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Welcome to PWInsider.com's live coverage of ROH Final Battle 2014 on PPV!
After a great opening video that really drove home what a huge year ROH has had, we head to Terminal 5 in New York City, which looks absolutely awesome on TV. I don't know if this is the biggest crowd ROH has ever done, but it looks like it could be on TV.
Crowd chants "Final Battle" as Kevin Kelly, Steve Corino, and Nigel McGuinness welcome us to Final Battle and run down a few of the top matches before sending us to the ring for our first match.
Four Corner Survival: Mark Briscoe vs Hanson vs Caprice Coleman vs Jimmy Jacobs
Mark has new entrance music, and Jacobs has BJ Whitmer in his corner. Mark and Coleman start us off with a quick back and forth exchange, then Jacobs tags in and demands Coleman tag out to Hanson. Coleman obliges, so Jacobs gets right in Hanson's face and is promptly launched across the ring. Jacobs tries a couple of chops, but Hanson shrugs it off and tosses Jacobs again, so Jacobs decides to let Coleman try Hanson after all. Coleman tries using his speed to avoid getting nailed, catches Hanson with a couple of dropkicks, but eventually gets caught coming off the ropes and side suplexed. Now Mark comes in to have a shot at Hanson, and they trade blows in the middle of the ring until Mark clotheslines Hanson to the floor. Mark goes out after Hanson and gets slammed into the barricade, then Coleman jumps Hanson and hits a swinging dropkick around the post on Hanson. Jacobs tries a crossbody over the ropes, but Hanson catches him. He waits too long and Mark takes Hanson out with a dropkick off the apron, then brings Hanson back inside and gets a running boot to the face for 1. Coleman tags in and gets 2 off a series of flying kicks, but Jacobs tags himself in and hits the top rope senton on Hanson for 2. He charges Hanson and gets caught in a spinning powerslam for 2, then Hanson hits a series of clubbing forearms in the corner and finally squashes Jacobs with a Bronco Buster. He covers for 2, tosses Coleman when he sticks his nose in, and then misses a charge at Jacobs and gets caught with the springboard Ace Crusher. Mark tags himself in and goes to town on all three opponents, impressively flattening Hanson with a running clothesline before Jacobs comes in and spears Mark and then Coleman. Jacobs tries to spear Hanson, but Hanson just catches him in midair and turns it into a gutwrench powerbomb. Hanson tags himself back in and goes at it with Mark, cartwheeling past a shot from Briscoe and turning him inside out with a clothesline. Coleman tags himself in as Mark falls out of the ring, hits some weak looking martial arts punch that apparently knocks Hanson out cold, then hits Mark with a top rope Frankensteiner. Coleman with the rolling northern lights suplexes on Mark, catches Jacobs on the third for a double northern lights, and both of them roll out to the floor. Hanson takes both Mark and Jacobs out with a dive, then Coleman hits Hanson with one of his own, but they come back inside and Hanson spinkicks Coleman into next week and covers for the win.
Winner: Hanson
Well, if the goal of this match was to make Hanson look like a monster, then mission accomplished. He came out of this looking like a million bucks, hopefully it's something he can use to springboard to greater things in 2015.
We see the video package for the next match, then we go back to the ring as Jimmy Jacobs, still in the ring with Whitmer, says that there's a kid in the locker room who will take his spot as a full fledged member of the Decade tonight, and his name is Adam Page.
Adam Page vs Roderick Strong
Page tries getting the jump on Strong, but Strong dodges and lays in some chops. Page is game and fires back at Strong, but Strong catches Page with a leg lariat, shoves him into the corner, and stomps his skull in. Strong with a side backbreaker, Page tries another charge and Strong sidesteps and sends Page out to the floor, then follows him out with a dive. Strong continues hammering on Page on the floor and backdrops him into the crowd, but then Strong gets distracted by Whitmer and gives Page an opportunity to springboard off the barricade with a clothesline. Now Page is in control and brutally attacks Strong in the ring, gouging his face and hammering him with hard forearms before hitting a rolling neckbreaker off the second rope for 2. Strong finally connects with a sharp dropkick to the chin and both men are down. Page is up first, but he runs right into a flurry of offense from Strong. Strong with a running clothesline, some chops, and then gives Whitmer a shot after Whitmer tried grabbing his leg from the outside. Strong follows that with a baseball slide to Whitmer, catches Page coming off the apron, and hits a backbreaker on the ring apron. Strong rolls Page inside and hits a leaping enziguiri and another backbreaker for 2. Page is bleeding from the mouth, but he has the presence of mind to snap Strong over with a powerslam as he charges in. Strong quickly recovers and hits the gutbuster for 2, then drills Page with the Sick Kick, but Page is out at 2. Strong spits at BJ Whitmer and Jacobs holds Whitmer back as Strong puts Page on the top rope. Page fights Strong off and they trade blows on the top rope before Page hits Strong with the Mustache Ride for 2. They trade blows again, Page gets backdropped to the apron, and he comes back in with the somersault clothesline for 2. Trading more blows, Strong with a pair of leaping kneestrikes, the vertical backbreaker, and cranks Page over in the Stronghold. Strong has it in deep right in the middle of the ring, but Strong puts his knee right in the back of Page's head. Page isn't submitting, but mostly because he passed out. The referee notices that too and stops the match.
