McXal's Reviews

Since Final Battle is so early in December this year, this episode has become the go-home show for ROH’s biggest event of the year. We are informed that we will be hearing from both champion and challenger participating in Final Battle’s World Title bout, and we also know that our main event for the episode pits four veterans against each other in tag team action as The Addiction take on the Briscoes. Lio Rush is also back from an unfortunately-timed tour of Europe which seemed to take him away from Ring Of Honor competition just when he’d started heating up. Kevin Kelly, Steve Corino and Alex Shelley provide commentary from Baltimore, MD.

At the time of taping this was Lio's return to ROH after he departed in September for a prolonged tour of Europe (in storyline Alex Shelley recommended he go there to improve). Right before he left he had a hell of a match with Gresham during the Reloaded Tour in Duluth (which he won), and it was so good officials have booked a televised rematch now he is back from his travels. ROH care so little about Gresham that his name isn’t even spelt correctly on his Carytron video, which is embarrassingly amateurish.

Shelley instantly spots tape on Lio’s shoulder and suggests that Gresham will waste no time going after the arm. As with their Reloaded Tour match though, there is fun to be had with that because Rush is such a weird, unpredictable and illusive athlete in his own right that even someone as technically gifted as Gresh struggles to touch him. It takes almost three minutes before he does land a couple of kicks to that arm…but when he does Lio instantly collapses outside. MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR by Gresham! Back in the ring after commercials we see Rush’s arm hanging by his side – still swinging strikes back at Gresh, but obviously in pain and very vulnerable to more attacks from the Octopus. Somehow Rush rebounds off the ropes to kick Jonathan out of the ring…into the path of a springboard corkscrew senton (off the bottom rope to the floor)! It is too early for Dragon’s Call though – and Gresh rolls away before snapping Lio’s arm over the top rope. They do battle on the top rope, where Jon rolls through a frankensteiner into a pinning situation for 2. Dragon suplex blocked…before both men go scrambling for desperation pinfalls. RUSH HOUR! GRESHAM KICKS OUT! Brainbuster by Gresham! FOR 2! BRAINBUSTER BY RUSH! ONE COUNT OF DISRESPECT! LARIAT NO SOLD! GERMAN BY GRESHAM! NO SOLD AGAIN! SNAP GERMAN…RUSH HOUR AGAIN! THEN A THIRD! DRAGON’S CALL! Rush, still selling the arm, hits the Dragon’s Call to take the win at 08:24 (shown).

Rating - **** - I loved their first match in Duluth, and this one was every bit as enjoyable. The thing I like about both of these guys is that whatever they lack in height they always more than make up for with skill and workrate. Totally modern professional wrestlers, they looked at home condensing a longer match right down into circa eight minutes – completely nailing the pacing and finding time for a crazy (if slightly unbelievable) finishing stretch. Lio did the best job of selling the arm you should realistically expect for eight minutes of action that concluded with him hitting his finisher (requiring the arm) on three separate occasions. 

The Motor City Machine Guns hop into the ring to put over the last match. It’s basically a condensed-for-TV version of the manner in which Shelley in particular has been putting Rush, Gresham, ACH and White over during recent live events…

Kyle O’Reilly gets a sit-down interview to discuss his intertwining history with Adam Cole in ROH. Footage is shown of their debut on HDNet (including the lovable, late, Mike Hogewood’s commentary). Kyle’s delivery is some of his best ever (serious) verbal work in ROH…but I was frustrated they never touched upon exactly why he even agreed to the 2015 mini-reunion of Future Shock if he hates Adam Cole so much.

Ian Riccaboni runs down the Final Battle card, once again announcing Cody Rhodes’ debut against Jay Lethal plus formally confirming that Lio Rush replaces ACH in the finals of the Six-Man Tag Title Tournament. We also get the first televised acknowledgement that Marty Scurll and Will Ospreay have even debuted – with a casual graphic confirming that Marty will defend the TV Title (which Bobby Fish held as of a couple of weeks ago on TV) against Fish, Ospreay and Dragon Lee.

The motivations for both of these teams have been plainly stated already. The Addiction have come to terms with their failure in Ladder War 6 and plan to defeat the Briscoe Brothers in order to catapult them back into title contention. The Briscoes, meanwhile, think Daniels and Kazarian are a spent force and view this as nothing more than a tune-up as they prepare to challenge the Young Bucks for the ROH Tag Championship at Final Battle.

