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Edwards has his trainer Dan "The Beast" Severn in his corner, and Richards has Tony Kozina and Kyle O'Reilly. They shake hands, the bell rings, and we're off. They go toe to toe right off the bell trading chops and kicks, but Eddie blocks a kick from Davey and tries to go for the Dragon Sleeper right off the bat. Davey escapes and they go back and forth again before coming to a stalemate. Crowd is evenly split and Davey shoots a single leg and takes Edwards down, but Edwards sits out and they again start neutral. They go to the mat again and Davey gets a modified Indian Deathlock, but Eddie escapes and they trade blows again with Eddie easily coming out on top and shutting Davey down with a rear chinlock. Eddie takes Davey to the corner and unloads with a hard chop, then goes to the second rope but gets caught by Davey, who yanks him off by the foot and kicks him in the chest on the way down. Davey takes Eddie to the mat, grapevines one of his arms, and elbows his ribs before locking him in the Texas Sunrise. Eddie fights his way to the ropes and they go back to trading blows until Davey spinkicks Eddie square in the chest, but comes off the ropes right into an overhead release suplex that sends Davey out to the floor.
Eddie goes out after him and they fight their way past Severn and Eddie whips Davey into the guardrail, but Davey fires back and boots Eddie into the crowd. They head back into the ring where Eddie takes Davey down and gets a spinning toehold with a bridge. Davey escapes that and dumps Eddie out to the floor, Eddie dodges the running boot on the apron, but Davey absolutely blasts him on the second try and then goes back into the ring to hit a dive through the ropes that nearly breaks Eddie in half over the barricade. Davey sends Eddie back in and hits a missile dropkick and then just beats Eddie into oblivion against the ropes and comes off the ropes with a running forearm that gets him 2. Eddie goesfor a chop, but Davey catches the arm and rolls through into a seated anklelock on Eddie. Eddie kicks Davey off into the ropes and catches him coming back in the Achilles Lock, Davey escapes but Eddie plants him with a hard back suplex.
Eddie destroys Davey with a hard chop in the corner, then follows with a running chop and a flying kneestrike for 2. Davey gets to his feet and he trades forearms with Eddie in the middle of the ring and Davey tries the handspring enziguiri, but Eddie catches him and dumps him over the top rope to the floor. Eddie goes out to the apron and moonsaults onto Davey, then rolls him into the ring and tries a top rope double stomp, Davey dodges and goes to the second rope but Eddie hits a leaping boot and the Backpack Driver for 2. Davey gets to his feet and tries a charge, but Eddie boots him in the face and goes for a clothesline, Davey ducks and goes for a rolling cross armbreaker, but Eddie catches him in a cradle for 2, then goes to an STF. Davey gets out so Eddie goes to an anklelock, Davey starts kicking Eddie square in the face to try and escape, but Eddie stops him by repeatedly stomping on his face. Davey gets to his feet and looks really pissed off and slaps Eddie in the face. Eddie slaps back, and they take turns smacking the taste out of each other's mouth until Eddie just pummels Eddie with slaps, Eddie superkicks Davey, and Davye kills him with a lariat for 2, Eddie pops right back up so Davey hits a roaring lariat and gets another 2.
Davey goes up top now and hits the doublestomp to the back ot Eddie and a running boot to the chest, then goes up top and hits another double stomp square in the chest for 2. Davey puts Eddie on the top rope and follows him up, and they end up trading headbutts on the top rope right above Severn, then just slapping the crap out of each other. Davey drops to the mat and hits a leaping enziguiri, follows up with another headbutt, and superplexes Eddie into the ring and rolls through, and Eddie suplexes Davey and they both tumble over the top to the floor.
