Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Final Battle 2003

Ring of Honor — Final Battle 2003 by J.D. Dunn This is another one of those concept shows where the first half is your standard ROH show and the second half is ROH vs. All Japan Pro-Wrestling. Think Starrcade ’95. Unlike that show, which failed because the mainstream audience didn’t know who any of the Japanese guys were, this show benefits from having more specialized crowd. When we last left ROH, two of the major feuds going (Punk/Raven and Homicide/Corino) had been blown off, leaving this show open for “just wrestling.” Well, that may not be entirely true. CM Punk still doesn’t know who attacked Lucy back at Wrath of the Racket. ROH World Champion Samoa Joe, on the other hand, has been fending off singles challenges from the Briscoe brothers, the top tag team in ROH. December 17, 2003 From Philadelphia, Pa. Your hosts are Chris Lovey and CM Punk. The Carnage Crew are on the warpath, looking for Special K. Even Gary Michael Capetta, who is busy plugging his book, doesn’t know where they are, though. Samoa Joe debuts “Samoa Joe’s Ring,” his little segment to demonstrate how effective his moves are. Oman Tortuga is ecstatic until he realizes what’s going on. Joe nearly chokes him out, but Oman runs away. Opening Match: Bryan Danielson vs. Jay Briscoe. Danielson actually hadn’t been doing much at this point. The Briscoes had recently turned heel, joining with Jim Cornette and pissing of Samoa Joe in the process. Their feud with Joe would actually be very interesting and elevate the tag titles. Jay dominates him early on, grabbing a headlock and refusing to let go no matter what. They exchange MANLY chops, and Danielson rocks him with a forearm uppercut. Briscoe comes back with a neckbreaker. Danielson hits another forearm uppercut and the airplane spin. CM Punk: I hope he sends Al Perez a 25-cent money order. They start slapping the crap out of one another until Briscoe goes to the eyes. A Falcon Arrow gets two for Jay. Danielson comes back with the Dragon Suplex and finishes with Cattle Mutilation at 13:37. Jay looked very good here en route to his title match with the winner of Joe/Mark. Good opener. *** In the back, Trent Acid catches up with Jay and asks for a title shot. Jay says he rolls with Cornette, so they wrestle who Corny says to wrestle. Fight Without Honor: Xavier vs. John Walters. This is a feud that stretches all the way back to Glory by Honor 2 where Xavier gave Walters a low blow to pick up the win. Walters has been trying for revenge ever since, but can’t get no satisfaction. He jumps Xavier in the aisle, and they chop it out. Walters slingshots him to the floor. Walters misses a chairshot and gets kneed in the face. Prince Nana comes down to observe as Xavier knees the chair into Walters’ face. Xavier involves a ladder but winds up eating it on a charge. Walters sets up the chair against the ropes and drops Xavier on it with a sickening Waterwheel Slam (Alabama Slam for you Hardcore Holly fans). Xavier takes a powder before stretching the ladder across the apron and guardrail and kneeing Walters through it. Xavier resets the ladder with Walters on it and does a CRAZY springboard Arabian Press where he jumps off the top turnbuckle and lets the ropes slingshot him into a backflip. Xavier applies a Butterfly Lock, but Walters gets out and hits a jawbreaker and takes them both over the top with a clothesline. Back in, Walters PLANTS Xavier’s face on the chair with a Hurricane DDT. Xavier is busted open, and Walters bends him back like a pretzel so the fans can get a good look. Another sick spot as Xavier boots Walters to the floor where Walters lands on a table. Then, Xavier destroys him with a springboard 450-splash through the table! Nana helps Xavier put in an even bigger ladder, but Walters catches him with a Lungblower off the ladder! ONE, TWO, THRE-Nana pulls the ref out of the ring and gets knocked on his ass for it. Walters sets up the broken ladder, but Xavier recovers and hits the X-Breaker (Rude Awakening). They slug it out on top, and Xavier hits a Super Kiss Your X Goodbye (Pump-handle Inverted Michinoku Driver) off the top! Xavier sets up the good ladder near the corner where the other ladder is stretched between the ropes, but Walters climbs up the other side and Sunset Bombs them both through the ladder, smashing Xavier’s head into the corner pad. Lovey: WHAT A DISASTER! That’s enough for the win at 18:44. After the match, Prince Nana announces that he and Xavier are forming a new group called The Embassy and they will see Walters again soon. Hmm, wonder if that could go anywhere. Xavier puts over Walters’ toughness and shakes his hand. This was one of those matches that came out of nowhere as the feud between Xavier and Walters was just your standard cocky-heel-screws-babyface affair, but they really went above