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Roderick Strong & Jay Lethal vs Eddie Edwards & BJ Whitmer
Whitmer starts the match off and has a good go with Lethal before Eddie and Roderick tag in and have their own sequence. Roderick catches BJ with a hard shot and tags out to Lethal, who tries a crossbody, BJ catches him, Lethal slips out of his grasp and unloads with several shots and hits a leg lariat. BJ and Lethal go back and forth fighting over a waistlock before Lethal hits the hiptoss/cartwheel dropkick combo. Lethal and Strong continue working BJ over, and BJ is on the mat clutching his head as he continues to take stomps and elbow shots from Lethal. Lethal takes Whitmer to the corner and nails a series of chops, but BJ evades a leapfrog and powerslams Lethal. He tries to make the tag, but Lethal pulls him back to the corner and tags in Roderick, who wraps Whitmer up in an abdominal stretch. Roderick smirks at the fans as they mockingly chant his name, and Whitmer takes the opening to roll Strong into a pinning combination for 2. BJ snaps Strong over with a powerslam and makes the hot tag, and Edwards comes in and cuts into Lethal like a hot knife through butter, tearing into him with chops before knocking Roderick into next week with a running boot. Edwards hits the backpack driver for 2 and then twists Lethal into the Achilles Lock. Lethal reverses to a small package for 2, then blocks a superkick and hits the Lethal Combination for 2. Strong comes in and nails Eddie with a series of strikes before hitting the Hacker Slam for 2. Strong with a cradle backbreaker for 2 on Edwards, then winds up trading chops with BJ until Edwards comes back in and turns Roderick inside out with a full rotation suplex. Whitmer suplexes Lethal into the corner, then everyone is nailing everyone with hard shots one after the other. Eddie ducks a charge and Roderick goes out to the floor as Lethal dumps BJ, then they stop to look at each other and hit stereo dives onto each other's partners. They do it again and tease doing it a third time, but Lethal tricks Eddie and hits the Lethal Injection, BJ lays Lethal out with a big boot, then Roderick BJ with the sick kick and everyone's down. Eddie and Roderick are up first trading forearms in the middle of the ring, Roderick nails Eddie with an enziguiri and puts him up top, Lethal superkicks BJ off the apron, and Strong superplexes Eddie and puts him right in position for Hail To The King. Lethal blows Eddie a kiss, hits the elbow, and Roderick makes a cover...for 2. Mike Johnson just told me Davey Richards just came to the ring at the CZW show as BJ hits the swinging fisherman's suplex and set up Edwards to cover for 2. Lethal rams BJ into the barricade as Eddie and Roderick starts trading hard chops in the middle of the ring. Roddy stops to let his chest stop stinging, realizes his nose is bleeding, and nails Eddie with a chop. Now Eddie pauses as BJ and Lethal go at it on the floor and chops Strong back. They continue chopping back and forth until Roderick nails a series of forearms, a leaping kneestrike, more forearms, then hits the Gibson Driver for 2. Eddie kicks out and Roderick twists him right into the Stronghold. The fans chant please don't tap as Eddie escapes the hold and rolls Strong up for the win.
Winners: Eddie Edwards & BJ Whitmer
All four men shake hands and hug after the match, and Lethal puts Eddie over and says how proud he is, and that he's going to leave so Eddie can have his moment. Lethal leaves (without Roderick, interestingly), and Eddie says he's going to keep it short and he knows it sucks outside (referring to the weather), but it means a lot to him that everyone came here. He then turns to BJ and puts him over as well, says he's been an inspiration and a role model for him, and it while he's going off to do whatever he ends up doing, BJ's career got cut short. It's not right that it ended this way, but it means a lot that BJ would team with him in his last match. He hugs BJ, then BJ says something I didn't quite catch...and nails Eddie. Strong suddenly pops up and nails Eddie with a leaping kneestrike and then BJ dumps him on his head with an exploder suplex. Jimmy Jacobs comes out with a mic and says he's sick of seeing guys like Eddie thank people before going somewhere else. He's seen guys like Eddie come and go for the last decade, and for the last decade, there have been three guys who have been the constant. Final Battle is Eddie's farewell, and he's going to send him on his way. Strong and BJ hold Eddie up and Jacobs nails him with the steel spike, then gets on top of Eddie and gouges the spike into his forehead before the three of them raise their arms to the crowd and leave. The crowd does "thank you Eddie" as Edwards is helped to the back. Well, I definitely didn't see that angle coming, but I liked it!
