ROH Death Before Dishonor XIV live results: Jay Lethal vs. Adam Cole

Preview by Joseph Currier

Headlined by Ring of Honor Champion Jay Lethal defending his title against the Bullet Club’s Adam Cole, ROH returns to pay-per-view on Friday night from Las Vegas, NV with Death Before Dishonor XIV.

The show will also feature stars from New Japan Pro Wrestling, with IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, IWGP Intercontinental Champion Michael Elgin, NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata, and more NJPW talent scheduled to appear.

We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Lethal and Cole have been engaged in a heated storyline that included Cole shaving Lethal bald. ROH matchmaker Nigel McGuinness ruled that Cole would not be eligible to receive any more title shots, but Lethal insisted that this match had to happen.

The card also includes a huge match for the ROH Tag Team Championship as The Addiction defend against Tanahashi & Elgin and Naito & EVIL in a triple threat tag match.

Also scheduled for the show, Okada will take on Dalton Castle in a non-title match, ROH World Television Champion Bobby Fish will defend against Mark Briscoe, Shibata will face Silas Young, and more.

Our coverage starts on Friday night at 9 p.m. ET. The card for the show is:

  • ROH World Champion Jay Lethal vs. Adam Cole in a championship match
  • ROH World Television Champion Bobby Fish vs. Mark Briscoe in a championship match
  • ROH Tag Team Champions The Addiction vs. Tetsuya Naito & EVIL vs. Michael Elgin & Hiroshi Tanahashi in a triple threat tag team championship match
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Dalton Castle
  • Katsuyori Shibata vs. Silas Young
  • Rocky Romero, Trent Barreta, & Toru Yano vs. Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga, & Tanga Roa
  • Jay Briscoe vs. Hangman Page
  • Lio Rush vs. Jay White vs. Donovan Dijak vs. Kamaitachi in a TV title number one contenders match

JAY WHITE VS. LIO RUSH VS. DONOVAN DIJAK VS. KAMAITACHI FOR THE TOP CONTENDER FOR THE TV TITLE

Dijak got the pin on Rush using feast your eyes, which is a fireman’s carry into a knee, like a GTS but not exactly.  All action match.  Rush was the flashiest of the four with several dives including a reverse huracanrans on the floor.  Dijak, who was twice hte size of the other three, did a springboard screw plancha.  Looks like we’re having trouble witht he mic’ing but there were chants and stuff.

Silas Young did an interview anti-New Japan saying New Japan guys get all the good spots when they come in and made fun of all the fans being nerds.

KATSUYORI SHIBATA VS. SILAS YOUNG

The crowd reacted real big for Shibata,  Shibata won as expected with the choke and penalty kick.  Young got a lot of offense including a split legged moonsault.  The two traded slaps after the match and then shook hands and stared each other down after the match.  Match was fine, they built to a big spot where Shibata was about to head-butt Young but Young slapped him.

TAMA TONGA & TANGA ROA & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI VS.  ROCKY ROMERO & BARETTA & TORU YANO

This was mostly built around Yano’s comedy.  Yano pinned Takahashi with a low blow.  After the match, The Bulet Club beat down Chaos and in paricular Yano.  Hangman Page put the noose on Yano’s neck until Jay Briscoe made the savae.  This set up Briscoe vs. Page

JAY BRISCOE VS. HANGMAN PAGE IN AN ANYTHING GOES MATCH

This was a long brutal match.  This was to put Page over on Jay and make him a star.  The finish saw Page block a Jay driller on the apron and instead used the rights of passage, which is an Omori driver on Jay  through the table.  Both were hurt as the table took a chunk out of Page’s left knee and Jay was bleeding badly from the back.  Page then used the bullrope to choke Briscoe out and then gave him another rights of passage in the ring for the pin.  They put it over like this was the biggest win in Page’s career.  There were lots of spots with the noose and with chairs throguhout the match.  The crowd seemed like they really liked it.  We’ll try and see how Page is because he was screaming in pain regarding his knee, finished the match and seemed like he was hurting bbad as soon as it was over.

The Boys had the Okada dollar bills and Castle said he understands The Boys love New Japan.  He said he loves New Japan but he loves dropping people on their heads and ate an Okada bill.

KAZUCHIKA OKADA VS. DALTON CASTLE

The crowd loved Okada.  They’re chanting his name and throwing streamers.  Good match although it struggled early.  Castle got a lot of offense but the fans never truly believed he could win.  He even did the bang a rang but Okada rolled out of the ring to avoid the pin.  Castle did a lot of different suplexes.  They teased that The Boys were big Okada fans and at one point they were helping him.  Okada won getting out of the bang a rang, hit the tombstone piledriver and rainmaker for the pin.  Both shook hands after and both men and The Boys all posed together at the end.  

BOBBY FISH VS. MARK BRISCOE FOR THE TV TITLE 

Fish retained with an exploder into the turnbuckles and a falcon arrow.  Earlier Briscoe kicked out of the falcon arrow and Fish kicked out of the froggy bow.  This was solid and the crowd did some chants but something was missing.  It was hard hitting early and went long with the near falls.  Not sure if the crowd micing is hurting this or it’s the crowd into moves but not the match.  Hard to say from TV.  It’s also seemed like the crowd was more into seeing New Japan stars live than seeing ROH major matches.

CHRISTOPHER DANIELS & FRANKIE KAZARIAN VS. HIROSHI TANAHASHI & MICHAEL ELGIN VS. TETSUYA NAITO & EVIL FOR TAG TITLES

Daniels & Kazarian retained in a great match with a clever finish.  Tanahashi was on the top rope and Daniels touched his boot as a tag.  Tanahashi hit the high fly flow on Evil and went for the pin but technically Daniels was the legal guy and he jumped in and cradled Evil while Tanahashi was on top so they retained the titles.  Matt Taven did the heel commentary trying to be obnoxious and did a real good job of that.  Elgin was the star of the match doing all kinds of power moves like a German suplex on Daniels & Kazarian at the same time, the fallaway on Naito & Evil at the same time and he even did a running flip dive on everyone.  Naito and Tanahashi were really over with the crowd.  Tanahashi & Elgin seemed on the verge of winning when Kamaitachi came out and distracted which allowed Daniels to hit both Tanahashi & Elgin with belt shots and Kazarian to hit Evil with one.

JAY LETHAL VS. ADAM COLE FOR THE ROH TITLE

Cole ended the one year plus title reign after an Ushigoroshi, a shining wizard and another Ushigoroshi.  The match saw them kick out of each others’ big moves including Lethal kicking out of the Canadian Destroyer off the ropes and Cole kicked out of the Lethal injection.  Long match and crowd loved it at the end with the fans on their feet and going crazy for the near falls.  Afte the match Kyle O’Reilly showed up durign the celebration and cltheslined Cole.  O’reilly laid himn out with a brainbustrer so it looks like Cole vs. O’Reilly coming up at All-Star Extravaganza at the end of next month.  Among the highlights were Lethal doing an elbow off the top rope to a table on the floor about two-thirds of the way to the other side and Cole moved and Lethal crashed through and busted his head open.  It took forever to set up the spot because Lethal couldn’t find where the table was under the ring and when he did find it, it was covered in streamers and he had to get rid of the streamres.  Lethal also did five straight topes, but on the sixth Cole sidestepped him and Lethal crashed into the barricade.