Special Event: Ring Of Honor: Final Battle 2024

December 20, 2024 4:40 PM

After last year's well-received Final Battle in Texas, ROH returns to the Hammerstein Ballroom, a venue that saw some of their greatest matches of the 2000s. This year, the Men's and Women's Championships are defended by former-WWE-turned-AEW/ROH-veteran heels against independent darlings. Dustin Rhodes, himself a piece of wrestling history, tries to reclaim one of his own father's sacred relics in tag-team action, and the "Survival of the Fittest" stipulation is revived. Final Battle can be watched by members of Honor Club at the ROH website.

The announced card for tonight:

FREE ZERO HOUR PRE-SHOW

The Infantry (Carlie Bravo and Capt. Shawn Dean) (with Trish Adora) vs. The Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett)
Harley Cameron vs. Hanako
LEEJ (Lee Johnson and EJ Nduka) vs. Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona)
The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson)

MAIN CARD

Jay Lethal vs. Q. T. Marshall
ROH Women's World Television Championship Match:Red Velvet (c) vs. Leyla Hirsch
Mansoor (with Mason Madden) vs. Atlantis Jr.
ROH World Tag Team Championship Match:The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara) (c) vs. The Righteous (Vincent and Dutch) (Texas Bullrope Match)
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tommy Billington
ROH Pure Championship Open Challenge Match: Lee Moriarty (c) vs. ???
ROH World Television Championship Match: Brian Cage (c) vs. Willie Mack vs. Mark Davis vs. AR Fox vs. Blake Christian vs. Komander Survival of the Fittest Match
ROH World Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Matt Cardona
ROH Women's World Championship: Athena (c) vs. Billie Starkz

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (9 comments total)

Flashback to Best Friends Chuck and Trent, prior to Final Battle 2017 at the Hammerstein, cutting the best promo ever.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 4:45 PM on December 20, 2024

Also, you are not seeing double, Athena and Billie Starkz are once again headlining Final Battle after putting on the best match at Final Battle last year as well. In 2023 they were the actual main event, this year the Cardona/Jericho star power might make them go next-to-last. I thought last year was Billie's time to win, but in the interim Athena has become ROH's longest reigning champ of any kind. There's literally nothing left for her to do, so I'm recycling my prediction from last year: "My bet is for Athena to drop the belt to future mega-star Billie Starkz and hop a train to AEW, hopefully with expanded women's storylines."

Interestingly, if Billie wins she would not be the youngest champ in ROH history, in fact the inaugural women's champion Rok-C -- now Roxanne Perez in WWE -- was 19 when she won.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 4:53 PM on December 20, 2024

Two things I hadn't expected from the first 30 minutes of the show:

1) Chris Jericho getting that good heel heat with his "King of New York" shtick, plugging recent Yankees-to-Mets big-$$$-contract Juan Soto

2) DANHAUSEN!!!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:27 PM on December 20, 2024

Lethal vs. Marshal is a straight-up double-barrelled nostalgia shotgun, so your reaction to it will be governed entirely by your feeling on that sort of thing. Both men evoked Macho Man Randy Savage and Marshal proved that he still has the conditioning for a complete match. I am usually against the Lethal Injection -- it's the dumbest looking finishing move -- but QT made those last 2 look perfect.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:00 PM on December 20, 2024

The nostalgia trip continues, with Nigel by-God McGuinness returning to Hammerstein for the first time since he beat KENTA for the World Championship in 2009, and throwing his body into an entertaining, if somewhat confusing, Pure match.

I'm a little less enthused about the double-bullrope match, although I did laugh at Ian Riccaboni finding a new way to reference Dustin's old "Shattered Dreams" persona. To me, the problem with stipulation matches is that the heel is always going to look for a way to cheat the stip, so when VIncent finds scissors to cut himself loose, I'm just like, "What was it all for? So that Sammy can swanton himself into another table?" The finish is Dustin clobbering the Righteous with his father's bell, of course.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:22 PM on December 20, 2024

I love LOVE in a multi-person elimination match, when the champ or putative favorite is eliminated earlier than everyone expects. Sneaky asshole Blake Christian getting a surprise pin on Brian Cage sent such a thrill through the crowd, and then he and Komander entered a new lucha libre bonus level of their own.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:46 PM on December 20, 2024

Jericho and Cardona are going first, which means once again the Women's Championship will main-event Final Battle. ::salute::
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:57 PM on December 20, 2024

And lo, the entire Men's title match was really a setup for Bandido's return. I'm not entirely surprised, as Cardona is famous for not committing himself to any one company, why would anyone other than GCW put a title on him.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:26 PM on December 20, 2024

::sigh:: I am sad that Billie is now a two-time loser vs. Athena. You sent me home angry, Tony Khan! I reason that the backstage logic is that Athena shouldn't go to Japan's Wrestle Kingdom as a loser, and also Billie is still attending college so she can't be a full-time champ?

But in the perspective of the show, even if Athena loses the belt to someone in Japan somehow, and Billie gains it later, she's still 0-2 vs. her old boss. Is she the Shawn Michaels in this Shawn vs. Undertaker story?

Anyway, Wrestling Observer writeup is here if anyone wants to read a detailed match analysis.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:26 AM on December 21, 2024