Csonka’s Takeaways From ROH Final Battle 2017

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to share my thought on the 2017 ROH Final Battle PPV I’ll go match by match, and share thoughts on the show, including my predictions, which were a mixed bag. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy today’s preview, and feel free to share your thoughts. It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful of other’s opinions and don’t be a dick.” And don’t be afraid of sharing your predictions.

The Addiction vs. War Machine

My Prediction – The Addiction: I was sure that War Machine was taking the L here, it made the most sense in the current booking to me and War Machine hasn’t been full time or committed to ROH contractually. I WAS WRONG.

Match Thoughts: War Machine won clean after a good match with fallout. The match was good, chaotic at times, but played off of the feud between them well as just a regular match wouldn’t have fit the feud. They kept a great pace, the crowd was into it the whole time and if it means we get more War Machine on the regular, I am all for it.

Matt Taven vs. Will Ospreay

My Prediction – Matt Taven: Taven winning and getting the big push made the most sense to me, Ospreay appears to be moving on from regular ROH appearances, and Taven is obviously being groomed for a main event spot. Correct.

Match Thoughts: This was the opening match of the show, and once they got past the early bullshit with the Kingdom, they settled in well and delivered a very good match and Taven got the clean win he needed. Ospreay was his usual great self, and I felt that while it wasn’t the breakout performance I think he needed, Taven did very well and the match was very good and a very important win for Taven, and a very good way to kick off the show.

Jay Lethal vs. Marty Scurll

My Prediction – Jay Lethal: Since losing the TV title, Marty Scurll hasn’t had a solid direction in ROH other than “really over Bullet Club guy.” I liked the feud with Lethal and how they got to the match, but Scurll losing to help set up Lethal for another run at the title made the most sense to me. Correct.

Match Thoughts: In my opinion, this was easily the best match on the show. While I think that in a normal match, the shenanigans would have been overplayed, it worked here. That is because the whole basis of the feud was Scurll wanting Lethal to be the old Lethal and revisit his old villainous ways. So here it broke down into who could out heel the other first, and Lethal ended up picking up the win as he stayed one step ahead of the villain. They took that story, added in great action and in the end, put together a great match, with a great story and a heavily invested crowd. Jay Lethal has had a really great year for ROH, Scurll has also been great and they simply delivered here.

New York Street Fight: The Briscoes vs. Bully Ray & Tommy Dreamer

My Prediction – The Briscoes: They heavily teased that this would be Bully’s last match, playing up his injuries, so Bully and white Devon losing to the newly heel and established Briscoes was in my opinion, the right call. Correct.

Match Thoughts: I like a good garbage match when it is done well, but while the crowd liked this, I don’t feel it translated well on TV. The right guys won, which is the good news, but this was largely what I expected from the match. It wasn’t the worst thing on the show, thanks to the live crowd reaction, and Bully worked hard. But I felt it was pretty lethargic, and that the botched finish (which was supposed to be a 3D through the table to hit home that Bully was finished by his own move) took away from things. I am interested in the heel Briscoes moving forward.

ROH World Television Championship Four Corners Elimination Match: Champion Kenny King vs. Punishment Martinez vs. Shane Taylor vs. Silas Young

My Prediction – Silas Young: Going into the match, Young and Martinez were the obvious choices to win, but I felt that Young needed the win as they have teased elevating him on several occasions, but always pulled back, plus the win over Jay Lethal needed to pay off. Correct.

Match Thoughts: Unfortunately, I felt that this was easily the worst match on the show. The final stretch with Young and Martinez was good and should lead to Martinez chasing Young, which I like. But the match as a whole was really rough; slow, lethargic and had next to no heat. It also didn’t help that it felt about twice as long as it actually was and that the overall layout felt very poor. It was a rare bad ROH PPV match.

ROH World Six Man Tag Team Championship Match: Champions The Young Bucks & Adam Page vs. Flip Gordon, Dragon Lee, & Titan

My Prediction – Flip Gordon, Dragon Lee, & Titan: I really thought that ROH was going to make a change here away from the Bucks as trios champs and were going to elevate Gordon with the win, which also would have provided more drama for future drama in matches with CMLL guys when they come in. But ROH stayed chalk here. I WAS WRONG.

Match Thoughts: They had a good match, but far from the great match I was hoping that they would have. The crowd was into it, which always helped, and in the end, everyone worked hard, and the match was frantic and fun, with tons of crowd-pleasing moves. The post-match was unexpected, with Scorpio Sky turning on Gordon and aligning with the Addiction. Sky, Kaz, and Daniels look to be the new challengers for the trios titles, which is new and appreciated.

ROH World Tag Team Championship Match: Champions The Motor City Machineguns vs. Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta

My Prediction – The Motor City Machineguns : It felt too early for the Guns to drop the titles, and I felt that this had a lot of potential to be great, but it just didn’t happen. I got the Guns win correct, but the tag title picture took a detour and is going in a completely different direction than I had anticipated. Correct on the match, not on the booking.

Match Thoughts: The match started off hot, but quickly lost interest and the match never fully felt locked in. There was good work, but the longer it went on, the less interesting it was. Add on the flat finish and this was fine but disappointing. This is a match that really should have been better, but for some reason, things didn’t click; it was fine but disappointing.

ROH World Championship Match: Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Dalton Castle:

My Prediction – Cody, no way Castle wins.: I admit that I said that ROH should be ashamed about the main event because I really didn’t see any way that they were having Cody lose ahead of his big WrestleKingdom 12 match with Kota Ibushi. I WAS SUPER FUCKING WRONG, HAVE AT IT KIDS.

Match Thoughts: As mentioned, and I fully won it, I was really wrong here as they pulled the big title change. Cody debuted a new look, and between the fur coats, robe and blonde hair continues to try and be a mix of Ric Flair and his father. Overall they had a pretty good match, they pulled off the surprise title change well, and while Castle got the big post-match celebration, it was far from a classic or career-defining win. Cody will still face Ibushi at WrestleKingdom 12, while Castle gets the run as ROH champion. I was very glad to be wrong about the outcome, as Castle is another guy was afraid that they wouldn’t pull the trigger on. He’ll get his chance, but I’m not sure for how long. Maybe he will be the opponent Cody needs to make the title scene interesting, but the issue with Cody is that his main events continue to under deliver. That really needs to change if he wants to be a top guy, but so far, only Lethal & Okada have been able to overcome his limitations and questionable match structures to have great matches with him.

Thoughts on the Women of Honor Announcement: Also on the PPV, ROH finally announced that they will finally crown a Women of Honor champion. The Women of Honor project has been woefully mismanaged, claiming that it is important, but isolating them to Youtube, giving them almost no TV time, and only recently giving them some time on iPPV. So at Final Battle, they introduced Brandi Rhodes, Deonna Purrazzo, Jenny Rose, Jessie Brooks, Kelly Klein, Mandy Leon, Stella Gray, Sumie Sakai, and STARDOM’s Mayu Iwatani. Starting January 20th, they will start a tournament to crown Women of Honor champion, noting that more STARDOM women will be involved with the Women of Honor matches. It’s about time they started to utilize that relationship better because it opens the door for much better talent to be involved. In my opinion, it’s about fucking time. But they need to up the profile of the division, more live event matches, a real presence on TV and then PPV. If they don’t it will continue to be a project that they just pretend is important. I really hope it works out for them, because there is too much talent out there for them to use, and it could be a nice addition to the ROH product.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”