This coming Friday, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling begin another busy weekend for the companies as ROH’s annual “Death Before Dishonor” event is live and on pay-per-view from Las Vegas, the 2 companies are also combining talent on ROH’s TV tapings the next day, as well as New Japan’s “Fighting Spirit Unleashed” on Sunday from Long Beach live on New Japan’s streaming service, New Japan World.
Featured on Friday’s ROH show is 4 big title matches, as well as an all-star 10 man tag team match between Bullet Club and the now all of a sudden in chaos faction of Chaos. Sunday’s NJPW show has only 3 matches announced so far, but it includes 2 title matches and a semifinal of New Japan’s Junior Heavyweight Tournament.
ROH World Heavyweight Champion Jay Lethal vs. Will Ospreay
Ospreay receives his 1st opportunity at the ROH World title after accepting Lethal’s open challenge for the pay per view on a recent episode of Ring Of Honor television. We are currently in the midst of Lethal’s 2nd reign as ROH World Champion, only the 4th man in ROH history to have won the title more than once, after Lethal won a 4-way match on June 30th to take the title off of Dalton Castle, who is now on the injured list. This is Lethal’s 4th title defence.
Ospreay getting the title shot is a bit of a mystery to me, as he is not a full-time member of the ROH roster and appears to be the favourite to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title in their mini-tournament they are holding for that vacant belt. Ospreay is a former ROH Television Champion, but Lethal will retain in a great match.
WINNER: Jay Lethal
ROH Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood
Sumie Sakai has been the Women of Honor Champion since she won the 16-woman tournament with 2 victories at ROH’s “Supercard of Honor” event during WrestleMania weekend. One of the women she defeated that night was Tenille Dashwood in one of the semifinal matches. Sakai’s reign has been mixed as most of the matches she has been in have not been title matches or tag team matches.
Dashwood has looked like the piece that ROH wants to put at the forefront of the division, but like her WWE career, something always came up to derail her push. This time, Dashwood had a flare-up of psoriasis, which left her off the Honor Re-United tour of the U.K. in August. With Dashwood’s charisma, wrestling ability, and being a brand name all over the world, I believe she gets the job done and wins her first major championship.
WINNER: Tenille Dashwood
ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes vs. The Addiction
Very simple background here. The Addiction’s contracts are coming up in December and ROH’s front office have told them they have to be champions to have their contracts renewed. To get this done, they had to start attacking the champions of Ring of Honor and The Briscoes took their bait and we have ourselves a title match. The Briscoes are on their 9th title reign and this will be their 10th title defence of the belts they won in Las Vegas in March. While The Addiction will be desperate to win, I feel there won’t be a winner, but a double-disqualification. This will set up a rematch in December at Final Battle, and The Addiction will win the belts there.
WINNER: None, double-disqualification
ROH Television Champion Punishment Martinez vs. Chris Sabin
Punishment Martinez has been ROH’s breakout star of 2018, finally winning his first championship with the company in June at ROH’s “State of The Art” event in Dallas in winning a 6-man Proving Ground Instant Reward match and then defeating former champion Silas Young. This will be Martinez’s 4th title defence. Sabin won a top contender’s match to get the title shot. Sabin is no slouch in the ring as he has won several singles titles, although they all came in Impact Wrestling and none since 2013. He had been teaming with longtime partner Alex Shelley until Shelley recently retired from the ring. I see Martinez’s great 2018 continuing in a dominating fashion over Sabin.
WINNER: Punishment Martinez
NEW JAPAN’S “FIGHTING SPIRIT UNLEASHED”
IWGP United States Champion Juice Robinson vs. Cody
This was set up by Cody pinning Robinson during the G1 Climax Finals show on the undercard. Cody, right now, might be the hottest wrestler in the world. He is part of the ROH World 6-man tag team champions with The Young Bucks and recently won the NWA World Heavyweight title from Nick Aldis at his promoted show “All In” on September 1st. Robinson’s reign, his first major championship in New Japan, has not been excellent.
Since winning the title and becoming the first American to win the IWGP United States title in July from Jay White, he had a losing record in the G1 Climax and lost the tag match on the final day of the tour to set up this title match. I’m predicting Cody to take the U.S. title and continue the roll that he is on.
WINNER: Cody
IWGP Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks vs. Guerrillas of Destiny
When Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa, along with their father Haku, turned on the entire Bullet Club at the G1 Special in San Francisco in July, I thought this was the push that was going to push G.O.D. into another level. Unfortunately, during the G1 Climax, Tama Tonga lost most of his matches by DQ when the Bullet Club OGz interfered, or he won with interference from the OGz.
They rebounded on the final night of the G1 Climax to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man titles, along with Taiji Ishimori, from The Young Bucks and Marty Scurll. While a win here would really help G.O.D., which they need in the worst way, The Young Bucks are on fire and they bring in a ton of money for New Japan. They retain.
WINNERS: The Young Bucks
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Semifinal: Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll
This is the semi-final of a mini-tournament for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title after Hiromu Takahashi had to vacate the title due to a broken neck suffered at the G1 Climax Special in San Francisco. KUSHIDA won his semifinal match over BUSHI to reach the finals. This is the latest chapter in the storied history of this great rivalry that has now gone through 3 continents. I feel Ospreay will win here to have a big money match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title with KUSHIDA.
WINNER: Will Ospreay
Do you agree? Add your predictions below.
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