Official ROH Discussion Thread

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

It should be pointed out that Jack Evans and Teddy Hart were supposed to be on opposite sides in the main event, but never made it due to travel problems.

[Big Benny HG]

......................

Edited June 20, 2011 by Big Benny HG

[cobystag]

It should be pointed out that Jack Evans and Teddy Hart were supposed to be on opposite sides in the main event, but never made it due to travel problems.

 

Not quite, they were both pulled from the Friday show due to Mexico commitments, but were definitely supposed to be at the Sat show.

 

Which I'm sure when I read Hat Guy's review above he'll wonder why Evans and Hart came out randomly during the show and just had an exhibition match.

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

Manhattan Mayhem 4

[David]

Is this an actual discussion thread? Or is it just people posting lengthy reviews of the latest shows they watched?

 

I'm seeing reviews from 2010 followed by show reviews from 2009?

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

Well....there is some discussion, but a large part of the thread tends to be devoted to DVD reviews. Different posters are at various stages of catching up, hence the appearance of reviews from 09/10. If I get chance I want ot have a look at some 2002 stuff at some point.

[gadge]

We're in a bit of a gap between shows at the moment too, I'm sure there will be more news-stuff after the Sinclair press conference on Friday and the Best in the World iPPV on Sunday...

[Big Benny HG]

Final Battle 2009 - 19 Dec 2009 (New York)

 

ROH returns to the Manhatten Centre for their usual huge year-ending spectacular. This also marks their first foray down the avenue of iPPV, following the loss of their standard PPV deal earlier in the year. I'm also rather looking forward to seeing it, since this is the first 'main' show in ages (since the Final Countdown Tour and Glorby By Honor, in fact) and, while you might find the odd rewarding gem or one-match shows worth your time, effort and money, the B-level shows have become so insignificant at this point compared to the big shows and the TV that you could easily not bother and not felt you'd really missed anything worthwhile.

 

Final Battle is, without exception, always presented by the company as an 'A' show by any defininition. Feuds come to an end, stories reach their conclusion, titles actually have a chance of changing hands, major angles take place, etc. After what seems like at enternity of nothingness, this comes across as Wrestle-fucking-Mania. Yes, quite looking forward to it.

 

DVD starts with a video package building the main event title match between Austin Aries and Tyler Black. It starts by showing the #1 contenders bout between the same 2 a whole year ago at 'Final Battle 2008' in the Hammerstein Ballroom. There, Aries won, leading to Jimmy Jacobs kicking Tyler out of the Age of the Fall, Aries coming back to make the save, only for HIM to turn on Tyler, marking his heel turn. The video goes on to show Black vs. Aries vs. Jerry Lynn elimination match for the title at Manhatten Mayhem III, where Aries again beat Black, this time winning the belt. Then shows Tyler picking up big wins over Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness, putting across that he might now be ready to finally beat Aries and win the belt. The video closes by asking "Is Tyler's Time Now?". Surely to fucking god yes. Overall, a good package which really gets it over as a long-standing year-long rivalry, with the question over whether Black is good enough to be champion.

 

The big show itself opens with Claudio Castagnoli vs. Rhett Titus vs. Kenny Omega vs. Colt Cabana, yet another ROH 4-way involving Claudio and Cabana. They must seriously have no more ideas for these guys. At least it's a fair balance between heels and faces this time. Typical stuff, leading into a frantic, fast and furious ending as guys all hit their stuff. Colt has Titus trapped in the Bily Goat's Curse when Claudio bicycle kicks him in the head. Castagnoli then deadlift-German suplexes Titus into the winning pin. A perfectly decent and exciting start to the iPPV.

 

They then show Tyler Black's post-'Reverse the Curse' promo from the ROH Video Wire (included as a DVD bonus on the last release), talking about his time being now. The advantage of me watching these shows so late is that it's got to be funny hearing "Seth Rollins" cutting an anti-Vince, anti-WWE, anti-corporate promo.

 

Bison Smith & Erick Stevens vs. Necro Butcher & Delirious is next, bringing the long-running, seemingly-never-ending Necro vs. Embassy feud to it's conclusion.... except we are told Necro hasn't been able to make it due to the snow. Oh, that's buggered that one up, then. So Delirious has to take on Smith and Stevens all by himself (well, with Daizee Haze cheerleading from ringside) in a 2-on-1 handicap match. A few minutes in, some music hits and PELLE PRIMEAU is out to join him. Yep, the forgotten (until a bonus match on a recent DVD) underdog from ROH's training school. Pelle runs wild with a Deja Vu headscissors and other little-man flying moves, before Bison flattens him with a HUGE clothesline. DEAD. Smith and Stevens proceed to take in in turns to toss this little fucker all over the place. More music hits, this time it's BOBBY DEMPSEY.....w the fuck is happening?! Bobby runs wild himself, then tags out to Delirious, so I guess the ref has accepted all of this and made a tag match. The bout which follows was really loads of fun. They haven't made Dempsey look as strong as this since the Larry Sweeney stuff. Bison Smith pins Bobby with a powerbomb. As daft and silly as all this was, I enjoyed this. I guess Necro Butcher still has to settle his score with the Embassy, though, so this feud must continue...