and beyond with this blowoff. Some of the spots probably didn’t go off they way they wanted them to, but that just winds up putting over the intensity of the rivalry in a match like this. ***3/4 Field of Honor Finals: Matt Stryker (Block A) vs. BJ Whitmer (Block B). These two tied in their qualifying match to get into the Field of Honor, but ROH was so impressed that they both got in, and now here they are in the finals. Along the way, Whitmer became more edgy, picking up Stryker and dropping him on his head with an exploder during their gauntlet match. When Stryker confronted him about it, Whitmer told him to back off because winning is all that matters. Punk, who has been an off-and-on rival to BJ, makes fun of Whitmer throughout the match. Stryker goes after BJ’s injured elbow early on and then tosses BJ to the floor. Whitmer whips Stryker to the post and then into the cameraman! Stryker goes after Whitmer’s bad knee, taking Whitmer’s knee brace off and applying the Horse Collar (Argentine Knee Rack). Whitmer makes the ropes, so Stryker drops his knee on the timekeeper’s table. Stryker starts to get really heelish with a ringpost figure-four and nearly gets disqualified. Back in, Stryker goes back to the Horse Collar. BJ makes the ropes and hits the Golden Gate Swing. Stryker kicks the leg to avoid the Wrist-Clutch Exploder. Good psychology there. Stryker finishes with the Strykerlock at 18:08. The locker room empties (including April Hunter!) to celebrate with Stryker. Excellent match from a psychology and wrestling standpoint, but it was kind of like being a Phoenix Suns fan and watching the NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat. It could be a great series, but you have no one to root for. ***1/2 ROH World Title: Samoa Joe vs. Mark Briscoe (w/Jay Briscoe). Mark pinned Joe in a tag match to earn this shot. Joe unleashes hellfire and brimstone on Mark early. Man, he looks pissed about that beatdown they laid down on him. Mark avoids the Olé Kick and hops back in. Mark actually works extra stiff, which is fine because Joe can take it with glee. He also has the audacity to slap Joe in the face and try the Facewash. Joe pops up and slaps Mark silly with a palm strike. Jay saves Mark from the Olé Kick and buys time for his brother to recover. Back in, Joe hits the STJoe and drops a knee for two. Mark counters a clothesline to a uranage but gets knocked to the floor. Jay tries to council Mark, but Joe takes him out with a tope and then stops to talk on his cell phone in a play on Terrell Owens. Mark hits a German Suplex and goes for the Cutthroat Driver. Joe knees out and hits a Dragon Suplex for two. Joe knees Mark into oblivion and locks in the Coquina Clutch for the win at 14:46. They did a good job of making Mark look like he had a real shot there for a moment. *** CM Punk leaves the broadcast position and threatens to ruin the show. Joe threatens to kick his ass if he tries, so Punk backs down until the Prophecy attacks Joe. This is a weird three-way feud because Punk then goes down and attacks Christopher Daniels. Colt Cabana comes down, and they threaten to strangle Allison Danger to death unless Daniels reveals who attacked Lucy. BJ Whitmer, of all people, runs down and answers that one with a chairshot on Cabana. Dan Maff objects, saying he swore on his father’s memory that the Prophecy had nothing to do with it. Daniels explains he kept him in the dark for plausible deniability and asks Maff to be a team player. Maff hesitates but finally welcomes BJ into the fold. This angle is better if you don’t think about it too long. Whitmer as the culprit certainly makes sense, given his history with Punk, though. It certainly accomplished what they set out to do – getting BJ Whitmer over and solidifying the Prophecy roster. One wonders what would have happened if not for the Feinstein Incident. The Briscoes say they still deserve respect because they stood up to Joe and they’re still the tag champions. The Carnage Crew interrupts and says Special K is screwing with Devito’s family. Capetta reveals they’re supposed to be on “Good Times, Great Memories.” And that’s the end of the ROH half of the show. The Great Muta bonds with Dunn & Marcos. Ray Murrow replaces Punk on commentary. CM Punk & Colt Cabana vs. Tomiaki Honma & Kazushi Miyamoto. Honma has some wicked scarring on his back from his Big Japan days. He starts out wrestling with Punk, but then his instincts take over and he grabs a chair. The Saints stretch Miyamoto out with a Chinlock/Reverse Boston Crab combo, but Honma runs in and knocks them both down with a dropkick. This is basically every other Saints match with Colt irritating the more serious CM Punk. The AJPW guys don’t really add much that any other indy wrestlers might. Honma hits a DDT/Flatliner on both Saints, which would eventually become an ROH staple. Punk and Honma slug it