McXal's Reviews

This is the go-home for Final Battle and there is plenty lined up. Dalton Castle and Cody will officially sign the contract for their main event, Caprice Coleman will look to cause a major change to the PPV card by taking the TV title from Kenny King and Jay Lethal prepares for Marty Scurll with a huge main event against Matt Taven. Ian Riccaboni, Colt Cabana and Silas Young are in Lakeland, FL.

Caprice stepping away from regular competition has deprived us of his entrance theme, which is among the best in ROH. On his Pulpit segments he has accused King pimping his daughter and prostituting himself to allow ROH to capitalise on his post-reality TV popularity. Understandably that enraged King, who steps into the ring on the eve of Final Battle looking to demonstrate that he belongs in his current high profile spot - with a victory over his former stable-mate in The Rebellion. Coleman has paid off Shane Taylor to be in his corner tonight too...

King is fired up, which Coleman tries to diffuse by working a slow pace and retreating to the ropes anytime he sees any danger. The challenger counters Kenny's signature Japanese armdrag spot, but brags about it and eats the Shotgun Knees instead. Caprice leaves the ring...so King jumps after him with a corkscrew senton off the apron. Taking the fight to the apron proves to be a bad idea though as Coleman rams his arm into the ringpost. The champ can ill-afford an injury so close to Final Battle - and soon after he finds his bad arm dropkicked against the guardrail. Bless-TO into the turnbuckles scores! The pace slows again as Caprice works an arm-capture camel clutch. He tries to finish it off with his frankensteiner only for Kenny to dodge it, leaving him plummeting crotch-first into the turnbuckle. Bridging capture suplex gets 2 for Kenny but Coleman hits at the arm to block the Royal Flush. Trinity scores a 2-count for the challenger. Kenny has to get up quickly so he can block the Sky Splitter...but when he BACK FLIPS out of the corner Caprice flies at him with the Sky Splitter anyway. That draws a close nearfall, bringing Shane Taylor to the apron. King launches himself at one of the Final Battle challengers with a corkscrew pescado...and returns to the ring to finish Coleman with the Royal Flush. He retains at 07:32 (shown).

Rating - ** - There were some good ideas here, and we saw a strong performance from Caprice. King's selling of the arm was awful which definitely hurt, and the crowd vocally rejecting Kenny as a babyface champion - the first time an audience has really done that - gave the atmosphere an eerie, unpleasant vibe too. I like that Taylor didn't physically interject himself and I like that they gave Caprice a chance to get himself over on merit however. It's a shame they don't afford the same opportunity to regulars like The Kingdom...

Punishment Martinez runs out, joining forces with Taylor to punch King's lights out. Silas Young leaves commentary and suggests they all continue to put the boot to Kenny - softening him up for Final Battle. Soon the three challengers brawl amongst themselves too...

The Addiction out next, gloating about Ray Rowe's suspension, and announce that they are petitioning ROH to fire both members of War Machine. Hanson is here tonight though - and dashes to the ring and fights both of them single-handedly. Frankie grabs a chair and hammers the sh*t out of him, then Daniels uses a box cutter to hack a chunk of his beard off. Security rushes to the ring before they can go 'Reservoir Dogs' on him...

Hangman Page and the Young Bucks so they can get their hands on Flip Gordon - as he challenges for the Six-Man Titles with Dragon Lee and Titan.

The Briscoes come out for another diatribe aimed at Bully Ray - and now they want Tommy Dreamer too. Jay calls them pussies, apparently unaware that both of them are in the building tonight. The same security personnel that just had to drag The Addiction away from Hanson are back on the scene to stop the ECW legends from getting into the ring. Joe Koff tries to de-escalate the situation too...but Jay instantly escalates it again by goading Dreamer and Bully for 'taking orders from a short old man'. Koff shouts them down and says he 'makes the matches around here' - then allows Bully and Dreamer to face them at Final Battle...and it will be 'f'n hardcore' apparently! Joe leaves as a brawl breaks out between the four men (and the pack of security guys)...

SIDENOTE - Aside from Joe Koff's awkward interjection as some kind of on-screen authority figure, I liked this segment. The last few weeks of the Briscoes feuding with Bubba have been really enjoyable. I almost wish they'd have brought him straight in to work this program. Dreamer is a nice addition too, albeit he does feel like a 'next best' alternative to getting D-Von and having a Briscoes vs Dudley Boyz dream match.

These two old rivals are both preparing for big-time matches at Final Battle. We've heard a lot about Lethal facing Marty Scurll, but less has been said about the last minute addition to the card of Taven vs New Japan's Will Ospreay. He isn't a regular, but in the last year the Aerial Assassin has delivered some of ROH's best matches - meaning Taven needs to prepare by facing elite opposition like Jay. 'The Villain' Marty Scurll is on commentary...

These two go back a long way and quickly pick that old rivalry back up. They brawl to the floor, where Lethal drives Taven over the guardrail then suplexing him back in onto the floor. Back in the ring he hits a cartwheel dropkick - but starts to get distracted by Marseglia and O'Ryan barking from the outside. Lethal attempts a Figure 4 on Matt's bad knee, which Taven swiftly counters to protect himself. Only after more distraction from the rest of The Kingdom is Matt able to gain control. On commentary Marty points out that the 'old Jay Lethal' wouldn't have let that happen. He bashes Lethal's head against the ringpost and returns to the ring with a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Jay misses a desperate attempt at a diving elbow strike, hauls Taven into the Lethal Combination...but is so beaten up he barely has enough energy to crawl after his opponent. He locks in the Figure 4, cranking on the knee and buying himself some precious time to recover. Hail To The King scores...as Scurll leaves commentary for a closer look. He hands his umbrella to Lethal and encourages him to use it! He thinks about it...but in the end tosses the umbrella back to The Villain. Right before Taven swoops to roll him up for a three-count at 09:07 (shown).

Rating - *** - I've seen these guys have better matches, but they've had worse as well. I appreciated the effort they put in here. The finish, with Scurll trying to lure Lethal to the dark side, only for the 'golden boy' to refuse and promptly lose as a result, was REALLY good. It would've been easy for them to know they had a good finish and coast along, stalling until it was time to go home. But they busted their ass in the build up, paying reverence to their feud of the past as well. 

Our final segment sees Ian R leave ringside to host the 'contract signing'. Cody is already in the ring, decked out in a full fur coat and Brandi alongside him to carry his championship belt. He is also too busy snacking and drinking wine with his wife to discuss Final Battle. Dalton Castle admits he was excited it was announced that Cody was coming to ROH, but the reality is that he's an 'overdressed, overpaid and overrated' World Champion. 

Tape Rating - ** - More of a functional go-home episode than a good one. This show had some good moments; I liked Briscoe/Taven, Daniels taking some of Hanson's beard like a trophy and the Briscoes/Bully & Tommy segment. But it also had Joe Koff as an on-screen authority figure (which needs to stop immediately), a forgettable TV Title Match and some pretty generic build up to a pay-per-view. The 'contract signing' in particular was totally unimaginative. If you weren't sold on the PPV by this point, I don't know how much twisting of the arm this episode actually accomplished.