DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR has been a staple of ROH's calendar since 2003's event at The Rexplex in Elizabeth, NJ! It all began with ROH World Champion Samoa Joe defending against the departing Paul London, a legendary Dog Collar Match, Jeff Hardy's infamous debut, and The Briscoes challenging AJ Styles & The Amazing Red for the ROH Tag Titles! From that July 19th night in front of ROH's largest crowd to that point until tonight's pay-per-view broadcast on Honor Club, DBD has grown into one of the most important events of ROH's year!
From Chicago to Philadelphia and from the historic Hammerstein Ballroom to the Tsongas Center, DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR has come to the ROH faithful from venues around the country, and this year it hails from Texas for the very first time! On top of the card we will see former ROH World Champion Roderick Strong challenge current ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe in their first singles match since 2016! Plus, “The Fallen Goddess” Athena is forced to put her AEW Women's World Championship on the line against Queen Aminata while her minion Billie Starkz is defending her AEW Women's World Television Title against the double-tough Red Velvet, and Leyla Hirsch battles Diamante in a Texas Death Match!
It begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT exclusively on Honor Club, with the ZERO HOUR coming to you on the official ROH YouTube channel at 7:00p. It's ROH's biggest event of the summer, and where the road to FINAL BATTLE 2024 begins, so do not miss out on the hottest professional wrestling action on the planet when Ring of Honor comes to Arlington, TX and the Esports Arena!
ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Mark Briscoe(c) vs. Roderick Strong
The history between Mark Briscoe and Roderick Strong dates back twenty years to their first encounter on May 22, 2004 at the GENERATION NEXT event. That night Roderick was part of a group that co-opted the name of the show as their own, proceeded to dominate everyone they fought that night, including a foursome comprised of Mark, his later brother Jay Briscoe, the late Jimmy Rave, and future ROH Pure Champion John Walters. It could've been the beginning of a tremendous rivalry, but just a few months later Mark was in a very serious motorcycle accident, and the repercussions from that meant The Briscoes were absent from Ring of Honor for eighteen months. When they returned to the fold, Roderick stood as one-half of the ROH Tag Team Champions alongside former ROH World Champion Austin Aries, but frankly the tag division had grown quite anemic.
The return of The Briscoes and their subsequent rivalry with Strong and Aries over the titles reinvigorated that division and led to some incredible fights over the course of 2006. Be it the Jack Evans/Roddy bout with The Briscoes at BEST IN THE WORLD 2006, the tag title matches with Strong/Aries at RING OF HOMICIDE and DESTINY, or their top-tier final championship clash at the historic UNIFIED event in Liverpool, England, the battles between them set a new bar for tag team excellence in Ring of Honor, and independent wrestling as a whole. Even Mark and Roderick's first singles clash at HOW WE ROLL was a hard-hitting affair between the two young athletes, but it was all just setting the stage for what was to come over the next two decades.
The rivalry between The Briscoes and Roderick Strong expanded beyond the borders of ROH, pitting them against each other in different fashions at 1PW in England, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla where PAC and Strong beat Jay and Mark for the tag titles in DDT4 2007, and FIP in Florida, a promotion that was considered a sister to ROH for several years in the mid-aughts. Still, Ring of Honor was the home for the vast majority of their wars, and no matter who Roderick Strong allied himself with, he inevitably ended up in competition with Dem Boys. The No Remorse Corps of Strong and Rocky Romero faced them in a pair of ROH World Tag Title matches, and were actually the first team to score a fall on the brothers while they were in the midst of a dominating unbeaten streak in 2/3 Falls Matches. When Strong was with The House of Truth, he found himself in the ring with Jay, Mark, and Papa Briscoe at one point and even after he formed The Decade with Jimmy Jacobs, Roderick invariably collided with Mark and Jay.
In the midst of all their fighting, the two did grow a strong bond, one that led to a rather amusing bout at the riotous MICHAEL BENNETT'S BACHELOR PARTY event, a match where the loser wasn't allowed to drink. As hard as they fought, they were capable of having fun with one another as well, but the competitive streak in both men ultimately dominated their interactions, though they did occasionally find themselves on the same side of the fight. So bonded were the two men that as Roderick Strong was heading towards the end of his run with Ring of Honor in June 2016, Mark Briscoe was Roddy's final pay-per-view opponent at BEST IN THE WORLD 2016. Coincidentally, Roddy's last actual opponent in Ring of Honor was Dalton Castle, the man he defeated to earn this shot at Mark Briscoe's ROH World Championship.