out, and Punk gets speared by Miyamota. Wild action as all four guys hit big moves for a quadruple KO spot. Honma and Miyamoto hit a stacked superplex (with Honma on Miyamoto’s shoulders). Cabana tosses Miyamoto, allowing Punk to drop Honma on his head with the Pepsi Plunge at 16:35. After the match, Punk declares war on Daniels. ROH 1, AJPW 0. ***1/4 AJ Styles vs. Kaz Hayashi. Kaz got quite awesome after his WCW run and went to All Japan to rebuild their cruiserweight division. Ray Murrow points out that Kaz was the first person EVER to take the Styles Clash in WCW. Punk replaces Lovey on commentary and talks about how happy he is now that he has a target. AJ hits that snap dropkick of his, and they take things to the floor. AJ leaps over the guardrail and runs out into the crowd. Back in, they trade chops, and AJ hits a spinkick. Kaz gets pissed, screams “FOKE YOU-AAH!” and hits a leaping spinkick of his own. Funny commentary kicks in as Punk repeats all the facts that Murrow has already stated. Kaz hits a sloppy slingshot DDT and a SWEEEEET handspring backkick. Can’t say I’ve ever seen that before. They clothesline each other for a double KO spot. Kaz counters the Styles Clash to a rana for two and applies the Crippler Crossface. AJ makes the ropes. Kaz rolls through another Styles Clash attempt, but AJ rolls through that and finally hits the Styles Clash at 14:49. ROH 2, AJPW 0. **1/2 Satoshi Kojima vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes & the Rottweilers). Apparently, Low Ki and Homicide have made nice because Low Ki is in his corner now. Homicide is really keyed up here, knocking Kojima to the floor and teasing his suicida. Kojima pulls up a chair on the outside and waits for things to settle down. Like every other ROH/AJPW match on the card, they trade chops. Kojima is getting INSANELY over with the crowd, especially when he explains not breaking up a choke because he didn’t understand the count. “I’m Japanese, goddamnit!” Homicide finally hits that suicide tope, but Kojima drops his head on the floor with a belly-to-belly suplex. Homicide is out of it even as he takes over on offense. Kojima hits a flying forearm and a messed-up spinebuster. Kojima readies for the lariat, but Homicide counters to a DDT and then the Ace Crusher. Homicide tries his own clothesline, but it gets countered to the Koji Cutter (Ace Crusher). Homicide hits his own but runs right into a lariat for two. A second one finishes Homicide at 13:12. I wonder what they could have done if Homicide hadn’t staggered through half the match. ROH 2, AJPW 1. **1/4 Jerry Lynn is geeked about the announcement of a Pure Wrestling Title in ROH. All Japan Tag Titles: The Great Muta & Arashi vs. Christopher Daniels & Dan Maff (w/Allison Danger). Arashi tosses Maff around like a rag doll, and isn’t that quite a feat! They trade chops, of course. Muta and Daniels tag in, but Muta freaks everyone out with the mist. Muta gets a bit winded and tags Arashi back in. It takes both members of the Prophecy to move Arashi back. Muta waits for Arashi to take the advantage and then hits the power-drive elbow. He goes up for the moonsault, but Allison Danger breaks it up, thus saving Muta’s knees. Muta goes after Danger, allowing Daniels to jump him from behind. Muta plays painted-face-in-peril before ducking a clothesline and tagging in Arashi. Arashi actually throws a dropkick. Muta comes in and destroys Daniels knee with a series of dropkicks and a Dragon Screw. Maff breaks up the figure-four leglock, though. Maff utilizes a chair, and they try to smash Muta’s head in. Muta mists Maff with the RED MIST! Daniels misses the BME, and Muta finishes with the Shining Wizard at 16:07. *** “Good Times, Great Memories.” Colt’s guests are Special K. They say it’s not their fault their parents are rich. Colt makes them clear out when Becky Bayless comes in so he can make fun of her boobs. The Carnage Crew attacks and reveals the reason they hate Special K. Turns out Devito’s daughter went to a rave and someone slipped her X. Elsewhere, Dan Maff is still pissed that he swore on his father’s grave that the Prophecy had nothing to do with Lucy’s disappearance. Daniels tells him to stop being such a pussy because no one told him to swear. They all stop to cut a promo in the stairwell of the arena, which is pretty cool because the echo creates a dreamlike quality.

The 411: Pretty much forgotten because it's so often out of print and because of a later rift between All Japan and ROH that prevented anything like this from happening again, but this show is quite good. There are no real classics to speak of, although the Xavier/Walters match is unsung. It's just a good, solid card from top to bottom. Definitely a thumbs up just for historical purposes, but the matches are entertaining as well. Solid thumbs up.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]