 

The Fight Without Honor (basically an unsanctioned match) of Chris Hero vs. Eddie Kingston is preceded by another video package, this time reminding us of the events of 'Glory By Honor', where Hero won by unveiling the golden elbow pad. Kingston hasn't been seen on an ROH DVD show since, though the feud has been furthered through the TV show on HDNet. No reason to watch DVDs... The combatants both come out wearing street clothes. Well, jeans and vests. I'm not sure I'd wear that on the street. A heated grudge punch-kick war. A chain comes into play and ends up wrapped around Kingston's neck while Hero lays a beating on him. Hero, it should be said, is accompanied by both Shane Hagadorn and Sara Del Ray from Larry Sweeney's former stable. Kingson is alone. What the fuck happened to Blackjack Marciano, anyway? Also, what is the actual fucking point of Sara Del Ray? Blood from Kingston, who fights back and you really believe he hates this fucker. Hero brings one of the steel security barriers into the ring, which is set up horizontally across the 2nd buckle in one of the corners. Hero then powerbombs Kingston off the top rope onto the steel below. Most in attendance naturally thought that was the finish...but only two. Ridiculous. Massive "EDDIE EDDIE" chant following the kick out. King does this massive bloody babyface comeback and snatches the golden elbow pad. He puts it round his fist ready to do his spinning backfist finisher, but stops, changes his mind, and slides it up to his elbow to take Hero out with his own rolling elbow for the win. After the bell, Kingston breaks down in tears in the ring at his emotional victory, finally getting revenge and the huge win over his big rival. A good story, well told.

 

Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The Young Bucks. Yet another video package sets the scene by showing Steen and Generico beating the Bucks clean at 'Contention' and then again at 'AVR'. Hmm, not quite sure why they need another bout, then. Handshakes to start, but a bit of aggro between Steen and Matt Jackson. Nick Jacson and Generico wrestle fair and clean to start, then tag out to Matt and Steen, who go heavy and hard and it all kicks off, adding that much needed edge and fire between two babyface teams. The commentators constantly remind you about Steen's bad knee as being the weak link of his team, including last night. Heat on Generico. Really interesting watching the Bucks in more of a slower, controlling, dominating 'heel' role, and they did make it work. This, and the fact that young, clean-cut pretty boy tag teams are never going to get cheered in New York, means that the fans are solidly behind "Steenerico" (urgh). Hot tag to Steen, who cleans house, and Generico is back in the action with a ridicuoulsy sweet flip dive to the outide off kneeling Steen's back. Jacksons start hitting Steen with their trademark doubleteam offence, but he fires back and the match becomes about these guys killing each other with craziness. Generico hits the Helluva Kick on Nick and Steen follows up with a frog splash from the top. As Generico makes the pin, however, Steen clutches his bad knee. Limping Steen tags in and locks Nick in Sharpshooter, but can't hold it. Similarly, he can't hit his package piledriver, so Bucks nail him with MBFYB for a TERRIFIC nearfall. Then, they kill him with 3 superkicks each for the 3 count. Hell of a tag team bout, but it told a good story and was not just about the moves, moves moves.

 

Steen gets on mic after as the fans chant his name in appreciation of his brave effort. The audio on his mic, it has to be said, is terrible. Not sure that comes across well on iPPV. Steen cuts down a heckler to massive approval, before admitting that he is nowhere near the same man he was 3 years ago. He thanks the fans and hints that it is time to move on. He thanks people inthe back, the staff, the other wrestlers etc. You know, one of those promos people do when they are leaving/retiring that ROH fans have seen so many times over the years. He finishes with a big hug with Generico... before telling the fans he "HATES HIS FUCKING ASS" low blows him and brains him with a chair. Colt Cabana runs out to question Steen, Steen KISSES him and walks calmly out of there. WONDERFULLY executed, brilliant angle at the right time. Steen and Generico had run out of tag opponents and direction, and there is only so many times you can face the Briscoes, Wolves and Bucks. I mean, I knew Steen turned heel at some point (I try to avoid ROH spoilers as far as I can but some things you just can't avoid), but I had no idea it took place here and I was caught up in it just as much as the live crowd. Generico is helped to the back by Cabana and referees... Awesome.

