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So, let's start this out by being honest.
This sucks.
The last few days of my life have been an absolute train wreck.
My father is going in for a quadruple bypass in a few days and to say it's thrown every aspect of my life into chaos would be an understatement.
So, Anthony Pires will be handling the play by play for Ring of Honor's Final Battle. I was originally supposed to be in Baltimore for the show, but for obvious reasons, I'm in NYC, instead watching this show in an attempt to write and block out all the worry and anger, hoping instead for a few hours of being numb instead, but even if I can somehow accomplish that, this show is going to suck.
It's probably going to be fun at times and a lot of talented wrestlers will do their thing, but at the end of this, it's the end of ROH, which at different times has meant a lot of things to a lot of different people - a place to congregate if you were a fan, a place to make your name if you were a wrestler, a place that radiated greatness, an alternative, three letters that existed and represented that no matter how small the venue or how big the building, it could be the beacon for a work ethic that changed pro wrestling for the better.
And tonight, it ends. We all know it, even if there's a hope it continues on in some fashion. Maybe it will, but the reality is, that for a lot of people, what ROH was, for them, ends tonight.
So, it's going to suck to watch this, because who wants to watch anything that was once vibrant end for any reason, but let's do it anyway and see how the night fares, shall we?
I dedicate this blog tonight, which is really just going to be my free flowing thoughts, to my dad, who took me to my first ever show and ended up setting me on the path to this wackiness being my job. We have our ups and downs, but he's my dad and I love him. For better or worse, he made me who I am and I just want him around for as long as possible so he can enjoy his grandchildren and they can enjoy him, because they really are his favorite people in the world. So, thanks for letting me do that folks.
Onto the show. When it's over, the wrestling world changes yet again, and honestly, I have no idea what my world is going to look like in the days ahead, so I'll just be thankful to spend a few more hours with ROH and all of you before I go back to dealing with the reality of a very scary few days ahead.
We open with the ROH Six Man Tag Team titles. The announcers are all but admitting this is the end, thanking AEW for sending Jay Lethal after the COVID curse cost them the ROH title bout. They are promising an announcement on the title. At this point, they may as well announce a tournament for April if and when the company returns to crown the champ. Do four singles matches and then do a 60 minute Iron Man with the winners, just like the original Crowning a Champion show.
There's a lot of empty seats seen as the Righteous come out. I'd heard they were setting up for 1,000. The first ever ROH show had 450 fans. I don't think there's double that here, which is a shame. I suspect a lot of people will wish they had been here for the history tonight. I am glad I was there for the first show and for everyone who came with me on one of my old bus trips back in the day, thanks for being part of that era and hell, I hope you all miss our old driver John Quigley as much as I do, because he was the best, a true old school NY tough guy who was always amused by the cast of characters on the bus, both the wrestlers and the fans. May he rest in peace.
We open with The Righteous vs. Shane Taylor Promotions for the Six Man Tag Team titles. Everyone works hard. The Righteous win the titles after Vincent hits Orange Sunshine, so they go out as the new champions. The Code of Honor is upheld, so the first match of the last show ended the same way the first match of the 2002 debut event did, with handshakes. This was a good opener and you could feel they were just cutting loose as much as time allowed.
Quinn McKay interviewed Jay Lethal. He said that the winner of his match with Jonathan Gresham could be the final champion and that gift and honor belongs to him. So, it's Lethal vs. Gresham for the title.
They have the original ROH title on hand, the one Samoa Joe held proudly and that will be on the line for tonight's event. That is a really nice touch. There was a time where that belt had as much prestige as anything, to the point where Joe would get offers while touring overseas for big money to drop it, but never took those offers. It's the belt CM Punk and Samoa Joe battled for in matches that saved the company. It's nice to see it one last time. It had been with Cary Silkin since it was retired and my guess is the existing belt is sitting in Mexico with Bandido.