ROH World Title Match: Adam Cole vs Jay Briscoe vs Michael Elgin
Briscoe and Elgin stare Cole down after the bell rings and Cole bails out to the floor, grinning at them as Elgin holds the ropes open for him. Cole stays on the floor, so Briscoe and Elgin turn their attention to each other. Cole tries to sneak up to the apron, Elgin sees him and goes after him, but Cole instantly bails back to the floor. Elgin and Briscoe trade shoulderblocks until Cole interjects himself and Elgin gets a rollup for 2, then it's back to Briscoe and Elgin until Briscoe catches Cole off guard with a dive through the ropes. He tosses Cole back inside where Briscoe and Elgin take turns shoving each other out of the way to pummel Cole, then they decide to just both beat him up at the same time. They go back out to the floor where Cole rams Briscoe into the barricade, but Elgin grabs Cole and drags him back inside for the 60 second delayed suplex. Briscoe comes back in and goes after Elgin, but Elgin nails him with a leaping enziguiri, hangs Cole in the Tree of Woe, and German suplexes Briscoe onto him. Elgin and Briscoe trade shorts until Cole dumps Jay back out to the floor and goes at it with Elgin. Jay comes back in nails Elgin, gets backdropped out to the apron, and then Elgin backdrops Cole onto Briswcoe where Cole presumably was supposed to DDT Briscoe, but Briscoe came down right on top of his head and both men roll to the floor. That was a scary looking spot, but Cole comes back inside and proceeds to catch a further beating from Elgin, who puts Cole on the top rope for a superplex. Briscoe nails Elgin from behind and tries to electric chair him, but Elgin slips off his shoulders, rams him into the corner and crotches Cole, then whips Briscoe across the ring and charges, but Briscoe catches him and hits a Flatliner into the second turnbuckle. Briscoe kicks Cole out to the floor before turning his attention back to Elgin, nailing him with a double sledge for 2. Briscoe KILLS Elgin with a hard forearm that made a loud CRACK when it connected, then he hit a big boot that floors Elgin and covers for 2. Elgin slips out of a fireman's carry and powerslams Briscoe, then atomic legdrops Cole onto him. Elgin puts Cole in a Boston Crab right on top of Briscoe and catches Briscoe in a camel clutch at the same time. All three men trade shots until Cole winds up on top of Elgin covering for 2, then covers Briscoe for 2. Now all three are back up going at it, but Elgin and Briscoe forget about Cole and go at each other long enough for Cole to nail them both with a double dropkick. They do the Tower of Doom spot and all three men slowly get to their feet as the referee counts, Jay superkicks Cole and then corner clotheslines both men, Cole gives him the fireman's carry neckbreaker, Elgin nails Cole and deadlift suplexes him off his knees and then drops him in a sidewalk slam for 2. Cole rolls out to the apron and Elgin follows him out, goes for a powerbomb on the apron, Cole blocks, Elgin tries a German suplex and Cole blocks, but Elgin slips inside and nails Cole with a springboard enziguiri and deadlift superplexes him into the ring, setting Cole up so Briscoe can hit him with a top rope frogsplash and make a cover. Elgin breaks it up at 2 and Briscoe gives him a death valley driver for 2, then Cole gives Briscoe a brainbuster onto the knee for 2 and gets him in the figure four. Instead of breaking it up, Elgin goes to the top rope and hits Cole with the twisting senton he never hits and covers for 2. Elgin is ready to put Cole away and goes for the powerbomb, but Cole fireman's carry neckbreakers him, takes his elbowpad off, and goes for the Canadian Destroyer out of the corner. Elgin catches him in midair and powerbombs him into Briscoe in the corner and goes for the sitout powerbomb, Cole slips out, but Elgin flattens both Briscoe and Cole with hard clotheslines. Elgin drags Briscoe to the center and covers for 2, and the crowd is solidly behind Elgin as he goes out to the floor and rams Cole back and forth between the barricade and the ring apron. He sets up a table and Elgin and Briscoe give Cole a double spinebuster through it before going back into the ring ot settle things between the two of them. The crowd is 50/50 as they trade forearms in the middle of the ring. Elgin goes for the powerbomb, Briscoe backdrops out and charges Elgin, but gets caught with the STJoe. Elgin goes for the twisting senton again and misses it this time, then Briscoe hits a neckbreaker for 2. Briscoe goes for the JAy Driller and Elgin backdrops into a bridge for a 2 count, Briscoe blocks Chaos theory, but Elgin hits a TKO into his knee and then rocks Briscoe with a bicycle kick before hitting a deadlift German suplex for 2. They go out to the apron and Elgin tells the broadcast team to move so he can put Briscoe through their table, but Briscoe blocks and they both end up going through the table. Cole rolls inside and has an "I can't believe my good luck!" smile on as the referee counts both men, but then stops him and says he doesn't want to win this way. While he's distracting the referee, Matt Hardy runs down to ringside and gives Briscoe a Twist of Fate on the floor. He tries one on Elgin, but Elgin shoves him off into the barricade and goes back inside where he is met with a superkick and a Twist of Fate from Cole, who now appears to be allied with Hardy. He covers for 2 and then locks Elgin in a rear naked choke, but Elgin is up and nails Cole as Mark Briscoe comes down to ringside to go after Hardy with his brother. Elgin powerbombs Cole out of the ring onto all three of them, then comes out with a dive to take all four of them out. Elgin brings Briscoe back inside and goes for the powerbomb, Briscoe slips out and hits a Jay Driller for 2. He hits another one, but Elgin kicks out again at 2 and looks really fired up. Elgin pops up and spits at Briscoe, Briscoe nails him and goes for another Jay Driller, but Cole comes in and superkicks both men before rolling Elgin up for the win.
Winner: Adam Cole
Hardy grabs Jay's title belt and knocks him out with it after the match, and Elgin tries to fight them off, but Hardy lays him out as well with the Twist of Fate. Hardy and Cole hug as the fans boo, but Chris Hero's music hits and he comes out of the crowd, knocks Hardy out with a roaring elbow, then waits for Cole to turn around. He waves at Cole before nailing him with a mafia kick, pulls the golden elbow pad out of his tights, and uses it to knock Cole out cold. He gets a microphone and says this wouldn't be Final Battle without Chris Hero, and he's here to let ROH know that Chris Hero is back.
Really good show, the only disappointing match was the tag title match, and everything on here was good to excellent. Thumbs up for Final Battle 2013.
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