ROH Death Before Dishonor 2025

Thanks to ppv streaming issues, I got to enjoy the last 3 matches for free on youtube while eating sushi my friend April brought.

La Faccion Ingobernable vs The Outrunners was more "dinner background noise". It was fine, but no real thoughts. Meanwhile, the two main events...

Bandido vs Hechicero

Great match! didn't quite hit me as hard as the buzz around made me expect, but it was an awesome match, with awesome spots, between two awesome wrestlers I love.

That said... The match went on awfully long when not a single part of me could believe for a second that Hechicero could win. Like all the components were amazing, but trying to stretch it to fit the vibe of "Big epic main event" kinda hurt it for me. I would have liked a leaner version of this match a lot more, but hey, I still really liked what I got.

It's weird feeling like you're not being fair to a match that you like. I do not get in what world this is "5 and a Half". If someone wants to go 5, cool, but I just don't see what about this match was a "scale breaker". It just simply did not have circumstances to be one and trying to reach those heights hurt the match more than helped it, for me personally. I don't think the reception to this match hurt my enjoyment of it in the moment, but it definitely makes me feel weird while trying to rate it.

Maybe I'm just crazy but I just gotta be honest and go with my heart. If I think about a match I liked and I'm not excited at the thought of watching it again, I can't give it more than...

Athena vs Mina Shirakawa

It's weird seeing some people going "Wow! Mina has improved!" after seeing this match. She's always been this good. Or at least, for a few years now. I don't know what North American wrestling fans look at that would make them think she's not, ring wise, one of the strongest women under AEW's banner right now. A lot of those fans kinda seem... style blind. Karami, who is kinda the opposite, spent most of the match wondering why wrestling over here was so poorly paced. 😭

It's always easy to underestimate the Hot Girl* wrestler. Old WWE fans seem to have an inherent distrust of anyone too "normally" pretty. For my part, I think Mina might be the best in-ring Hot Girl ever. I can't even think of a runner up.

* "Hot Girl" here being anyone whose gimmick is being super femme, sexual, and conventionally attractive.

Athena continues to be so good at being a threatening, violent ace while ALSO being a buffoon. She's perfect at selling as a heel. She gets her opponents over while somehow not making herself look weak in the process. It's easy to overdo the heel egg-on-face humor and look like a clown. Fast, rough, and appropriately messy. They wrestled the perfect match for their spot their feud. It's kinda the opposite of Bandido vs Hechicero. Athena has too much momentum. Of course she was going to win. So lets do our best to make Mina look as good as possible, before letting Athena hit a beautiful O-Face to end the match.

You can also check my dropkickd for the original versions of some of these reviews, though the ones on here tend to be a bit longer.