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ROH Final Battle 2008 Live Report by Joseph Santangelo
I just got home from ROH's Final Battle even at the Hammerstein Ballroom. I went into this show thinking that it could be the last ROH show I ever go to because in my mind if Adam Pearce couldn't book a great card with a lineup like this, there was no hope for ROH. First of all the entire arena was PACKED. I tried to get a seat upgrade in the beginning of the show and the ticket guy had nothing left for me. I could not locate a single empty seat in the crowd. The show started 10 minutes late which was fine because they wanted to wait for the arena to fill up.
The first match saw Kenny Omega vs Claudio Castagnoli. I had heard so much hype about Kenny Omega that I never thought he could live up to it. Well he didn't but he came pretty damn close. Omega definitely has potential and has a connection with the crowd. Claudio in my opinion is a horrible heel and tried to get cheap heat by wearing a redsox jersey to the ring. It was a pretty decent opener with Omega reversing the Ricola Bomb.
The second match saw Jerry Lynn vs Rhett Titus vs Necro Butcher vs Chris Hero. Chris Hero is the most underutilized man in ROH and deserves better then this match. Lynn and Necro were both super over. Necro really impressed me in this. The man usually known for garbage wrestling and brawling did several technical spots with Jerry Lynn and even a huricarana to the floor on Titus. Titus is the best ROH student yet and has loads of potential and charisma. Lynn wins with the piledriver on Hero. Necro and the crowd chant "you still got it."
Then Jimmy Jacobs comes out and calls Necro a Hollywood sellout. He and Delirious beat up Necro. Steenerico and The Haze come out for the save and we have a tag title match.
This match was average. Steenerico did a lot of cool stuff as always and Steen sold the knee real well. The finish came when Jacobs was about to attack the Haze and delirious stopped him. Then Delirious was given the piledriver/brainbuster combo by Steenerico. Post match saw Jacobs scream at Delirious then walk away.
The fourth match saw Brent Albright/Roderick Strong/ and Erick Stevens take on the American Wolves and Go shiosaki in a street fight. This match was as stiff as hell and was great. There were chair shots along with 2 tables being broken. So many stiff shots. The finish came when Albright tapped Go with the Crowbar. The wolves left Go alone in disgust. Go flipped off the fans who were chearing him. I think this may be Gos last shot in ROH so that may be why he lost the FIP belt and is done with S&S.
The 5th match saw the Briscoes taking on Sasake and Nakajima. This match was really good too with many cool spots. Mark was really selling the knee(all though that may just be really how it hurts.) I felt that this match had a lot of heat taken away from it by the previous match being so good but this was great too. Jay won the match with a really cool move that I had never seen before. Post match The wolves attack the briscoes. Steenerico and eventually Albright, Strong, and Stevens make the save. Albright says that S&S is ruining ROH and asked Carry Silken to give them Steel Cage Warfare.
Then we went to intermission.
We came back with Aries vs Tyler Black. Tyler is REALLY over in NYC. This match really sold me on Tyler. The whole thing was just great. it started out with a 50/50 reaction and by the end tyler was really the crowd favorite. Great technical match. The finish came when Tyler was going for the Splash and Jacobs came out to distract him. Aries hit the 450 for the win. Post match JACOBS TURNED ON BLACK. Aries came down with a chair and looked to be coming to save Black but instead hit Black with the chair. WE WERE SWERVED. Apparently after feuding for 10 months, Aries and Jacobs are together 1 month after the feud ended. WELCOME TO TNA.
.....and then ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. All I saw was austin aries walking up the ramp and suddenly he was punching out a fan. A ref immediately came to break it up and it took 5 security guards to get the guy out of the building. The ref then threw the guys hat in the crowd and proceeded to get (im not kidding) THE LOUDEST POP OF THE NIGHT. It was just insane.
The next match ended up being the ROH title match between Nigel and Marifugi. THIS WAS AWESOME. Both guys did great jobs with the match. Marifugi did many sliced bread manuvers from different areas all around ringside witch were sick. Nigel did not do a single lariat until 15 minutes into the match, Nigel ended up taking it though but it was still a great match. Jerry Lynn came in the end to congratulate Nigel. Nigel said Lynn was stealing his thunder. Lynn screamed and cried that Nigel was disrespecting the company. It did not get over in front of any NYC crowd.
Prince Nana came out to a huge pop and begged to be hired but was escorted by security.
The final match was Danielson vs Morishima in the fight without Honor. Simply phenomenal. Cannot put into words how much I loved this match. Dragon bled buckets. It was great. Dragon wins with the cattle mutilation. Post match dragon says that we were the largest crowd in ROH history. I truly belive after tonight that ROH lives and dies with whether both Dragon and Nigel stay or go. Aries to an extent too but Dragon more then anyone else needs to stay in ROH for the companies sake. A great show and I will be going back when ROH returns on march 21st.
LOUDEST POPS
1. Ref Paul Turner
2. Bryan Danielson
3. Prince Nana
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