Rocky Romero is going to be on commentary. Violence Unlimited approach him and ask him to instead be violent with them. He walks off with them, so, I guess there's going to be a change to the announced six man tag later.
Six Woman Tag action. One of the things ROH had really done a great job with in the last year was building an interesting new women's division that cast a pretty far net. It's a shame that what they attempted will be ending pretty damn prematurely, at least in terms of thinking about what it could have been. Rok-C and Miranda Alize blew away everything else at Death Before Dishonor. It's the Allure & Alize vs. The Hex & Chelsea Green. Ian Riccaboni, who I've heard could be doing some NJPW Strong work in the future, thanked a lot of people, including Dave Prazak, Gabe Sapolsky, Adam Pearce and others. Maria Kanellis broke kayfabe by putting over Bobby Cruise's work on the women's division. Cruise really didn't want anyone to acknowledge his work in that realm but the last few weeks, it came out anyway. Cruise has been a hell of a hand for ROH over the years and if other promotions are smart, they are diving to be first to add him to their infastructure.
Alize looked really good working over Green. Her work is ridiculously smooth, yet looks like it's battering Green. Mandy Leon tags in. Had Bobby Cruise and Maria Kanellis had an idea of what was coming here, the end, Leon likely would have been worked into the title bout with Rok-C tonight, just out of respect for her tenure with the company. The Allure double teamed Green. who fought her way out of a double superplex and hit a missile dropkick. The Hex worked over Love but Alize broke it up. They went into a series of big moves. Alize and Green pulled out some nice dives. That left Marti Belle going for a dive but she was drilled by Love. Leon nailed Astral Projection and scored the pin on Marti. Good for Leon. She deserved to get the win on this show. Interesting the heels are stacking wins so far. The six competitors all hugged after. Allysin Kay looked disgusted that she was part of it, which was hilarious, whether it was meant to be or not.
Wild Card Tag Match - The Bouncers & CB (who reverted back to Cheeseburger for his final appearance) & Flip Gordon & PJ Black vs. LSG & Demonic Flamita & Will Ferrara & Sledge & Max the Impaler managed by Amy Rose. It's nice to see they even brought regulars like LSG back in, since he wasn't under contract to the company. This thing looks like the Cantina from Star Wars, what a motley crew. You have to love pro wrestling for being this wacky. The announcers shouted out Delirious for his work with the company. Ferrara and CB started out so we get a nice nod to the ROH Dojo. I'll say this, everyone on the show so far is working hard under the worst of circumstances. They built to Max vs. Beer City Bruiser in the ring for a bit, which was different. Sledge almost killed himself on a moonsault to the floor. Max suplexed CB out of the ring atop everyone. Flamita teased a dive but instead flipped the bird. Ian said he can't do that. WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO? FIRE HIM? He nailed Bruiser and did a tornado dive to the outside on everyone. Black nailed a stacked destroyer on LSG for the pin.
Lots of talents hugging and paying tribute to each other. Streamers tossed. I popped for the streamers personally, for a lot of reasons. It's been a lot of years since our boy Jim Quigley came up with the idea for streamers for Chris Jericho vs. Sabu at a ECW show at the old Lulu Temple. Pretty cool to see them continue to migrate from Japan to become a big part of the ROH spectacle over the years.
EC3 and Rocky Romero have been added to the Violence Unlimited vs. Wrestling tag.
The announcers did a hard sell for the main, official PPV. Ian Riccaboni did one of the best sell jobs of his career here. The fact ROH is cutting the announcers' deals as well as the talents, certainly makes me shake my head when someone tells me they assume the company will just resume in April. It won't, not in terms of what it once was. I remember meeting Ian when he was just starting with the company, talking about his hopes when he had just finished training at the Monster Factory and was handling pre-show announcements. If anyone should be celebrated for achieving his dream tonight, it's Ian, someone who went from not being able to afford a ticket to a Hammerstein show while in college to the definitive announcing voice of the company. He and Caprice Coleman are just awesome together.
We'll continue with thoughts on Page 2.
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