ROH Final Battle online pay-per-view
New York, New York at The Hammerstein Ballroom
Report by Dot Net reader Mike Thomas

Before the Show: Some American Idol reject geek sang the National Anthem, which led to a "USA! USA!" chant (which is always fun). Larry Sweeney came out to a "Welcome Back" chant and sat in for commentary. Unfortunately Sweeney could barely be heard (one of many audio issues on the show)

1. Claudio Castagnoli defeated Rhett Titus, Kenny Omega, and Colt Cabana in a four-way. It was a battle over who had more natural charisma and it was a great opener! One of the better six and a half minutes you can see. Claudio pinned Titus with a bridging German suplex. ***1/2

2. Erick Stevens & Bison Smith beat Delirious and Bobby Dempsey. Necro Butcher could not make it because of the weather. At first, Pelle Primeau came out to be the partner, but it ended up being Bobby Dempsey who was super-over. Anyway, the match was just there but the crowd liked it. **1/4

3. Eddie Kingston defeated Chris Hero in a fight without honor. They wore street clothes for a street fight! A chain was the weapon of choice for the majority of the match. The big spot was Hero piledriving (or botch power bombing) Kingston on a barricade that was wedged on a second turnbuckle. Somehow that spot was not the finish. The spot was really dangerous. Kingston eventually came back and won with the loaded elbow. ***1/2

4. The Young Bucks beat Steenerico. Hell of a match. Steen kicked out of 'More Bang for Your Back' and was pinned after 5 superkicks. ****1/4 The real story was after the match. Steen gave a heart felt speech and was teasing retiring or taking time off, but instead he turned on El Generico. He even used an unprotected chair shot, which almost ruined the whole night for me. WWE, TNA, and ROH need to set the standard on chair shots and NEVER allow unprotected shots to the head.

Intermission: On the webcast they showed an old Spanky/CM Punk match.

5. Kenny King (unranked) defeated Roderick Strong (4) in a Pick 6 Series Challenge Match. Most disappointing match of the show. Not much to report. **1/2

6. Rocky Romero beat Alex Koslov. They explained that Evans/Hart missed the show because of the weather. Fun match here. The crowd liked the big spots. However, the finish was botched as Romero had Koslov in an armbar and ring bell was rung but Koslov had not tapped yet. Prazak tried to cover for it, but the whole thing was bush league. ***1/4

7. The Briscoes defeated The American Wolves to win the ROH Tag Titles. Real great back and forth match. It went shorter than I expected though at 23 minutes. ****1/4. Claudio and Hero attacked the new champs after the show in a reunion of The Kings of Wrestling.

8. Jack Evans beat Teddy Hart. These two came out to prove they did not blow off the show apparently. They had a six-minute match filled with wacky flip dives and dangerous looking piledrivers. Teddy is much bigger than I expected. He was also over huge with crowd. Not Rated. (this was more of an exhibition than a match)

9. Austin Aries fought Tyler Black to a 60-minute draw in an ROH World Title match. If you had told me the result of this match before hand, I would have told you were crazy. But it was probably the right decision considering the crowd CRAPPED ALL OVER THE MATCH. The story was that the crowd was 50/50 on the wrestlers but they were leaning towards Aries. So Aries stalled a lot and did a lot of "Jerry Lawler wrestling" to get heat.

However, instead of hating Aries, the crowd started to really hate the match. This prompted dueling chants of "This is Bullshit" and "This is Awesome." Naturally, the two started working in some big spots, which got the crowd temporally back into it. Then Aries tried to run away and go back through the curtain. Tyler chased him and the crowd chanted, "DON'T COME BACK." When they came back, there a distinct "This Match Sucks!." Toward the end, the two foolishly tried to do the "YAY" and "BOO" punching spot, but instead the crowd yelled "BOO" at both wrestlers.

This crowd nearly ruined a great Main Event. I'm giving it **** but it would have been higher with a DECENT crowd.

Notes: Overall, I really liked this show. If ROH aired four of these a year, I would probably order them. This was my first ROH show other than watching the HDNET shows on youtube once on in a while. Also, ROH might need some agents because the heels in both title main events faked an injury to lure in a babyface. Funny enough, the crowd hated Eddie Edwards for doing it, but they loved Aries for doing it.

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