All told, Mark and Roddy have clashed in six singles matches over the last 18 years with the record split evenly between the two, but of course the balance in their clashes changes when factoring in multi-man matches, tag team affairs, etc, but when just looking at their meetings since coming into All Elite Wrestling, it feels appropriate they are 1-1 in their two multi-man affairs. But this is a different playground. Not only is it DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR, it's also a homecoming for Roderick Strong after eight years away, and it is one-on-one. No Undisputed Kingdom at Roddy's side, no Conglomeration at Mark's, just the two of them picking up where they left off in the place where both made their names in professional wrestling!
As a member of the ROH locker room from day one, Mark fought long and hard to become ROH World Champion, battled through multiple failures trying to claim his first ROH singles title and that dream came true at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 in Philadelphia, the city where Ring of Honor was born! Now Strong is aiming to end that dream, and give birth to one of his own where he joins the ranks of multi-time ROH World Champions! He's already a Triple Crown winner in ROH, having previously reigned as ROH World Champion, a 2-Time Television champ, and a Tag Team Champion, but adding 2-Time ROH World Title holder to that resume would make him just the seventh individual to accomplish that feat.
One final statistical note for each man as it pertains to their DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR history; Roderick Strong participated in fourteen DBD events during the course of his ROH career, netting a 6-8 record over those bouts, and is 0-1-1 in title fights taking place on those cards. As for Mark Briscoe, he's got twenty-three DBD events on his resume, racking up a record of 9-14 across the last twenty years, but when titles are on the line, he's just 2-7 overall. Roderick and Mark have never fought at this ROH tentpole event, so this is quite a seminal moment for both in that regards, but the question is now who will be left standing when that final bell rings? Will “Chicken” continue moving forward as ROH World Champion, or will “The Messiah of the Backbreaker” live up to his other moniker of “Mr. ROH” and bring that belt to the Undisputed Kingdom?
ROH WOMEN'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
“The Fallen Goddess” Athena(c) vs. Queen Aminata
594 days; when she walks into Arlington, TX tonight for DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024, “The Fallen Goddess” Athena will have reigned as champion since FINAL BATTLE 2022 on December 10, 2022 when she defeated Mercedes Martinez. In that time frame she's turned away twenty-one challenges from eighteen different women, including a rematch with Martinez ten months after their initial fight, and shut down thirty Proving Ground/Eliminator attempts to earn a title fight! In the entirety of ROH's history, there is only Samoa Joe's 645-day World Title reign that surpasses what Athena has accomplished during her domination of the division.
But then came this injury, and as a result the only competition “The Fallen Goddess” has seen since HONOR CLUB #66 on May 30th was at Prestige Wrestling on July 12th where she wore her boot to the ring and used it as a weapon to defeat Masha Slamovich. Initially no one questioned the injury, but as time wore on the queries could not be avoided, and when Athena refused to vacate the title it threw further suspicion on just how valid the injury was at this point. ROH cameras even captured her doing some things that clearly she would not have been doing had the injury still been a valid concern.
In the midst of all this controversy over Athena's injury, and in the wake of failing to become the first AEW Women's World TV Champion at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 in her bout with Billie Starkz, Queen Aminata emerged as the top contender to The Forever Champion's crown. She's won three consecutive bouts since then, and nine of her ten singles match in ROH competition, including one over ally Red Velvet en route to the TV Championship Tournament Finals. As a result, Queen Aminata has become the top contender for Athena's championship, and the two women will clash tonight at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024!
This night marks Aminata's first DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR event while Athena celebrated her first last year with a victory over Willow Nightingale; will the Queen have the same success as the champion did or will “The Fallen Goddess” find a way to overcome her “injuries” and continue to push towards surpassing Samoa Joe's historic feat?
ROH WOMEN'S WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Billie Starkz(c) vs. Red Velvet
Billie Starkz became the first-ever ROH Women's World Television Champion at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 when she beat Queen Aminata, albeit with some seriously underhanded trickery, in front of ROH's hometown Philadelphia audience. Since then Starkz has successfully turned away...not one single challenge to her championship...but has defeated five different women in Proving Ground competition. That is an accomplishment of course, but going more than three months without putting the title on the line against a single challenger is more an indictment to your worthiness as a title holder than anything else.
