ROH Death Before Dishonor IV Review

The War between ROH & CZW comes to a violent conclusion...

*SPECIAL NOTE: I actually got this DVD off the old rohvideos site so I actually don't have the case & everything just a dvd of the show that I put on a disc once I got it from rohvideos. This is one of three shows I got off the site. It's a shame they shut it down because it was a good place to get ROH shows that were out of print.

ROH Death Before Dishonor IV

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 7/15/06

1.) Seth Delay vs. Delirious: **1/4

This was a pretty average opener, nothing really special here.

2.) The Embassy (Jimmy Rave & Sal Rinuaro) vs. Colt Cabana & Jay Lethal: ***1/4

Here we get the big reveal of The Embassy's new member, who turns out to be Sal Rinauro (not exactly a "big" reveal). This would also be one of Jay Lethal's last ROH Matches until his return to ROH in 2011. This actually turned out to be a pretty good tag team match. I was pleasantly surprised.

3.) ROH Pure Title - Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong: ***3/4

FINALLY!!! A Pure Title Defense from Nigel McGuinness that's actually worth watching!!! No surprise it's against Roderick Strong. It was a hard hitting bout & really fun to watch.

Jim Cornette comes out to hype up the main event and make some announcements about future shows. Bryan Danielson comes out and convinces Cornette to put him in Cage of Death, which he does.

4.) Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Irish Airborne: ***1/2

Another good tag match on this show with both the Briscoes & Irish Airborne getting to showcase their stuff here. Nothing much else to say, it was pretty good.

5.) Davey Richards vs. AJ Styles: ***

This was ok, but given the guys involved I expected it to be a little better. I'll cut it some slack though, since Davey was still an ROH Rookie at this point. I have a feeling this match would be a lot better if it happened today

6.) ROH World Title - Bryan Danielson vs. Sonjay Dutt: **3/4

This turned out to be an decent title defense. Didn't know Sonjay wrestled in CZW at one point.

7.) Cage of Death - Team ROH (Samoa Joe, *Bryan Danielson, BJ Whitmer, Adam Pearce, Ace Steel & Homicide) vs. Team CZW (Chris Hero, Necro Butcher, Claudio Castagnoli, Nate Webb & Eddie Kingston): ****1/2

I was kind of confused when I first saw the cage, in terms of how it was set up (surrounding the ringside area as apposed to being on the ring apron) but after watching the match the set up made sense. This match was really violent and had a lot of great story telling, which included Joe dominating early, Danielson getting into the match only to screw Joe over, the ROH team being in peril until Homicide enters the match and saves the day. It was really a great match and fun to watch.

The ending segment with Homicide & Jim Cornette was great. I love it when ROH does this....they end one angle in a big way, and got right off to the next one. A "One Journey Ends/Door Closes/Chapter Ends but another Journey Begins/Door Opens/Chapter Begins" kind of deal, which I think ROH is really good at doing.

Overall: 8.25/10

This was a really fun show to watch. While the Cage of Death is obviously the reason to pick up this show, their is some other good stuff on here as well such as the Pure Title Match and the Two Tag Matches. I would say this is a definite pick up, mainly for historical value.