 

Kenny King vs. Roderick Strong, Pick Six, was always going to struggle for attention on this particuar show, when there are so many grudge matches, feud-ender, title showdowns and major angles taking place. This was actualy pretty decent, this, a good competitive bout. The crowd was deathly silent at the start, but slowly warmed and were well into it by the end. King rolled up Strong with a handful of tights to score what has to be considered actually a really big win for him and, as a result, takes the spot in the Pick Six of contenders.

 

Next up was supposed to be a AAA guest match, but we are told that Teddy Hart and Jack Evans, two of the scheduled 4 wrestlers, have not been able to make it due to the weather. Erm, boo? As a result, the bout is changed to a singles presentation: Rocky Romero vs. Alex Koslov. Another very watchable, very enjoyable bout that was full of character. A bunch of dudes in the crowd start a "Fuck John Cena (clap clap clapclapclap)" chant. Yep. Romero was sent over the barrier into the crowd and Koslov followed him with a huge dive from the top rope. Back inside, both end up standing on the top rope, fighting over control, when Romero spectacularly locks in the Diablo Armbar (flying armbar) for the win. Fun stuff.

 

The ROH World Tag Team Title bout of champions American Wolves (Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards) vs. The Briscoes is preceded by a video recap showing the Wolves attacking the Briscoes at 'Final Battle' one year ago, injuring Mark Briscoe's knee and putting him out for 6 months. Technical wrestling early, but the Wolves become frustrated as the Briscoes get the upper hand. Breaks down into a brawl, the Wolves take over and work over Mark's knee they took out a year ago. Commentators remind us of the bout between these two teams at 'Final Countdown: Chicago', where the Wolves got themselve intentionally disqualified by attacking the ref to keep the belts. I had totally forgotten about that - why wasn't that included in the video recap? Jeez. Hot tag to Jay, but then Edwards collapses to the mat clutching his previously injured arm, as if he has re-broken it (the last show in this building was his last before his long injury layoff). As the referee inspects and Jay lets up, he reveals it was a FAKE and attacks him. He then does press-ups in the ring just to rub it in. The swine. A Mark-Fu comeback ends in double flip dives onto the Wolves, and it's all action from this point as both teams go all out in a 4-man sprint for the win. The crowd had been watching intently but quietly, rquite realistically burnt out from everything they've seen tonight, but come alive in a big way during this stretch. Briscoes hit the Doomsday Device to lift the titles for the sixth time. Not a great match, but pretty damn good.

 

As the Briscoes celebrate in the ring, Claudio Castagnoli slowly wanders to ringside and climbs inside to meet them. As he does so, Chris Hero sneaks behind them through the crowd and takes out the Briscoes with rolling elbows. Claudio and Hero then hit the KRS-1 and pose with the belts, singnalling the rebirth of the Kings of Wrestling and outlining their intentions. Good angle and the best decision for all involved. Hero and Castagnoli were out of ideas as singles wrestlers, and the tag division was in desperate need of credible and fresh opponents. This instantly created a ready-made new title program.

 

Main event time? Nope. The lights go out and when they come back on, Teddy Hart, Jack Evans and Julius Smokes are in the ring to a massive reaction. They have made it, then. Yay. Evans and Smokes talk some unintelligible babble before Jack says they've missed their scheduled bout, so he wants a one-on-one with Hart. Teddy Hart vs. Jack Evans it is, then. Exactly the 5-minute match you would expect these two to have. Well, I say "match", but there is no referee. "This is just an exhibition" announces commentator Prazack. What? What the fuck is this? Move, move, move. Julius SMokes actually jumped in midway through to become the referee; I guess he felt it at least needed to make some sense. This was crowd-pleasing, but was nothing more than a demonstration of flashy moves from both. Jack went for a 630 but landed on nothing but knees. Hart then did this twisty flippy powerbomb thingy. These fuckers gonna die. Evans then landed a 630 for the win. I absolutely hated this whole fucking debacle.