Tonight during DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024, any illusion of choice that Billie Starkz may have had about her title challengers crumbles to dust as she faces a woman she's never beaten before in Red Velvet! Their two previous bouts took place on AEW programming, one during DARK #176 on 12/27/22 and the other on the 1/30/23 edition of ELEVATION, and both went in favor of Red Velvet in less than six minutes combined.
To be fair, Starkz has come along way since then, especially since coming under Athena's wing as one of her minions, but there's still that psychological edge of knowing how your opponent has dominated you in the past. Starkz can't possibly look at Red Velvet and not think about how she beat Billie in less than two minutes in their first fight, and how their second encounter wrapped up in less than four. She has to look at Red Velvet and see how, in her nine Ring of Honor matches, the only bout she lost was to Queen Aminata, the woman Billie had to cheat out of becoming the first World TV Champion.
That being stated, Billie Starkz is on a huge roll of her own right now; since losing to Athena at FINAL BATTLE 2023, Billie has won fourteen consecutive matches, thirteen of them in one-on-one competition, meaning there's no one save her mentor Athena who is on a bigger roll in Ring of Honor. The question is if that roll is a big enough morale booster to Billie Starkz to get past the knowledge of her history with Red Velvet? Is it enough to get the Women's World TV Champion over the hump and help her earn that first victory over Red, or will we see the crowning of a new champion at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024?
TEXAS DEATH MATCH...
Diamante vs. “Legit” Leyla Hirsch
A week ago Diamante managed to defeat “Legit” Leyla Hirsch, a rematch of their HONOR CLUB #69 contest from June 20th, a bout won by Hirsch but it was Diamante left standing after she assaulted the winner following the pinfall. It was far from their first encounter, the two women first tangled on opposite sides of a tag match back on the April 26, 2021 edition of DARK: ELEVATION, fought singles battles on DARK #87 and DARK #100, both won by Hirsch, as well as battled in a few tags and trios in 2021.
It wasn't until ROH was reborn once more that these two women became entangled once again, first meeting under the Ring of Honor banner during an HONOR CLUB #45 on January 4th of this year. Diamante and Mercedes Martinez won that tag bout, and Diamante followed that up with a Four Corner Survival victory during HONOR CLUB #50, scoring the pinfall directly on Hirsch albeit with her feet on the ropes.
Those two matches were just the beginning; the two women were on opposite sides of a Trios Match during HONOR CLUB #60 where Hirsch's team scored the win, then they'd meet again in Trios competition three weeks later, with different partners this time around, and it would be Diamante's team that got the victory. In neither match did the deciding fall come between Hirsch and Diamante, though Diamante did get the deciding fall on HONOR CLUB #63 for her team. HONOR CLUB #68 put the two women opposite one another once more in a third Trios battle, only this time it was Leyla Hirsch who took the pinfall, albeit to Alex Windsor rather than Diamante, but the result came from Diamante's trio being coordinated enough to work the referee out of position and take advantage of the situation.
It was that result that led to their HONOR CLUB #69 singles match, and the aftermath of that bout that led to HONOR CLUB #73's Lights Out match, but technically that fight doesn't exist. In terms of official wins and losses, a Lights Out Match never happened, the official record still shows that in one-on-one Ring of Honor matches, Leyla Hirsch holds a 1-0 advantage over Diamante.
Officially that is what the record book states, but the reality doesn't support that narrative, the reality is that Diamante beat Hirsch in that Lights Out match, and thus their record in ROH stands at 1-1. That is why these two warriors will enter the Esports Stadium tonight at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 and lock horns in a Texas Death Match!
It has been seven years since Ring of Honor has presented this kind of match, at the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 2017: NIGHT 2 event to be precise, and that was just the third time in the company's history a Texas Death Match has taken place. The first time was back in 2002 at the inaugural GLORY BY HONOR event, the second in 2012 at THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS, and then that aforementioned ROH World Title fight between Cody Rhodes and “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels. It's a rarity in ROH, and this will be the first time such a potentially violent affair has gone down between members of the Women's roster.
After the Lights Out contest, Leyla Hirsch and Diamante both showed their capacity for violence, and if Diamante thinks Hirsch can't sink down to the depths, she best remember this is the same woman who frequently used one of the ring hooks as a weapon not too long ago! At DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2022 a year ago fans witnessed a wild Fight Without Honor involving The Dark Order and The Righteous; this Texas Death Match could surpass what that brought to the table, let's just hope that it brings an end to the hostilities between these two warriors before one end ups with permanent damage!