Kazarian starts with Jay, in front of a surprisingly lively crowd. Each scores a big knockdown before retreating cautiously to their corners to tag in their partners. Daniels looks in top form, rolling back the years to out-work Mark then igniting a four-man brawl which sees the Briscoes dumped out of the ring. ELBOW SUICIDA BY JAY! The Briscoes were the happier of the teams fighting on the floor and that passage visibly turns the match in their favour. Their experience as a team then inevitably shines through as they confidently isolate Kaz from his partner. But speaking of experience – Chris Daniels gets involved again! Realising his partner is in trouble he strikes from the apron, pulling Mark to the floor and rushing him into the barricades sternum-first. It’s an immediately transformative masterstroke that leaves The Addiction in total control – working the ribs and back of the younger Briscoe. What I like about that is that it gives a purpose to a lot of the moves they do in every match – including the Asai Moonsault/springboard leg drop combo which they hit every-time out whether it is relevant or not. It means that when the hot tag does come there is a certain of drama that has been built up. Jay flies in with a Day One Neckbreaker on Frankie…before Daniels legs it across the ring and tope suicidas Mark back-first into the railing. Slingshot Ace Crusher from Kaz to Jay gets 2! Mark returns with some Redneck Kung Fu…so Frankie drives his ribs into the turnbuckles! That is no sold though, and Mark gets a nearfall with the urinage suplex. Powerbomb/neckbreaker by The Addiction decimates Mark’s core yet again…and this time he struggles to recover. Jay rescues his brother from the Best Meltzer Ever – pulling Kaz out of the corner to set up for the Doomsday Device. COUNTERED TO THE MID-AIR FLUX CAPACITOR! FOR 2! I bloody love that spot. Celebrity Rehab blocked with a superkick by Jay, who then hits the JAY DRILLER ON DANIELS! FROGGY BOW! Sell the damn ribs Mark! The Briscoes win at 14:17 (shown)

Rating - **** - In full disclosure, had this happened on a PPV or live event I’m not sure I’d have stretched my rating to 4*, but I always review free TV matches slightly more favourably because I always feel like ROH deserve additional praise when they give away content of a genuinely high quality for free. I was expecting the usual minimal effort, plod through the motions, B-show level free main event so it was pleasing to see how much effort they put into this. The structure of the match wasn’t terribly different or unexpected, but they kept the pace brisk and most crucially – figured out a story that made sense and was interesting whilst allowing them to go through the motions and hit a lot of their autopilot spots. A lot of Daniels and Kazarian’s offence targets the midsection of an opponent – so working Mark in that area made sense. It made sense that The Addiction would be equally matched to the Briscoes inside the ropes, but the Delaware natives would have a brawling advantage outside. It was logical that, as the most experienced man in the match, it would be Daniels who spotted his tag partner in jeopardy and devise a plan to turn the match on it’s head. None of this is rocket science, but it was relatable, simple and well-conveyed. 

The show ends with an interview segment with World Champion Adam Cole. He refuses to talk about ancient history with Kyle O’Reilly…and instead talks about the build-up to Final Battle 2015 when he promised to beat O’Reilly, box him out of the World Title picture and then win back the ROH Title for himself. All of those predictions came true…and he is fed up of having to justify why he is ‘better’ than Kyle. He does conveniently omit the fact that he lost to him at Supercard Of Honor though. 

Tape Rating - **** - Arguably the best episode of Ring Of Honor television since the summer. I’m not entirely convinced of its effectiveness as a go-home episode for Final Battle – the Young Bucks weren’t at these tapings, it hasn’t even been mentioned on television what went on in England with Bobby Fish, Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll around the TV Title and a lot of the card feels totally thrown together. BUT, as a stand-alone episode this was really enjoyable. Rush/Gresham was exactly the kind of modern, fast-paced, cutting-edge professional wrestling product that ROH should present. Briscoes/Addiction blew my limited/low-ball expectations out of the water and produced the Briscoes best 2-vs-2 tag possibly since their match with War Machine at Global Wars…and what Final Battle promo work we did get consisted of the two excellent Cole/O’Reilly sit-down interview segments. They weren’t quite on the same level of course, but there was a definite vibe and reminiscence to the infamous ‘I need to beat you Rock, more than you could ever imagine’ interviews between Steve Austin and The Rock ahead of WrestleMania 17 – which I mean in a very positive manner.