Welcome to our coverage of ROH Final Battle from the UMBC Event Center in Baltimore, Maryland.
We will have a review of the show on tonight’s edition of Rewind-A-SmackDown, available to all members of the POST Wrestling Café.
On the pre-show:
-Silas Young & Josh Woods defeated Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry
-Kenny King defeated Rhett Titus
-Jeff Cobb over Dan Maff
-Brian Zane from Wrestling with Wregret is also doing interviews for the promotion and spoke with Angelina Love and The Bouncers
-They also shot an angle where Alex Shelley appeared and set up a match with Colt Cabana for the first time in their careers.
The main show featured Ian Riccaboni, Brody King, and Caprice Coleman on commentary.
MARTY SCURLL & FLIP GORDON VS FLAMITA & BANDIDO
They took turns tagging in and each matching the other with their athleticism the crowd got into.
Scurll stomped Flamita’s hand. Bandido was tagged in and hit a tornillo off the top and they double-teamed Scurll including a running shooting star press from Bandido. Bandido and Flamita flossed over a fallen Scurll.
Bandido launched Flamita, who slipped on the top, recovered and dove onto both on the floor, it was a solid save.
Bandido held Flamita in a wheelbarrow and he moonsault out and landed on Gordon, which was a great spot. Bandido hit a Fosbury Flop on both men on the floor. Scurll stopped the 21 Plex while Gordon ran into a one-man Spanish Fly by Flamita as all four were down on the mat.
Gordon hit Flamita with a Shiranui off Scurll’s shoulders for a two-count. There was no semblance of a tag match with all four constantly and no enforcement of tags or legal men.
Bandido hit the fallaway moonsault off the top to Gordon but Scurll immediately applied the chicken wing, it was broken and Flamita hit a springboard 450-splash on Scurll.
Gordon and Scurll were draped on the middle rope as Flamita went for a 619 and Bandido hit a double 21 Plex to both as Scurll took the fall.
WINNERS: Bandido (pinned Marty Scurll) & Flamita in 13:51
Overall, this was action-packed with a lot of innovative sequences and fun double-team ideas. The execution was not flawless with timing and accuracy off at times. It had its greats moments that overcompensated for some of the sloppiness. It was a fun match to start the pay-per-view and I guess notable that Scurll took the fall.
MATT TAVEN VS VINCENT
Taven stormed the ring and attacked Vincent immediately with a suicide dive hit. The audience was behind Taven as he controlled the opening minutes.
Taven was sent to the floor as they brought up his knee injury at Final Battle in 2015. Vincent suplexed Taven onto the exposed concrete. Coleman said Vincent is ‘like watching Charles Manson in the ring’. I guess that makes Taven Brad Pitt?
Taven was selling his knee as the audience rallied behind him, he drilled Vincent with a knee strike and landed a tope over the top to the floor. Vincent was draped on the edge and Taven hit a frog splash on his back from the top turnbuckle, which looked brutal for Taven.
Vincent came back and hit Redrum (Swanton) off the top that Taven kicked out from. Taven hit the Climax and Vincent’s leg was under the bottom rope, he hit another one and Vincent kicked out.
Taven grabbed an ax from underneath the ring and Vincent cut him off and hit an Acid Drop and pinned Taven surprisingly.
WINNER: Vincent at 13:33
Coleman was impressed that Vincent wasn’t phased by the presence of an ax. They put over how big a win this was for Vincent. The match was decent, and they had the audience rooting for Taven.
Bateman attacked Taven after the match and hit him with a piledriver. Vincent smashed his right ankle with a chair. Bateman had the letter ‘V’ on his tape and appeared to be the formation of an alliance between the two.
MARK HASKINS VS BULLY RAY IN A STREET FIGHT
They went through the history of their feud going back seven months. A big part of the feud involved Haskins’ wife Vicky and Bully Ray mocking Haskins over his wife.
During Haskins’ entrance with Vicki, Bully attacked both with a barbed wire board from behind. Bully used a chair on Haskins while officials tended to Vicki.
Bully brought a guardrail into the ring and proceeded to send Haskins onto it with a release German suplex. Bully grabbed a cheese grater and Haskins finally hit something with an enzuigiri connecting. Bully got on the microphone and put over New York City and then beat Haskins with a kendo stick while trash-talking Haskins, his wife, and his kids along with Haskins’ comments on Twitter. He called Haskins a ‘bottom-feeding jobber’ and Haskins responded by saying, ‘hit me, you pu**y’. He hit him with the kendo stick and Haskins said, ‘f**k you’.
Haskins dropkicked his knee as Bully landed on the chair face first. Haskins fought back with chair shots and then introduced a ladder. Riccaboni had an explanation for every weapon underneath the ring, except the ax.
The barbed wire board was placed on top of the table as Bully sat in the turnbuckle. Haskins fought back, went for a top rope ‘rana that was stopped and Bully powerbombed him onto the barbed wire board and used an elbow to put him through. Haskins kicked out.
Bully took out the referee with a clothesline. Haskins was bleeding and Bully rubbed it onto his cheeks. Vicki returned and hit Bully Ray in the balls with the cheese grater as Bully screamed about his balls. Haskins and Vicki kissed and sent Bully through the table, Haskins hit a stomp from the top and Todd Sinclair made the count.