ROH PURE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Wheeler Yuta(c) vs. Lee Moriarty
Last night during ROH ON HONOR CLUB, The Blackpool Combat Club duo of ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli scored a victory over Shane Taylor Promotions as represented by Lee Moriarty and Anthony Ogogo. With the knowledge of this championship fight fueling Yuta and Moriarty in the tag battle, it was a crucial victory for The BBC's only champion, especially after being taken to a time limit draw the last time he was in the ring with Lee Moriarty for the Proving Ground match. That ten-minute draw, only the second Proving Ground bout in the Pure Title's history, is what earned Moriarty this defense, and his second chance to finally earn a title that seems custom-made for his wrestling style.
Yet it's more than that simply because Wheeler Yuta is the man holding the Pure Championship, see theirs is a history dating back years before either stepped into an AEW ring, even before their was an All Elite Wrestling ring to step into for that matter. They'd encountered one another in BEYOND, AIW, BLP, and of course in the era of honor that was reborn with SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2022. Their lone singles match over the last two years saw Yuta victorious, and it just underlined the journey taken by both men over the course of their careers. They are both of a generation who began their wrestling careers in a world where Ring of Honor already existed; it was inspirational to both men, a goal to be achieved, but Yuta was the only one of the two who had the opportunity pre-FINAL BATTLE 2021.
Then when both men came to occupy space in the AEW locker room, both came onto the radar of a Blackpool Combat Club that, at the time, consisted of Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and William Regal. Lee Moriarty fought Bryan Danielson, he fought Jon Moxley, but ultimately it was Yuta who ended up standing side-by-side with The BCC while Moriarty drifted from the tutelage of Matt Sydal to standing with Stokely Hathaway's Firm before ultimately finding a home with Shane Taylor as the former ROH World TV Champion reorganized his Shane Taylor Promotions for ROH and AEW. For the first time since coming to ROH/AEW, Lee Moriarty found a place that he felt fit him, allies that shared his aspirations, and who fought with the same mentality as him.
Moriarty has always been a technical marvel, he even demonstrated a willingness to go strike-for-strike with an opponent when the time called for it, but under the STP banner he found a viciousness that wasn't there before, just as Wheeler Yuta found with The BCC's tutelage. There's a reason Yuta is the only 3-Time ROH Pure Champion (for that matter the only 2-Time as well), and it's because of the experience he's garnered training with Danielson, Moxley, and Castagnoli, and the blood he's spilled fighting in environments like Anarchy in the Arena, Blood & Guts, and Stadium Stampede. It's because of the fights with men like Daniel Garcia, Katsuyori Shibata, and Eddie Kingston that Yuta is the fighter he's become, and even with months off recovering from injury, he's come back without missing a beat, possibly angrier than ever before because of the time he missed.
So what we have here tonight in this Pure Championship bout is a meeting of two men walking similar path, who each found a home that's made them better fighters, and who are both quite hungry to prove they are the best at what they do. The difference being only one has found championship success walking their path while the other has been routinely frustrated in their quest, can this be the night Lee Moriarty adds his name to a lineage that includes, among others, Jay Lethal, Samoa Joe, Nigel McGuinness, and Katsuyori Shibata, or will Yuta continue pushing towards possibly becoming the greatest Pure Champion of all-time?
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
The Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett)(c) vs. The Conglomeration (Kyle O'Reilly & Tomohiro Ishii)
The Undisputed Kingdom has been trying to convince Kyle O'Reilly to join their ranks essentially from the moment Kyle returned to All Elite Wrestling after struggling through injuries for over a year. The history between Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong was clearly the strongest tie, but there's a bond between individuals who shared Ring of Honor locker rooms over the years, even if they were at each other's throats during those years, and that's essentially put Matt Taven and Mike Bennett in the same sphere as Roddy when it comes to O'Reilly. They are connected through the letters ROH, they are bound together by their experiences under that banner, and now they return to that stage with a new battle on their hands.
