Storylines
The event will feature professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches. [6] Storylines were produced on ROH's weekly streaming series on their Honor Club service, as well as the programming of sister promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW); including weekly television series Dynamite , Rampage and Collision , and via promotional videos on both the ROH and AEW YouTube channels and social media platforms.
Queen Aminata and Red Velvet had been feuding with ROH Women's World Champion Athena and ROH Women's World Television Champion Billie Starkz for the past several months, starting when Starkz defeated Aminata at Supercard of Honor in March to become the inaugural ROH Women's World Television Champion. The following week, Athena and Red Velvet had a match for the ROH Women's World Championship at AEW Battle of the Belts X, where Athena was victorious thanks to the interference by Starks. After the match, Athena and Starkz jumped Velvet before Aminata came down for the save. [7] [8] For the next few months, Aminata and Velvet continued to prevent Athena and Starkz from doing more damage to their opponents after their matches, with the latter two doing all they can to avoid defending their titles against the two. Athena even claimed to have an ankle injury that would take her out of action for several months. [9] [10] However, on the July 4 episode of ROH Wrestling, Aminata and Velvet confronted Athena and Starkz to announce that they will respectively challenge them for the world and television titles at Death Before Dishonor. [11] [12] [13]
On the July 13 episode of AEW Collision , Roderick Strong defeated Dalton Castle to become the number one Contender for the ROH World Championship, earning a match against champion Mark Briscoe at Death Before Dishonor. [14] [15]
Diamanté and Leyla Hirsch had been involved in a heated rivalry over the past month, starting when the latter beat the former in a singles match on the June 20 episode of ROH Wrestling. [16] After some back and forth promos between the two, they had a rematch on July 18, this time a Lights Out match, where Diamanté would defeat Hirsch. [17] With both now at one win over each other, ROH announced a rubber match between Diamanté and Hirsch at Death Before Dishonor in a Texas Deathmatch. [18]
On the July 11 episode of ROH Wrestling, ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta had a Proving Ground match against Lee Moriarty that ended in a time limit draw. Per the stipulation of a Proving Ground match, this granted Moriarty an ROH Pure Championship match. [19] On July 23, AEW president and ROH owner Tony Khan announced on X that Yuta will defend his ROH Pure Championship against Moriarty. [20] [21]
On July 25, it was announced by Tony Khan that it will a six-man Survival of the Fittest match at Death Before Dishonor for the ROH World Television Championship involving champion Atlantis Jr., Lio Rush, Johnny TV, Shane Taylor, Lee Johnson and Brian Cage. [22] [23] Days prior on ROH Wrestling, Atlantis Jr. and Rush lost a tag team match to Johnny TV and Taylor. Therefore, there was already history between them going into the event. [24] Also, Johnson and Cage have also had history with each other years prior before the matchup. [25] [26]
At AEW Revolution, while Undisputed Kingdom member Roderick Strong celebrated with his stablemates, ROH World Tag Team Champions Matt Taven and Mike Bennett, after capturing the AEW International Championship from Orange Cassidy; Kyle O'Reilly, making his return to the company after a year away due to a neck injury, appeared behind them. While O'Reilly initially seemed friendly with his old friends, he refuted their offer to join the Undisputed Kingdom. [27] Since then, Strong, Taven, and Bennett have repeatedly tried to coerce O'Reilly into joining them, even if it meant hurting him. This led to a match at AEW Dynasty the following month, Strong successfully defended the AEW International Championship against O'Reilly. [28] As the Undisputed Kingdom's attempts at recruiting O'Reilly continued, the latter formed a new stable with ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy, and Tomohiro Ishii called "The Conglomeration." As the two stables feuded for the next several weeks, Taven and Bennett called out Tony Khan on the July 11 ROH Wrestling to give them the night off at Death Before Dishonor. [29] However, two weeks later, newly appointed ROH Board of Directors member Paul Wight informed the pair that they would instead defend the ROH World Tag Team Championship against O'Reilly and Ishii at the event. [30]
On the July 13 episode of AEW Collision, AEW Interim Executive Vice President Christopher Daniels stripped The Bang Bang Gang (Jay White and The Gunns (Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn)) of the Unified Trios Championship (consisting of the AEW World Trios Championship and the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship) after White suffered an injury and refused their invocation of the Freebird Rule by having Juice Robinson defend the titles in White's place. [14] The AEW World Trios Championship would be decided on the following Collision where The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch, and Nick Wayne) defeated The Bang Bang Gang (Robinson and The Gunns). [31] On the July 25 episode of ROH Wrestling, The Von Erichs ((Marshall Von Erich and Ross Von Erich) defeated The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds) in a tag team match. This later escalated into a post-match brawl between the teams alongside Dustin Rhodes and Evil Uno, respectively, with the former group standing tall. [32] Later, ROH announced that the two trios would face at Death Before Dishonor in an ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship Eliminator match; the winner going on to face The Undisputed Kingdom for the vacant titles at AEW Battle of the Belts XI. [33]
On the July 4 episode of ROH Wrestling, former WWE tag team MxM Collection (Mansoor and Mason Madden) appeared via vignette teasing their arrival in ROH. [34] After a few more video packages, ROH announced the debut of MxM Collection for the Death Before Dishonor Zero Hour pre-show. [35]
