Majin Tween's ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 Unhinged Review

Hello, humans of Wrestling News Source (dot com!)

I’m Majin Tween from humanRaCcoOn, and I’ve been part of this website for over a decade now behind the scenes. I even designed that totally rad circle logo that WNS uses. But now, I get a chance to start my own series of articles on here. That's crazy... that anyone would trust me not to screw that up.

Anyway. Tonight was Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor 2022! This show really felt like a weird, transitional event. I saw someone on Twitter say it felt like a WWE 2K22 universe mode stream with a custom ROH logo. I can’t track down who said it, so just pretend I did. This is my first article for WNS, I could use the clout. Plus, everyone steals jokes. Just ask the dude who makes Botchamania.

I’ve always had a hard time getting into Ring of Honor. If I wanted to watch JUST wrestling matches with no characters, storylines or anything going for it I’d just watch backyard wrestling. At least then you have the opportunity to see some guy in his early 20s step off his stepmom’s stepladder and snap his spine.

That’s entertainment, folks. Screw your workrates. I wanna see the regret in some random dude's eyes as he wonders why he spent so long idolizing Jeff Hardy.

#AndNew!!! Your new #ROH World Champion is @ClaudioCSRO!

Order #ROHDBD #ROH #DeathBeforeDishonor PPV right now on @BleacherReport, @PPV_com, @FiteTV, cable & satellite! pic.twitter.com/Q7z5ygsnhb

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) July 24, 2022

I definitely like Dalton Castle and the boys. I dunno what their deal is. I think they’re a little light in the loafers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I think everyone’s a little light in the loafers, including you reading this right now.

This show definitely just feels like an AEW show with some ROH guys thrown in. It’s like ECW One Night Stand 2006 vibes. Like, it feels off and wrong. But considering I wasn’t really that into this current flavor of ROH, maybe a reboot is what they need.

What does the future of Ring of Honor hold? It certainly can’t technically go downhill. This company was considered dead for a while, and I’m pretty sure they’ve still got Honor No More running around in IMPACT… which at this point just feels weird.

Like I said before, this just feels like an AEW event. The production is exactly the same, and the only thing making any of this feel remotely different outside of the ROH logos everywhere is the fact that they turned the lights out in half the arena. This just feels like an NXT Takeover event, without the extravagant entrances to mask the lack of character substance.

i genuinely didn’t realize they were doing this ROH PPV in an actual arena, that’s kind of a bummer

if it’s not a small theater with minimal lighting is it even ring of honor

— Bill Hanstock (@sundownmotel) July 24, 2022

In my humble opinion, which is always correct, Ring of Honor is example #1 of what professional wrestling simultaneously does right and wrong. Their in-ring product is generally pretty good. Obviously, we're a long ways away from the glory days of AJ Styles having his pre-six sides cup of coffee and CM Punk signing his contract on the belt--- actually, now that I think of it, everything Ring of Honor has really ever been known for has been ripped out of their hands the second it starts to get any momentum. All they really have right now is The Briscoes, who can't even be put on TV because most networks don't wanna touch them after some of their outbursts. But rest assured: they don't agree with those outbursts. They only said them passionately and withdrew them when their jobs were put on the line. They clearly learned a lot.

I saw Jonathan Gresham complaining in an interview about fans who complain about his lack of a gimmick. He tried to make it be a different issue than it was, which I won't get into for. But honestly, it has nothing to do with anything other than not having a character or a gimmick. Look at the ratings. Nobody is rooting for ANY guy with no character, because 95% of the roster are guys with no gimmick. This is supposed to be Street Fighter in real life. Wearing a squid on your head and throwing the worst forearms in the history of the industry isn't a character. If it was, my grandpa would be WWE Champion. Instead he's just an alcoholic. Is this the industry you want to foster, Gresham? Because I won't stand for it.

This show made it evident that this is Tony Khan's adderall-feuled TEW version of Ring of Honor. It's honestly fascinating. I love when weird stuff like this happens. At least The Zombie didn't walk out for the first match... although with the technical difficulties on FITE TV earlier, it felt like the show was at least half dead.

But hey, technical difficulties on an ROH PPV is the most authentic ROH thing that's happened all night.

At the end of the day, I would call this a good show... but like, it felt like a good episode of AEW Dynamite. It's not even like you can say "it felt like AEW with ROH guys" since 90% of the AEW roster is either known for their time in another company, or actually legitimately belongs to another company. I'd make a joke about the Forbidden Door, but that gave us the Forbidden DOR mod for WWE Day of Reckoning--- which I can't recommend enough. Mainly because I'm hoping the guy who put that ROM hack together will pay me to advertise it here. He's not going to, but it never hurts to kiss butt on the off chance you get somewhere with it. Just ask Austin Theory.

But that's just a theory... an Austin Theo--- okay that's stupid, forget it.

Holy shit. It really is a new era in ROH: there are seven people in the ring with gimmicks! What the fuck. Is this the 90s? #DeathBeforeDishonor

— .::humanRaCcoOn::. (@RCN_Online) July 24, 2022

During the main event of The Briscoes vs. FTR, the crowd started chanting "tag team wrestling." Which seems silly to me. That's like going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show and instead of interacting with the movie, you and your friends just chant "WATCHING MOVIES IN A THEATER." Just seems silly to me, but that's just me: I make sense and keep it real.

Doesn't this feel weird? Seeing people who had nothing to do with the place you enjoy just showing up and making a moment be about them?

...wait. Don't answer that.

At the end of the day, I think this has the potential to be a total overhaul for ROH as a brand. Do they stand a chance to be competition? No. They never really did. When their product was at it's best, they didn't have the budget to compete. Now that they have the budget to compete, they don't have the talent. Most of the talent booked on this show appeared in AEW at some point throughout the past couple months. To me, this felt as much like a Ring of Honor event as the 42nd episode of ECW on Sci-Fi felt like ECW on TNN. It's just off. This was an AEW show, and it really just felt like filler.

But hey, that's just my opinion. Don't agree? That's cool. You're wrong, but whatever.

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