Final Battle was originally scheduled to take place on December 17, 2011, in the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center in New York City, and tickets went on sale on September 17. The event was later postponed to December 23 and moved to the Hammerstein Ballroom within the Manhattan Center.[2] As with all ROH's pay-per-views since 2009, the broadcast was live and over the internet.
The main event was for the ROH World Championship and saw Davey Richards defend against his American Wolves tag team partner, Eddie Edwards in their third singles match as opponents. In March 2010, the two met in the final of tournament to crown the inaugural ROH World Television Champion. Edwards won the match,[3] leading to them both seeking more of a singles career and Richards began competing for the World Championship. In November, Edwards won the Survival of the Fittest tournament, which gave him the right to challenge World Champion Roderick Strong, which he successfully did at Manhattan Mayhem IV in March 2011.[4] On the back of a nine match winning streak in singles competition, Richards was announced as the challenger for Edwards' title at the Best in the World 2011 iPPV in June. Richards won the match and became ROH World Champion.[5]
The following month Edwards saved Richards from a handicap beatdown at the hands of the House of Truth, but at the next event in a tag team match between the American Wolves and Richards' training students Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly, Edwards continually stomped on the head of O'Reilly after the match had ended because the timekeeper's bell had not been rung. Edwards went on to defeat both House of Truth members and O'Reilly in singles matches over the next few months and on the 29 October episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling was announced as the challenger for the World Championship. Edwards announced that to give him an edge, he had employed a new trainer ahead of the title opportunity. On the 12 November episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling the American Wolves wrestled the House of Truth (Strong and Michael Elgin), during which Edwards helped the team win with a dragon sleeper despite never having used the move before.[6][7] This is a signature move of Dan Severn who was later revealed as Edwards' new trainer, despite Richards having previously sought his mentorship.
The ROH World Tag Team Championship match saw Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) defend their championship against the Briscoe Brothers, Jay and Mark. At ROH's June pay-per-view, Best in the World 2011, Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team defended their championship in a four-team elimination match, outlasting all three other teams including the Briscoes. At the end of the match however, the Briscoes returned and assaulted the winners with chairs.[5] On the October 1 episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling, Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team expressed their desire to face the Briscoes for revenge and stated they would put their championship on the line if need be. ROH authority figure Jim Cornette denied them their wish, explaining that he did not want to reward the Briscoes for their recklessness.[8] He did however, give them the chance to earn their contendership in a match against the All-Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King). During the match, Jay Briscoe low-blowed King and pinned him.[9] Cornette overruled the decision, saying that regardless of it being accidental or not, he could not award the team a Tag Team Championship match. He rebooked the match for a fortnight later, which the Briscoes then won.[10]
The final title match of the event was for the ROH World Television Championship. On the October 1 episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling, El Generico defended the championship against Jay Lethal in a match that lasted the 15 minute time limit without a winner. Authority figure Jim Cornette hastily allowed for the rest of television time to be used if both competitors agreed, which led to Lethal becoming the new champion.[8][11] He made his first defence on the October 22 episode against "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett which also went to a 15-minute time limit draw, though Bennett later claimed he had mounted Lethal and attacked him enough that Lethal had been knocked out and thus should have lost the match even though Lethal then reversed the mount to see out the remaining seconds; in the event, Bennett refused to continue past the time limit and began to proclaim himself the true champion. During Lethal's second defence, against Generico, Bennett came to ring side and during the match started posing with the championship belt. While the referee was distracted, trying to keep Bennett under control, Lethal had made a long pin on Generico that went unnoticed just before the time limit again expired. Amidst a brawl between Lethal and Bennett, Generico dived out of the ring on top of them.[12] A week later, ROH announced an elimination three-way dance between the trio to decide the rightful champion. Bennet petitioned to have the match not officiated by referee Todd Sinclair, who he blamed for not awarding him the victory via referee stoppage during his draw with Lethal.[13]
The most featured non-title contest was a grudge match between Kevin Steen and Steve Corino. Two years previously at Final Battle 2009, Steen attacked his tag team partner of two years – El Generico – and became a crazed villainous character.[14] Steve Corino, in Japan at the time, released a YouTube video which revealed himself as the reason for Steen's change in character as he believed Steen could achieve more on his own than with Generico's comedic demeanour.[15] Steen and Generico feuded through all of 2010, leading to a Fight Without Honor at Final Battle 2010 by which point even Corino had become concerned with Steen's mental state and actions. In the match, Steen lost to Generico which meant he was forced to leave Ring of Honor.[16] After this, Corino set about trying to atone for his actions by adopting a character similar to a recovering addict. In the middle of 2011 he announced he would be bringing his sponsor to ROH, who was also a former ROH roster member atoning for their actions. Though most fans expected Steen, at Supercard of Honor VI Corino unveiled Jimmy Jacobs, who led The Age of the Fall to various bloody attacks in 2007 and 2008, as his sponsor.
