[2022-07-23-ROH-Death Before Dishonor] Jonathan Gresham vs Claudio Castagnoli

[corwo]

Jonathan Gresham defends the ROH World Title

Classic dueling body work- based match. Gresham immediately tries to break the base of Castagnoli with a wrist lock. I like how the early arm work from Gresham plays into him softening up Castagnoli for what's to come later. It's a small detail, but the kind of thing Gresham does incredibly well.

Gresham targets the knee, while Castagnoli goes after Jonathan's lower back. Gresham goes for a suplex, but the damage has already taken its toll. The selling comes across naturally and is a wonderful extension of the technique vs. power story they're telling. Take, for example, the moment Castagnoli's knee gives out after an Alpamare Waterslide attempt. Or how Claudio takes a bump into the turnbuckles and falls to a knee, allowing Gresham to regain control.

The high point of the match is Castagnoli hitting an absurd gut-wrench suplex on Gresham from the apron into the ring. Gresham continues to pepper Castagnoli with kicks to the knee, which is met by European Uppercuts from Claudio. The arm work even comes back into play briefly, as Gresham's able to block an uppercut and hit an Enziguri. Claudio also serves as the perfect base for some of Gresham's high-flying offense, getting into position for a moonsault at the perfect time.

My biggest gripe with this match lies in the finish, which was abrupt. Shortly after a flurry of offense from Gresham, Claudio lands a series of elbows and hits the Ricola Bomb for the win. This is about as decisive of a victory as you can get, and if it's Gresham's swan song from ROH, it was quite the way to go out. Gresham and Castagnoli are masters of creating late drama, and the final roll-up from Gresham had me biting. While I would've loved to see something a little more substantial, this was a really good match.