They take until 19 and just barely beat the count back in and immediately take turns hitting running boots to each other's faces. They then trade kicks and chops with Eddie getting the advantage and absolutely tearing into Davey in othe corner with chops, but then Davey comes back and fires off kicks like a machine gun. Eddie fires back, but Davey barely slows down before firing more kicks at Eddie until he collapses in the corner. Davey walks back out to the middle of the ring, but Eddie pulls himself up and goes back to the middle of the ring, slaps Davey in the face, and tells him to come on. They trade more blows, Davey fires Kawada kicks at Eddie, Eddie with more open hand strikes, but Davey just drills him in the head with a big boot, Eddie hits a leaping enziguiri, Davey hits a backdrop suplex, Eddie hits one of his own, Davey hits one, Eddie hits one, and they're both completely spent as Davey triesfor another and Eddie counters to a Tiger suplex, Davey counters another suplex attempt to a Dragon suplex, and then they go back to punches, kicks, and chops in the middle of the ring. Davey hits the Alarm Clock, Eddie boots Davey, and they're both out.
Roderick Strong comes out and gets into a fight at ringside with Kyle O'Reilly, but Severn goes after him and then Michael Elgin and Truth Martini come out and go after Severn. Severn holds them off until O'Reilly and Kozina can even the odds and they fight the House of Truth all the way to the locker room.
Now it's just Edwards and Richards, and they go back to trading hard forearms in the middle of the ring. Eddie hits a big boot and goes for another Tiger Suplex and launches Davey into the corner. Eddie picks Davey back up and sits him on the top rope for a Tiger superplex, but Davey fights his way out and knocks Eddie into the ring, but Eddie catches him with a leaping enziguiri and a top rope Frankensteiner followed by a running dropkick that sends Davey crashing into the corner, a powerbomb, and a sitout powerbomb for 2.9999999. Davey's on his knees and Eddie superkicks him and hits a hard chop to the neck for 2, then locks Davey in the Dragon Sleeper, Davey counters out to a bridging O'Connor Roll for 2, then Eddie goes right back to the Dragon Sleeper. Davey again escapes, so Eddie elevates him into a Tombstone piledriver and hits the 2K1 Bomb for 2. Eddie puts Davey on the top rope and goes for a superplex, but Davey blocks and sunset flips over Eddie, who holds onto the ropes and punches Davey in the face until he lets go. Davey goes back to ramming forearms into Eddie's back, then repeatedly crossfaces him, and finally hits a top rope Dragon Suplex for 2.
Davey gets to his feet, looks at the crowd, and signals that he's ready to put Eddie away. They go out to the apron where Davey tries for a Dragon Suplex onto the ring frame, but Eddie blocks so they trade chops and kicks until Davey hits an exploder suplex that sends Eddie tumbling hard to the floor. Eddie finally starts to make his way into the ring, so Davey punts him in the head and now hits the Dragon Suplex on the ring apron and tells the referee to count him out. Eddie still somehow beats the count, so Davey patiently waits for him to get to his knees so he can hit a pair of knockout kicks and cover for 2. He goes right into the anklelock, Eddie goes for the ropes but Davey pulls him back, Eddie rolls Davey into a cradle, but Davey goes back to the anklelock, Eddie rolls him through again and Davey hits the running kick to the head that won last time but now only gets 2. Davey with more kicks to Eddie's skull and FINALLY manages to put him down for 3.
Winner: Davey Richards
This was just an unbelievable fight, the abuse both guys took was just insane. Davey cuts a promo after the match saying that Jim Cornette told them that whoever won, he wanted them to go out and say the other guy was the toughest man he ever faced, but Davey didn't have to say it because we just saw it. Before Davey could continue, Kevin Steen came out mocking the speech and said it's time for Davey to stop the ass kissing BS because Kevin Steen is back in ROH and in 2012, he's going to take the ROH World Title because he's the Antichrist of professional wrestling. Davey is irate at Steen ruining the moment, but goes over to shake hands with Eddie and they share a hug and appear to make up after the match tonight.
Overall, this was a really good show, and I consider it on the higher end of Final Battle events I've seen. Thumbs up, and I'll be back later this week in the Elite section with an audio detailing more of my thoughts on the event. Thanks for following PWInsider.com's coverage of Final Battle 2011!
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