WINNER: Mark Haskins at 16:30
The idea was similar to the Flip Gordon feud with Haskins overcoming the bully and getting the big win in the end. It was designed to make Haskins the undersized hero and I didn’t think it hit the mark completely. The match did go a long time, but Bully did everything you’d want for this type of match and story with the hope of making a new babyface and elevating Haskins. Both worked hard, although the audience didn’t react as loudly as you would want consistently.
COLT CABANA VS ALEX SHELLEY
The beginning was a lot of fun with the two trying to outdo each other and starting light-hearted while getting more serious as the match progressed.
Shelley began to get frustrated and Cabana applied body scissors to take control until Shelley countered it. Cabana came off the ropes with the Superman pin and Shelley kicked out. Shelley tied up the arm and cradled the leg for the pin out of nowhere.
WINNER: Alex Shelley in 6:32
I enjoyed this, a lot. It was a different pace and it was like two experts trying to use their best tricks on the other with Shelley catching up. This was a lot of fun.
Cabana just walked out.
ANGELINA LOVE VS MARIA MANIC
Mandy Leon was in Love’s corner.
Manic nailed Love as soon as she entered the ring. Leon entered the ring and Manic attacked both with an Avalanche in the corner.
Manic hit a sit-out powerbomb and the audience chanted ‘one more time’. Leon came in with hairspray and Manic kicked it out of the ring. She caught Love coming off the top and tossed her. On the floor she dumped Love onto the desk at ringside, it was all Manic dominating Love. The audience was into the match and cheering Manic.
Manic applied the torture rack and submitted Love.
WINNER: Maria Manic in 6:23
This was one-sided destruction to create a monster in Manic’s debut for ROH. The audience was behind Manic and enjoyed the dominant presentation.
SHANE TAYLOR VS DRAGON LEE FOR THE ROH TELEVISION TITLE
He is still being billed as Dragon Lee here as opposed to ‘Ryu’.
This took the tact of a lot of matches tonight with a dominant opening five minutes as it was all Taylor. Lee knocked Taylor to the floor and nailed him with a big suicide dive followed by a tope con giro. Lee landed a double foot stomp on the edge of the apron with incredible height. He hit another on inside the ring that Taylor kicked out from.
Taylor came back and hit the package piledriver for a near fall. Lee fought back with another foot stomp and a PK for a two-count.
Taylor grabbed a chain and wrapped it around his fist but was stopped with a Mexican Destroyer. The chain was taken by Lee and he tied it around his leg and drilled Taylor with it, but Taylor kicked out at one. He hit a Desnucadora for a two-count. Lee removed the knee pad and drilled Taylor with the running knee for the win.
WINNER: Dragon Lee at 14:33 to win the ROH Television title
Lee looked great and the comeback down the stretch was great stuff as he went into the next gear. Taylor has improved dramatically this year.
PJ Black joined Riccaboni and Coleman on commentary for the next match.
THE BRISCOES VS JAY LETHAL & JONATHAN GRESHAM FOR THE ROH TAG TITLES
The four men fought on the floor at the start.
Lethal and Gresham attempted a Doomsday Device several times and were stopped. The Briscoes lifted Gresham and hit the Doomsday Device with Lethal making the save.
Lethal landed the Lethal Injection followed by Gresham hitting a shooting star press on Mark. Jay Briscoe tackled Lethal on top of them to break it up. This a great sequence.
Jay Briscoe caught Gresham with a DVD out of nowhere. The intensity picked up and culminated with a Jay Driller to Lethal, but Gresham yanked the referee to the floor to stop the count. Mark took out Gresham, Lethal nailed Jay with the tag title belt and Jay still kicked out.
Mark suplexed Gresham on the edge of the apron and then broke up a Lethal figure-four with Froggy Bow.
The Briscoes went for the Doomsday Device, Gresham shoved Mark off the top allowing Lethal to hop off the shoulders and rolled up Jay Briscoe for the win.
WINNERS: Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham in 21:54 to win the ROH tag titles
Everyone worked hard in this one and it’s a fresh direction for the tag division with a new team holding the titles. This was a strong match on the show.
RUSH VS PCO FOR THE ROH TITLE
It began with Rush whipping PCO with cables on the floor and then grabbing a miniature ladder from the crowd and throwing it at PCO inside in the ring.
PCO sent him to the floor and landed a cannonball through the ropes to the floor. PCO came off the turnbuckle and missed with a flip landing back first on the edge of the apron. They fought up the aisle to the hearse that PCO arrived in. Rush spit on the hearse, which has smoke coming out of it like it was being hot-boxed.
A guardrail was laid on the ground with chairs placed on top. The two fought onto the stage and PCO was sent off the stage and flipped back first onto the chairs and guardrail.
With Rush celebrating, Destro appeared to tear off the grill on the hearse and used the car battery to shock PCO back to life. He choke slammed Rush onto the trunk of the hearse as someone chanted, ‘shock this bitch’.
PCO took a belly-to-belly off the hearse to the floor. PCO missed with the crowbar and staggered back to the ring. Rush brought several doors from under the ring, which of course, Riccaboni noted were there due to the street fight earlier.
Rush broke the door over PCO’s head and sent him through another in the corner. PCO recovered and stopped the Bull’s Horn but putting Rush through the door. PCO went to the top and hit the PCO-sault for a near fall.
PCO put Rush onto the table and put him through with a second PCO-sault and pinned Rush.
WINNER: PCO to win the ROH title in 22:23
