The CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, New Jersey hosted Ring of Honor’s 20th Death Before Dishonor on July 21, 2023. The event featured twelve matches, four of which opened the Zero Hour pre‑show, and concluded with a mix of title defenses and a fresh tag‑team championship.
In the women’s division, Athena successfully defended the ROH Women’s World Championship against Willow Nightingale in the main event. Athena’s victory adds to a series of successful defenses, underscoring her dominance over the division’s challengers. Nightingale’s loss marks the latest in a string of unsuccessful attempts to capture the title.
The penultimate bout saw ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli retain his belt by defeating Pac. Castagnoli’s methodical, power‑based approach once again proved decisive against Pac’s high‑speed offense, extending Castagnoli’s reign and further solidifying his status as the division’s top competitor.
A significant change occurred in the tag‑team ranks. Aussie Open—Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis—emerged victorious in a four‑way match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Their opponents included The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett), Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta), and The Lucha Brothers (Rey Fénix and Penta El Zero Miedo).
The win ends The Kingdom’s previous hold on the titles and introduces a new, Australian‑styled, hard‑hitting team to the top of the division. In a Pure Wrestling Rules contest, veteran Katsuyori Shibata retained the ROH Pure Championship against rising talent Daniel Garcia.
The match’s limited rope breaks and prohibition on closed‑fist strikes favored Shibata’s technical expertise, allowing him to maintain the championship and add prestige to a title that emphasizes skill over brawling. The Dark Order—Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds, and John Silver—captured a Fight Without Honor against Stu Grayson and The Righteous (Vincent and Dutch). As a no‑disqualification bout, the encounter permitted weapons and loose rules, and the stable’s victory keeps them relevant amid a division often dominated by newer, flashier teams.
Marking two decades since the inaugural Death Before Dishonor in 2003, the 2023 edition reinforced the existing hierarchy while delivering a notable shift in the tag‑team scene. Athena and Castagnoli remain the faces of their respective divisions, while Aussie Open’s championship win signals a new direction for the tag‑team roster.
Shibata’s continued success highlights the enduring value of technical wrestling within ROH. Looking ahead, Athena and Castagnoli will likely face fresh challengers eager to dethrone them, and Aussie Open will have to defend their titles against a field eager to reclaim the belts. The Dark Order’s recent triumph suggests they will remain a fixture in future storylines.
Overall, the event showcased the core elements that drive ROH—title prestige, veteran resilience, and a steady influx of contenders—while confirming that the top of the card remains unchanged, even as the middle tier experiences a reshuffle that could influence tag‑team narratives for months to come.
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