16 months ago by CM Punk and sends Punk to the outside. Daniels wants a title match, right here, right now. The fans want it, too. Punk says “You want a title match? Well you can wait 16 more months. Kiss my ass.” Then Punk leaves the building, kicking off one of the best angles in the history of wrestling: The Summer of Punk.

Daniels cuts a great promo in the ring, putting over ROH and its stars and announcing that he is coming for the belt.

Overall, this show was AWESOME. You should definitely pick up if you can find it.



Explanation of my ratings
I have switched to a new match rating system, which is out of 10, rather than out of 5.
I felt that 5 was too limiting because there are those match that are between two ratings (Not good enough to be ***3/4, but definitely better than just ***1/2). I had actually been thinking about doing this for a while but held off because I didn’t want to sell better matches short (at first glance 4 out of 5 seems like a better rating than 8 out of 10). To derive normal star ratings from my new ratings, just divide the rating by 2.

1 or below- Utter crap.

1.25-3.75- Bad

4 or above- Okay

5 or above- Solid (usually these match would have been a lot better but needed more time- can also be flawless execution of the moves themselves in a not very exciting match)

6 or above- Good

7 or above - Very Good (IMO, all main events should be at least this high)

8 or above- (****- definitely worth going out of your way to see)

8.5 or above Awesome (****1/4)

9 or above- Outstanding (****1/2)

9.5 or above- Amazing (****3/4)

10 PERFECT (*****)