Csonka’s ROH Final Battle 2019 Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview the ROH Final Battle 2019 event. The show will feature ROH champion Rush vs. PCO, ROH Tag Team Champions the Briscoes vs. Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham, and more. So today I will breakdown and preview the event. Feel free to make your picks in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

Pre-Show Match: Silas Young & Josh Woods vs. Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry: So ROH has added an hour free pre-show to Final Battle, apparently realized two things: 1) Silas Young & Josh Woods are undefeated as a tag team, including a win over Lethal & Gresham (who may become the tag team champions on this show) and 2) Dalton Castle may be a shell of his former self, but is still over and fans seem to like his wacky paring with Joe Hendry. Woods & Young are a good workhorse team, but I feel they really have a limited ceiling while the Castle & Hendry team feels like it has more legs as it can protect Castle/limit his workload while allowing Hendry to get over more by association. Either Castle & Hendry win, or Castle turns on Hendry and they end up losing that way, but I think Castle & Hendry win because they could be fun babyface challengers for the titles. WINNER: Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry

Pre-Show Match: Kenny King vs. Rhett Titus: ROH has the oddest booking with Kenny King. Sometimes he’s just a dude that they care nothing about and just does nothing, other times they are absolutely fascinated with him and try to make him a top star, which HAS NEVER worked. Kenny King is fine, which is something they just need to accept. Rhett Titus has been jus a dude since he broke up with Kenny King. He fills a spot, he teamed with Will Ferarra, he became a body builder, and then transitioned to “wholesome family man” trying to turn his career around and become a star. King then started harassing his former partner for being a loser and guy that lost a step. I personally have no real interest in the feud, as it features two largely bland and average guys. The match will likely be ok, and I see King taking this one, dominating the feud until Rhett realizes he’s a loser and they reunite as a heel tag team. WINNER: Kenny King

Maria Manic vs. Angelina Love: The Women of Honor division is a complete mess. On top of the repeatedly bad matches, Maria Manic signed, never wrestled, beat up people and then her contract ended. She left, did a WWE tryout, apparently didn’t get signed and is back. Angelina Love cane in as part of the Allure, the act is horrible, she was pushed to the moon and they finally paid it off with a title win… WHICH LASTED FOR ALL OF 15 DAYS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GIVING KELLY KLEIN A THIRD RUN WITH THE TITLE AND THEN THEY FIRED HER. Maria Manic then challenged Love to a match at this show, after helping Klein win the title, in a basic story of the mean girls hopefully getting their comeuppance. This should be as short as possible, Maria Manic should destroy all three Allure members, and then walk out as a dominant force. WINNER: Maria Manic

Street Fight: Mark Haskins vs. Bully Ray: Haskins was the standout of the 2018 ROH UK tour, which led to his signing with the company. ROH had big plans for Haskins and others, which is why Lifeblood was formed. It was a fine plan until Finlay got injured, Tenille’s deal expired/she bailed, and Juice never came back due to rumored displeasure working ROH. That left Haskins, Williams, & Bandido as a directionless Lifeblood, who despite poor booking were the highlight of many ROH shows in 2019. Late in 2019, after a glorious time away, Bully Ray unfortunately returned and started sneak attacking Haskins and harassing his wife, leading to this match. Haskins is great, and the smoke and mirrors should cover up Bully’s lack of ability these days. He’s slow, hits chops, occasional power moves trying to be a bad ass yelling, “do you know who I am?” 800 times. Haskins should win and get his babyface revenge, if not, this company is stupid. WINNER: Mark Haskins

Matt Taven vs. Vinny Marseglia VINCENT: Once upon a time, the Kingdom were a happy and successful trio. They won six-man gold multiple times, and Matt Taven eventually won the ROH Title. And then it went of the rails. TK started having post concussion issues, VINCENT started going insane, and Taven lost the title. It got worse from there; TK & VINCENT were being attacked and laid out backstage, and then later on, someone was stalking Taven & VINCENT, and shooting footage of them. But it was a trap all along as it was revealed that the insane VINCENT had been behind it all along, orchestrating fake attacks and setting up Taven for an attack, where he left his former leader a bloody mess. That all leads us to this match; Taven recently re-signed with ROH, but they also have been behind VINCENT for a while, putting him in prime positions. With this being the first match of the feud, and a feud I see going on for a while, I think VINCENT takes this one, possibly with the help of TK as the Kingdom finally comes to an end and the attempt to make Taven into a top babyface officially gets underway. WINNER: VINCENT

