ROH Final Battle 2017 PPV Results: 12-15-17
Results courtesy of
ProWrestling.net (direct link to Powell's complete report).
1. Will Ospreay vs. Matt Taven (w/TK O’Ryan, Vinny Marseglia). Ospreay threw a big boot to the head to start the match, but Taven came right back. The Kingdom members provided an early distraction that allowed Taven to connect with a springboard kick off the ropes. Ospreay came back and performed a nice standing shooting star press for a near fall. Ospreay connected with a nice kick to the head at 7:50 and followed up with an elbow to the back of the head for a two count.
At 9:30, Ospreay performed a shooting star press off the top rope and onto O’Ryan and Marseglia at ringside. Taven took advantage of it briefly, but Ospreay lifted his legs when Taven went for a frogsplash. Taven ended up hitting the Climax finisher and scored the clean pin…
Matt Taven pinned Will Ospreay in 10:45.
Ospreay makes some of his offense look so easy that the fans don’t react to it the way they would for other wrestlers. For example, the standing moonsault was so effortless and it felt like the crowd saw it that way. The guy is a gifted athlete. Meanwhile, Taven is good in the ring, but his persona with the “Melvin” schtick is a turnoff and not in a good heel way. ROH really needs to pull the plug on the crowd killing piano music that the Kingdom use for their entrance. All of that said, this was a good opening match. Taven going over is logical since he’s the ROH regular.
2. “War Machine” Hanson and Raymond Rowe vs. “The Addiction” Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian. The teams brawled to start the match. Cabana said the lawsuit filed by the “fan” hurt during the odd build to this match was dropped. The heel duo isolated Rowe early on. The broadcast team assumed that the winner of the match would end up getting an ROH Tag Title shot.
Hanson tagged in and stacked the Addiction members on the top rope and then hit Daniels (top man) with ten shots to the chest. Rowe checked in and War Machine hit a clothesline into a German suplex combo on Daniels for a two count. Daniels rolled up Rowe and held the tights so referee Mike Posey stopped the count.
Daniels covered Rowe seconds later and used the ropes for leverage, so the ref stopped the count again. “You’re dead,” Hanson told Daniels. War Machine eventually came back and hit a double team move that resulted in Daniels taking a legdrop from the top rope and being pinned…
War Machine beat The Addiction.
A rare War Machine match in ROH that didn’t end up being fought under War Machine rules (Texas tornado style). The match didn’t have great storyline support going in and the outcome seemed predictable, but the match was fine for what it was.
3. Marty Scurll vs. Jay Lethal. Scurll offered a handshake before the match and Lethal accepted. The crowd was fairly split with dueling chants for the wrestlers early. At 11:25, Lethal delivered a nice Cutter off the ring apron to the floor. Back inside the ring, referee Todd Sinclair was bumped in the corner. Scurll went to ringside and grabbed a chair. Scurll tossed the chair to Lethal and dropped on his back.
Lethal put the chair around his neck and laid on the mat too. When Sinclair turned around, he questioned Scurll. Funny. Scurll avoided Lethal Injection and clotheslined Scurll before hitting him with a brainbuster on his knee for a two count.
At 14:45, Scurll went to ringside and pulled out a white umbrella, which Lethal ended up with. Sinclair took the umbrella from Lethal, then Scurll used his usual Bullet Club umbrella as a weapon and ended up getting a two count. Lethal swung the white umbrella at Scurll, who avoided it. While the referee cleared the umbrella from the ring, Lethal delivered a low blow kick and followed up with a Lethal Injection for the win. Cabana said Lethal didn’t look too pleased with the victory because of how he got it…
Jay Lethal pinned Marty Scurll in 15:55.
A good match with some genuine mystery regarding the outcome or at least there was in my mind. I thought Scurll would go over when Lethal refused to play dirty, so Lethal actually going down that road and not being happy with himself is interesting. Here’s hoping that 2018 is a better year for Scurll in the storylines. I’m sure he has no complaints with that sweet, sweet Bullet Club merch money coming in, but he’s been rather directionless since dropping the ROH TV Title.
4. “Motor City Machine Guns” Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin vs. “Best Friends” Chuckie T and Beretta for the ROH Tag Titles. Ring announcer Bobby Cruise delivered the in-ring introductions for the title match. Paul Turner was the referee. Shelley heeled it up by standing between the Best Friends to get them to back off from working over Sabin, then he poked them in the eyes and swiveled his hips.
Cabana said the fans appreciated the Guns for their in-ring skills, but no one ever said they were great guys. He said the tide has turned against them a bit and it doesn’t seem to bother them. The Guns spoofed the Best Friends by hugging each other at one point. Late in the match, Taylor performed a piledriver on Sabin, who shot right up and somehow pinned Beretta…
The Motor City Machine Guns beat Best Friends in 10:25 to retain the ROH Tag Titles.
Good action with a strange finish. Cabana praised Sabin for being a veteran and knowing where he was at despite taking the piledriver. I give Cabana credit for trying to make sense of it, but it was just an odd finish. It was nice to hear Chuck Taylor talk for once in ROH, but it’s too bad it was in a spoof promo. I’m sure that appealed to fans who are familiar with the duo from the independent scene, but as someone who watches ROH television every week I still have no idea what they are about. Meanwhile, it seems like the Guns had a WWE style heel turn in that there really wasn’t a turn, they just became heels.
5. Kenny King vs. Punishment Martinez vs. Silas Young (w/Beer City Bruiser) vs. Shane Taylor in a four-way elimination match for the ROH TV Title. Martinez had a special entrance with an upright coffin and a bunch of vampire looking extras on the stage. They came to the ring with him and the female vampires bowed for him while the three male vampires struck a pose and looked into the camera. A couple of women came out and threw rose petals for King’s entrance.
Martinez performed a springboard flip dive onto all three opponents at 4:45. At 6:30, all four wrestlers ended up in the ring and took turns throwing punches. King performed a nice Blockbuster on Martinez. At 8:00, Taylor hit a Death Valley Driver on Martinez into the corner and followed up with a second rope splash for a two count. Martinez performed a springboard dive onto Taylor and pinned him to eliminate him from the match at 9:20.
At 13:05, Silas struck King with one of the beer bottles that Bruiser brought to the ring and pinned him. The match came down to Young and Martinez. At 14:25, Martinez had Young pinned, but Bruiser pulled him to ringside. Martinez dove over the top rope took out Bruiser on the floor. Martinez sold rib pin after the dive.
Young barked at Martinez to get up and fight him like a man. Martinez hoisted him up for a powerbomb, but he dropped him to sell rib pain. Young had Martinez against the barricade and hit him with several knees to the head. Back inside the ring, Young ran into a foot stomp from Martinez, but avoided a move in the corner and threw more knees. Martinez no-sold the knees briefly, but Young threw more to the ribs and then hit Misery before pinning him to win the match…
Silas Young beat Kenny King, Punishment Martinez, and Shane Taylor in 17:35 to win the ROH TV Title.
It’s cool to see Young win his first championship in ROH. It was also good to hear Cabana play up Young as Mr. Final Battle while acknowledging his undefeated record and wins over Mark Briscoe, Dalton Castle, and Jushin Liger in his past appearances. The crowd was quiet to start, but they got into it more as it went on.