With Kyle's repeated rejection of The Undisputed Kingdom, he has now become a target, especially for Taven and Bennett, but thankfully for Kyle's welfare he found like-minded individuals in ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy, and now “The Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii. Briscoe dubbed this collection of disparate individuals a “Conglomeration” several weeks ago, and the name has stuck ever since, but it suits them as a mish-mosh of competitors with so little in common on the surface. But underneath the skin they are all bonded by their issues with The Undisputed Kingdom, while all but Orange Cassidy are bonded by their ROH history, and tonight they get to be bonded by violence in pursuit of championship gold!
Despite their protestations and pleas for a night off to celebrate Roderick Strong's birthday and (hopeful) World Championship victory, the ROH World Tag Team Champions will defend their titles at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 against The Conglomeration pairing of Kyle O'Reilly and Ishii! Kyle and Ishii were foes in the past, they've been allies as of late, uniting during FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024's ZERO HOUR in a Four Way tag bout then again on the July 19th RAMPAGE for a Trios victory over The Undisputed Kingdom. After hearing Paul Wight's decree last night, it looks like this Conglomeration pair has a huge opportunity to knock The UK off the top of the tag team mountain, so will tonight see the end of The Undisputed Kingdom's third reign as ROH World Tag Champions, or will we see Kyle wear that title again for the first time since April 4, 2105, and Ishii for the first time?
ROH WORLD SIX-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP ELIMINATOR MATCH...
The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno, & John Silver)
vs.
Dustin Rhodes & The Von Erich (Marshall & Ross)
***WINNER FACES UNDISPUTED KINGDOM AT BOTB XI***
We witnessed Dustin Rhodes and The Von Erichs unite last week during AEW COLLISION, and saw some of the results of their partnership last night on HONOR CLUB when Marshall and Ross defeated Alex Reynolds and John Silver in tag team competition. It was a bit of a shock to The Dark Order given that their level of experience as a team far surpasses the Von Erich brothers, but there's something to be said for how that familial bond enhances a tag team dynamic, how growing up side-by-side creates the chemistry unrelated tag partners take years to cultivate. That's what The Von Erichs have here, as well as the knowledge passed down to them from father Kevin, and now it's been melded with what “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes has to offer as man whose experience inside the squared circle has taken him through one evolution of the game after another. There is likely not a better active wrestler to take the lessons learned across his career, meld them when the current flow of professional wrestling, and teach it all to those coming up now. That's what has brought Dustin, Marshall, and Ross together, and tonight during DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024, it's what they will have to meld if they hope to become the new ROH World Six-Man Champions!
That's right; in the aftermath of The Patriarchy defeating The Bang Bang Gang to claim the AEW World Trios Titles, the Ring of Honor World Six-Man Championship is vacant and tonight in Arlington one team will step closer to filling that void when Rhodes and The Von Erichs meet The Dark Order trio looking to even the score for Thursday night's tag team loss!
Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno, and John Silver are one of the most experienced trios in All Elite Wrestling with their 15-7 record, and in the Ring of Honor landscape they are 7-5 together, whereas this will be just the second time Dustin, Marshall, and Ross have teamed up together though it's been five months since their first outing together on AEW RAMPAGE.
Dark Order has long been in pursuit of achieving status as the Six-Man Champions, and now stand on the precipice of making their unit's dream a reality, but can they shut down the experience/youth combination that is “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes and The Von Erichs? The future of the ROH World Six-Man Titles begins now; who will take one step closer to leading the division into the future?
ROH WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 2024...
***WINNER EARNS A FUTURE ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH***
ROH World Television Champion Atlantis Jr. vs. “The Machine” Brian Cage vs. Johnny TV vs. “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson vs. Lio Rush vs. Shane Taylor
Atlantis Jr. defeated Kyle Fletcher on June 28th at Arena Mexico to become the 32nd ROH World Television Champion. It certainly shocked Kyle Fletcher to see his hard-earned championship snatched away while on his first visit to CMLL, especially considering the battle he went through to earn it at FINAL BATTLE 2023, and the ones he went through to keep it. After winning the 2023 Survival of the Fittest tournament to claim the vacant TV Championship, Fletcher stated his mission was to become the greatest TV Champion of all-time, a lofty endeavor considering what Samoa Joe had just accomplished before him, and what Jay Lethal had done as the longest-reigning champion before Joe's dominance. Suffice to say Fletcher's aspirations were torn to shreds by Atlantis Jr., but that just meant it was time for someone new to attempt to chase the greatness established by those two former ROH World TV Champs.