Winner: Roderick Strong
Another great showing by a younger member of the roster, as Adam Page looked like a star tonight. Jacobs shakes his hand after the match and tells Page he earned his spot, then Whitmer goes out to the broadcast table, pulls Steve Corino's headset off, and uses it to tell the TV audience that Page proved he's one of them. Corino didn't appreciate that, and gets up and shoves Whitmer. ROH officials have to separate the two of them.
Michael Elgin vs Tommaso Ciampa
Something tells me Ciampa isn't coming out and squashing Elgin in two minutes like he did to Taven last year. In fact, Elgin has won both of their previous two matches. They share a tense handshake before the match, then proceed to pound each other's skulls in. Ciampa German suplexes Elgin into the corner, Elgin gets Ciampa up for a delayed vertical suplex, but Ciampa...well, he squeezes Elgin's junk to get him to release the hold. Ciampa won't release his for several seconds, however, and Elgin is so mad that he immediately snaps Ciampa over with that vertical suplex, minus the delay, once Ciampa lets go. Ciampa rolls out to the apron and trades blows again with Elgin, but misses a shoulderblock through the ropes and Elgin nails him, then comes off the second rope with a guillotine legdrop. Elgin comes off the ropes with a splash for 2, but then Ciampa simply bowls Elgin out of the ring and bashes him into the barricade. Ciampa lays in some shots, but then Elgin rams Ciampa into the barricade and grabs the timekeeper's table, presumably thinking to let Ciampa use it for a forced nap. They go to the ring apron and Elgin sets for a powerbomb through the table, but Ciampa blocks and hits an air raid crash on the apron. He quickly rolls Elgin back inside and covers, but only gets 2. Ciampa goes to the top, but Elgin nails him and hits what started like the Razor's Edge, but Elgin turned him all the way over and plants Ciampa on his face. Elgin follows up with the sitout powerbomb, but Ciampa kicks out at 2, then knocks elgin silly with a kneestrike to the face. Elgin drills Ciampa with a leaping enziguiri and then powerbombs him into the corner, but Elgin tries to go up for the twisting senton and Ciampa catches him with Project Ciampa. Elgin is out at 2, so now they've both kicked out of each other's finishers. Ciampa sets that table up near the corner and then he and Elgin go to the top rope and Ciampa tries to superplex Elgin through the table. Elgin fights Ciampa off, nails him with a leaping enziguiri, and hits an overhead release superplex. Elgin pulls down his knee brace and goes for Ciampa's own running knees. Ciampa dodges, but Elgin hits a pair of spinning backfists, mocks Ciampa, and comes off the ropes...right into a huge clothesline from Ciampa that turns Elgin inside out. Ciampa covers for 2 and then goes for Project Ciampa, but Elgin backdrops, rolls through, and powerbombs Ciampa into the corner. Ciampa comes out with a clothesline, but Elgin dodges and Ciampa takes the referee out. Ciampa immediately begins freaking out and pleading to Nigel that he didn't mean to do that, and even the announcers are telling Nigel that it didn't look intentional. An angry Nigel gets up and walks to the back as Elgin nails a distraught Ciampa from behind, hits the double underhook DDT as the referee comes to, and covers Ciampa for the win.
Winner: Michael Elgin
Hell of a brawl, and Ciampa really looks unhappy that his ROH career could be coming to an end after what just happened.
ROH's 13th anniversary show will be on PPV on March 1st, live from Las Vegas!
Coverage will continue on Page 2!
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