ROH Death Before Dishonor World Title Match is an NXT Rematch

By Liam Crowley

Ring of Honor is returning to pay-per-view this week. ROH Death Before Dishonor is an event that has had its momentum stalled significantly due to injury, as the scheduled world title match between champion Claudio Castagnoli and challenger Mark Briscoe was called off due to Briscoe hurting his knee and it requiring surgery. ROH President Tony Khan teased that he considered flying Eddie Kingston back to the United States from Japan to fill the void, but Kingston's commitments with New Japan's G1 Climax prevented that from being a possibility. Despite the hurdles, Castagnoli has found an opponent for this Friday's show.

Wednesday's AEW Dynamite: Blood & Guts saw The Golden Elite defeat Blackpool Combat Club inside AEW's answer to WarGames. Much of the reason that The Golden Elite were able to score the victory was due to the five-man unit gaining a significant numbers advantage late in the contest, as BCC one-off allies Pac and Konosuke Takeshita both walked out of the match. Pac's exit came specifically due to Castagnoli inadvertently striking him, which led to some shoving between the two.

After AEW Dynamite went off the air, Castagnoli laid out the challenge to Pac for ROH Death Before Dishonor, to which Pac quickly accepted. Khan made the match official shortly after.

NXT Rematch on ROH PPV

This won't be the first time that Castagnoli defends a championship against Pac. Back in early 2013, Castagnoli (then known as Antonio Cesaro) successfully retained his WWE United States Championship against Pac (then known as Adrian Neville) on NXT TV. 

Both Cesaro and Neville were key roster members of the initial NXT rebrand in 2013 and would go on to pick up wins at NXT's first streamed event, NXT Arrival. Cesaro defeated Sami Zayn in the show's opening contest while Neville captured the NXT Championship from Bo Dallas in the main event.

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Pac's ROH Return

Beyond this being a rematch over a decade in the making, this will be Pac's first match inside a Ring of Honor squared circle since 2007. According to CageMatch.net, Pac has had just four matches in ROH, all being losing efforts to the likes of Davey Richards, Bryan Danielson, Matt Sydal and Roderick Strong.

ROH Death Before Dishonor goes down on Friday, July 21st.

ROH Death Before Dishonor 2023 Card

  • ROH World Championship: Claudio Castagnoli (c) vs. Pac
  • ROH Television Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Dalton Castle
  • ROH Tag Team Championship: Lucha Brothers (c) vs. Aussie Open vs. The Kingdom vs. Best Friends
  • ROH Pure Championship: Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Daniel Garcia
  • ROH Women's Championship: Athena (c) vs. Willow Nightingale

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