 

So, finally, after one long-ass (but admittedly excellent) show, it's time for the main event World Title match, Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black. Have to swap to disc two for this one, as explained in my review of 'Eye of the Storm II' above. It starts with the same video package that opened up the event. Good package, but surely it makes it too obvious that Tyler is taking the belt tonight? The now-standard Aries pre-match promo in the ring rips on the Hart vs. Evans "exhibtion" before, then states that because it is an iPPV, he wants to say "Hi" to a few people....his mum...Tyler's mum... Naturally, this whole thing gets lots of laughs and approval, and so the opening exchanges are met with equal dualling chants. Decent back-and-forth action. Actually, it sounds like Aries has more of the corwd support. Maybe they've taken too long over Tyler's quest and missed the boat? Usual Aries big-match strategy of working over opponent's left leg. Wouldn't a better strategy to have, you know, targetted the bad neck which they've repeatedly rammed into us over the past few months as being Black's weak spot? Dummy. Black comes back with his signature spots, before catching Aries in his own Last Chancery. Aries hits the Heat Seeking Missile, and then back-and-forth they go again. The 30 minute announcement sees A-Double kicked off the top rope and through a ringside table. Crowd is quiet now, as the match goes on and it must be really, really late. This is where Aries strategy changes, trying to stall as much as he can or get a countout win, a signature of the Austin Aries title reign. He keeps sending Tyler outside, but he slowly crawls back in and keeps beating the count. This really killed the once enthusiastic crowd, some of whom are actually now booing each time Tyler makes it back in.

 

Aries does more stalling on the outside as the 40 minute mark goes by. The crowd has completely turned on the once-decent match now, with ironic "This is awesome" chants, "This is bullshit" and "We want wrestling". I can see what they are doing, as Aries is supposed to be the sneaky heel who is getting desperate, but the match was very decent for the first 30 minutes but has just become tedious now. They fight on the outside and back thoguh the curtain away from the crowd, only for a "Don't come back" chant to start. Tyler brings Aries back out and hits an F5 on the steel ramp. Aries now bleeding. Inside, Tyler uses his former partner/opponent Jimmy Jacobs' End Time submission hold, which is creative, showing he is desperately thinking of different ways he knows to end matches. 45 minute announcement, and a "This match sucks" chant. Jesus. To be fair, it is now dull as fuck and gone way beyond where I had interest. Crowd comes back into it as Tyler hits his "buckle" bomb on a ringside chair, following up with a superkick on the floor, but misses a Phoenix Splash inside. Aries again tries to flee, this time ending with him hitting his brainbuster on the steel ramp. When this fails to get the countout, he resorts to trying to get himself DQed with low blows, eye gauges and failing to break by 5. Black begs the referee not to call for the bell, and the ref agrees. No DQs, then. With this in mind, Aries removes the turnbuckle pad and bloodies Black on the exposed steel. 450 splash gets a 2 count, before he locks in Last Chancery with 5 minutes left. "Bullshit" is the opinion of the crowd, guessing now this is going to the limit and Tyler has failed once again. Yay/boo spot, but with crowd "yaying" for heel Aries. Continuing the theme from earlier, Black utilises Bryan Danielson's Cattle Muttilation and elbow strikes, earning major boos in the process. 1 minute left. Ref counts both men on a double-down, with the crwd shouting "HOURS" after each number. LOL. Tyler hits God's Last Gift for a two count right at the end, but the bell goes. They keep on fighting, but most of the crowd are heading for the exit.

 

Well, that was a flat and disappointing end. The story, I guess, is that Aries has found a way to escape with the belt yet again, but surely to goodness they should have finally put the belt on Tyler this time. By coming up short YET AGAIN I don't think he can ever be seriously considered a credible and legitimate potential champion again. As we have been told for months - this was his moment, this was his destiny, his time was now... and he blew it. Again.

 

Realising Black can't get the job done, the crowd chants "Choke" at him on the way out. In an effort to rescue some of the heat, the Briscoes and the Kings of Wrestling reappear and fight around ringside in a wild brawl to end the show.

 

Well, that was that. For the most part, this event was brilliant, one of ROH's best of 2009 to see that year to an end. The main event was going great guns and I was expecting to see them end a great night with Tyler Black finally realising his dream and unseating the sneaky heel champion to lift the gold and end the year with a memorable moment. Instead, they missed the opportunity and probably messed up any chance of Tyler being taken seriously again.

[Zebra Kid Mark]

How do you all follow ROH? Do you download? Do you buy the official DVDs or do you acquire them from a trader? I am interested as I am keen to start watching the odd ROH show. I stopped following it pretty much after TWC went bust.

[JPC]

There's always a good offer on rohwrestling.com. Shipping to the UK usually takes no more than a week.

[gadge]

Yeah, DVDs are usually about

[Jun Kasai]

[gadge]

Before we get any in-depth news from the ROH press conference, I see Sami Callihan vs Finlay has been announced for EVOLVE 9...

[air_raid]

Is there anyone on Hunter or Gabe's rosters that would tickle your fancy having a tight mat-based tussle with Finlay?

 

Wow, I hadn't even finished the sentence before the name "Chris Hero" entered my head.

[Dil|kid]

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