Flip Gordon & Marty Scurll vs. Flamita & Bandido: I hate that Villain Enterprises aren’t defending the trios titles, but at the same time I am fine with it as they hadn’t built up any viable challengers. Marty & Flip (take Japan) are a fun team that works well together and Flamita & Bandido have some absolutely great tag team chemistry. Bandido is making his return from injury, Flamita just got signed following replacing Bandido on the UK tour, delving in all of his matches, including a banger with Mike Bailey, and now makes his big show debut at Final Battle. This is most certainly a string addition to the show on paper. With it being Bandido’s return and Flamita’s big show debut for the company, I really think that they should win, but the night will not be done for these guys when the bell rings, and if the luchas lose, they will get revenge by night’s end. WINNER: Flip Gordon & Marty Scurll

Dan Maff vs. Jeff Cobb: This will be a certified beefy boy battle, which I really appreciate, although I wish there was a fun flippy boy battle to balance it and add some more variety to the card. Anyway, this is a first time match and strong addition to the card, which I feel will be a good match. Cobb, in the right positions, is a too tier singles worker and rarely disappoints. Maff is a mad man who can still go, but has a bit of a chip on his shoulder, in that he always feels as if he has to prove himself. He just signed with ROH and feels like the winner here due to rumors that Cobb is done after the weekend. WINNER: Dan Maff

TV Champion Shane Taylor vs. Dragon Lee: Taylor has had a good 2019, really growing into himself and finding himself as a more complete performer. Unfortunately instead of keeping to what was working, ROH had to complicate things with an angle that saw Taylor “buy out” his contract and become a self-promoter, with the added gimmick that he will defend the TV Title if ROH pays him enough. It’s added nothing to his act, and in fact I believe stifled his run creatively. Dragon Lee is one of the best on the world, can work with anyone and always delivers. I think ROH will be making a giant play for Lee, of they haven‘t already locked him in, because Lee wants to keep working NJPW and the ROH relationship allows him to do that. Taking that into account, adding in the fact that he’s Rush’s brother, and on top of reports that ROH isn’t re-signing Taylor, I think that we see a new TV champion here. WINNER: Dragon Lee

Champions the Briscoes vs. Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham: I have said it repeatedly, the Briscoes are the greatest tag team in ROH history and are somehow still under appreciated by many. They always deliver, and I expect the same here as tome this looks like the match of the night. Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham are incredible performers and are constantly highlights for the promotion, and I have love the partnership and heel turn by both, which was well done. The Briscoes have cleaned out the division, and they need new challengers and a long feud that they can sink their teeth into and I feel that Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham can provide that. I will be absolutely shocked if this isn’t the best match on the show, and even more shocked if the Briscoes retain. The title change to Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham is not only the right call but also the needed one at this time, so Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham will take the titles here. WINNER: Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham

Champion Rush vs. PCO: ROH put the title on Matt Taven back at Supercard of Honor, which judging by plummeting attendance and lack of interest in the company, was both a critical and financial flop. Taven isn’t a bad wrestler, but he just wasn’t the guy, especially since Marty Scurll was right there and the most over act in the company. The best thing about Taven’s run was that he had a naturally built in feud with Rush, which led to a great title match and Rush’s coronation as champion, a move that had to be made. The rebirth and journey of PCO back into wrestling on a national level is a great and cool story, and I greatly appreciate the crazy bastard. But I really worry about this match. PCO is a great story and useful in tags, but as a singles wrestler he’s nothing but a collection of big bumps, no sell spots, taking abuse with weapons, and that makes his inclusion in this main event highly questionable; ROH only knows how to book him in one role, one style of match and while he does it well, it becomes repetitive when it’s in a singles match because it becomes one note. I think that this will end up being a really overbooked match to tease Rush losing. He should not lose here as he is someone you can build around, but Villain Enterprises will get involved in order to try and help PCO win. Here’s my big predictions, Villain Enterprises will try and screw Rush here to help their boy PCO, but Villain Enterprises will be countered by Rush’s new group [he’s been teasing starting one up] featuring Dragon Lee, the newly signed Flamita, and Bandido [leaving a dead Lifeblood], who will fight off Villain Enterprises to ensure that Rush retains. Rush as ROH Champion, Lee as TV Champion, while Bandido & Flamita can go after the tag titles. WINNER: Rush

JOIN 411 FOR LIVE COVERAGE OF TONIGHT’S SHOW!

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 73. On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka & Jeremy Lambert break down the latest WWE releases & discuss who could be next. The guys then preview ROH Final Battle & NWA Into The Fire 2019. The show is approximately 109-minutes long.

* Intro
* Breaking Down The Recent WWE Releases: 2:25
* Batista and the n.W.o (Hogan, Hall, Nash, & Waltman) are going into the WWE Hall of Fame: 28:35
* Previewing ROH Final Battle 2019: 40:50
* Previewing NWA Into The Fire 2019: 1:19:25

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– Thanks for reading.