At the Best In The World 2011 PPV Corino made another speech about reforming and introduced Kevin Steen from the crowd. Steen pretended to also atone before attacking Jacobs and then ROH's on-screen authority figure Jim Cornette.[5] This began a long campaign of Steen trying to find his way back into ROH, appearing again at Death Before Dishonor IX and attempting to piledrive ROH's owner Carey Silkin,[17] before being scripted to hack into the ROH forum a month later, which led to a new website under the Sinclair Broadcast Group's ownership of ROH. After weeks of fans chanting his name on Ring of Honor Wrestling, Steen eventually threatened legal action against Cornette. On the 3 December episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling, Steen met Cornette and Corino in the ring for a verbal confrontation. Cornette acquiesced to a match at Final Battle because of Steen's legal wrangling with the stipulation that if he can beat Steve Corino, he'll be reinstated as a roster member. Steen, meanwhile, demanded Cornette sit at ringside and watch so that he could gloat after his victory.[13]
There were several other matches on the card, including Roderick Strong issuing an invitational challenge to an unnamed opponent. He has vowed to show up the main event, contending he should be competing for the World Championship. Similarly, Tommaso Ciampa of Prince Nana's Embassy faction was scheduled in a match against an unnamed opponent. However, in the December 16 video newswire it was revealed that Ciampa's opponent would be former Embassy member Jimmy Rave. Rave made a speech in the video claiming he was going to use all the knowledge that Prince Nana taught him to end Ciampa's undefeated streak.
Reception
At the event itself, Jim Cornette stated that Final Battle had drawn the largest gate in ROH's history.[18][19] The event was attended live in the Hammerstein Ballroom by 1,500 people.[1] The show drew an estimated 2,000 buys on internet pay-per-view, a significant jump from the previous pay-per-view, Death By Dishonor IX. The increase was attributed to ROH returning to television in between the two pay-per-views.[20]
Steven Eugene "Steve" Corino is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler currently signed with WWE as a trainer and producer for their developmental territory NXT. He is best known for his tenure with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1998 to 2001 and Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2002 to 2006 and 2009–2016.
Nelson Erazo is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Homicide. He is currently competing for both National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where he is a former World Junior Heavyweight Champion, and Ring of Honor (ROH) where he is a member of the faction VLNCE UNLTD.
Jamar Shipman, better known by the ring name Jay Lethal, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is best known for his time with Ring of Honor (ROH). He is also well known for his time with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
Wesley David Richards, best known under the ring name Davey Richards, is a retired American professional wrestler. Best known for his time in Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor, and for several independent promotions, including Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Full Impact Pro, he was previously signed to Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he was a former MLW National Openweight Champion.
Kevin Yanick Steen is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Kevin Owens.
The Briscoe Brothers or the Briscoes were a professional wrestling tag team consisting of American brothers Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe. They were known for their 20-year tenure with the American professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where they were record-setting 13-time ROH World Tag Team Champions.
The American Wolves are a professional wrestling tag team which consisted of Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards. They are seven-time world tag team champions being five-time TNA World Tag Team Champions and two-time ROH World Tag Team Champions.
Final Battle 2009 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH), which was only available online. It took place on December 19, 2009 from the Manhattan Center in New York City. Nine matches were aired live from the show, and a bonus match aired during the intermission.
The Big Bang! was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH), which was only available online. It took place on April 3, 2010 from the Grady Cole Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Eight matches were featured on the card.
Death Before Dishonor VIII (DBD VIII) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH), which was only available online. This marked the 8th event entitled Death Before Dishonor, with this being the event's first time on pay per view. It took place on June 19, 2010, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Final Battle 2010 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH). It took place on December 18, 2010, at the Manhattan Center in New York City. It was the eighth annual event in the Final Battle chronology, with the first taking place in 2002, but only the second to be broadcast live. It was the fifth ROH event to be shown as an online pay-per-view.
9th Anniversary Show was the 9th ROH Anniversary Show professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH). It took place on February 26, 2011, at the Frontier Park Field House in Chicago. It was the ninth annual event in the Anniversary Show chronology, with the first taking place in 2003. It was the sixth ROH event to be shown on live online pay-per-view.
Honor Takes Center Stage was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH). It took place over two consecutive days, on 1 and 2 April 2011, at the Center Stage Theater in Atlanta, with the 1 April show at 8pm ET/5pm PT, and the 2 April show at a special matinee time of 1pm ET/10am PT. It was the seventh ROH event to be shown on live online pay-per-view.
Best in the World 2011 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event by Ring of Honor (ROH) that took place on June 26, 2011. It was an afternoon show that began at 4pm and marked the return of ROH to the Hammerstein Ballroom for the first time since 2009. It was the eighth ROH event to be shown live on internet pay-per-view and is also the second Best in the World event with the first taking place in 2006.
The All Night Express was a professional wrestling tag team that primarily performed in Ring of Honor. The tag team consisted of Rhett Titus and Kenny King, who are former one-time ROH World Tag Team Champions.
S.C.U.M. was a villainous professional wrestling stable in the promotion Ring of Honor. The stable was originally formed by Kevin Steen, Steve Corino and Jimmy Jacobs. On March 2, 2013, the number of members in the group grew predominantly, with the agenda to take control of ROH. The stable was disbanded on June 23, 2013, after losing to Team ROH in a Steel Cage Warfare match.
Jamin Dale Pugh, better known by his ring name Jay Briscoe, was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time with his brother Mark Briscoe as the Briscoe Brothers in Ring of Honor, where he was a two-time ROH World Champion, ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion, and record 13-time ROH World Tag Team Champion. Other championships held by Briscoe over his career include the Impact World Tag Team Championship and IWGP Tag Team Championship. He was inducted into the ROH Hall of Fame in 2022.
Mark Pugh is an American professional wrestler best known as Mark Briscoe. He is currently signed to Ring of Honor and its sister promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He held the ROH World Tag Team Championship with his brother Jay Briscoe a record 13 times, was one third of the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions with Jay and Bully Ray, and alongside Jay was an inaugural inductee into the ROH Hall of Fame.
The House of Truth was a professional wrestling stable, created by its leader, Truth Martini. Martini, under the character of a Life Intervention Expert, allied with various wrestlers to accompany them to their matches. The stable had existed in Ring of Honor since 2009 under different incarnations.
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