Atlantis Jr. wasted little time, getting to ROH proper as soon as possible after winning the title, and putting it on the line against Serpentico to truly begin his reign as champion. It was an impressive beginning for the new champ, but last night on HONOR CLUB he (along with Lio Rush) was shutdown by the unique pairing of Shane Taylor and Johnny TV. Prior to this match taking place it was announced that those four men, along with “The Machine” Brian Cage and “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson, would meet at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 in the 2024 Survival of the Fittest elimination match! That meant their tag team bout was an opportunity to get a fall on the TV Champion just before the title bout, and Shane Taylor pinning Atlantis Jr. is exactly what we saw go down!
That brings us to tonight where the ROH World Television Champion puts his belt on the line against five other challengers! SOTF means elimination rules, meaning Atlantis Jr. has to stay alive through four eliminations to make it to the end and hold on to his title. This is just the second time a title has been on the line in a SOTF bout, the first being the FINAL BATTLE 2023 bout where Fletcher was crowned, but given that December bout was for a vacant title, this is the first where a champion is actively defending the belt. Now there is a mix of experiences within these six individuals as far as Ring of Honor is concerned; for the defending champion, this is just his third match for Ring of Honor, and obviously his first time entering a Survival of the Fittest match. Johnny TV has garnered quite a bit of ROH experience over the last year, even taking part in a Fight Without Honor against Dalton Castle at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024, though he is also a newcomer to SOTF competition.
For “The Machine” Brian Cage it's the first time competing in Survival of the Fittest, but he's a 2-Time ROH World Six-Man Champion, and once battled Samoa Joe over the ROH World TV Title two years ago. Lee Johnson comes in having recently given Kyle Fletcher the two toughest defenses of his ROH World TV Title reign, including a classic 2/3 Falls Match during HONOR CLUB #69, and he was a participant in the FINAL BATTLE 2023 Survival of the Fittest bout over the ROH World TV Title, though he was the first eliminated in the contest. Then we've got Shane Taylor and Lio Rush, two men quite familiar with SOTF, the World TV Title, as well as one another.
Second one first; before Thursday night's tag team bout, the last time Lio Rush competed in a ROH ring was April 22, 2017 and the man who beat him in that final appearance was none other than Shane Taylor. Prior to that, Lio Rush made his ROH debut in December 2015 before participating, and winning, the 2016 Top Prospect Tournament. A victory in that tournament propelled him to a ROH World Title fight with Jay Lethal, and though that SUPERCARD OF HONOR X fight was a loss, it put Rush into a position for some of the most important fights of his career. Over the next year Rush would go to war with Christopher Daniels, Roderick Strong, Adam Cole, The Briscoes, even making it to the Finals of the 2016 Survival of the Fittest Tournament where he was one of the last two men remaining. He was one-third of the team fighting to crown the first-ever ROH World Six-Man Champions, stepped into the ring with The Young Bucks to challenge for the ROH World Tag Team Titles, and challenged for the ROH World TV Title at 15th ANNIVERSARY as one of his last ROH bouts. Suffice to say Lio Rush amassed a great deal of experience under the ROH banner in a very short time, and now he's back to pick up where he left off but now with a great deal more experience under his belt.
Then there is Shane Taylor, one of the most dominant ROH World TV Champions of all-time who reigned for 218 days with 12 total defenses during that period, as well as a former World Six-Man Champion, and a finalist of the 2017 Survival of the Fittest Tournament. His eyes are on the ROH World Championship, of that there is no doubt, but he's game to fight for any championship opportunity presented, and that World TV Title represents a great deal to Shane T.
It's going to be a rough night for Atlantis Jr. as he tries to retain his title under these most difficult of circumstances; will he wake up Saturday with the title still securely in his possession or will it go home with another man after Survival of the Fittest 2024?
ALSO FEATURING:
-Komander vs. The Beast Mortos
ZERO HOUR
-MXM Collection make their debut!
-Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin) vs. The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd)
DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT exclusively on Honor Club, with the ZERO HOUR kicking the night off on the official ROH YouTube channel at 7:00pm! We've got three huge championship matches lined up thus far for ROH's biggest event of the summer, and there's plenty more action to join them! The road to FINAL BATTLE 2024 begins now so you do not want to miss out on Ring of Honor's return to Arlington, TX and our debut at the Esports Stadium! Then be sure to join us on Sunday for two separate Ring of Honor taping sessions to experience the fallout from DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 first-hand!