ROH FINAL BATTLE

Garland, Texas

TAYA VALKYRIE vs. JAZMIN ALLURE (4:30): This was a 5 hour and 7 minute long show. Yikes! I suppose if you paid for it you got your money's worth. The show had some good matches but overall it wasn't anything special or anything. The very small crowd was at least pretty enthusiastic and loud for most of the matches, which helped. I guess only the super hardcore wrestling fans would even go to something like this, hence why they made a lot of noise and were into a lot the show. Ring of Honor does have a few wrestlers that are, supposedly, strictly ROH wrestlers. A lot of the others were just here to boost the superstar factor (Jon Moxley, Brian Danielson) and a lot of others seem to be in the AEW graveyard. Taya Valkyrie, Nyla Rose, and Keith Lee haven't been on AEW TV lately so they've seemingly been pushed into ROH because Tony and the writers don't know what else to do with them right now. Taya was brought in to be a big time opponent for Jade Cargill, who recently left for the WWE. Taya is now doing squash matches on the pre-show of a ROH PPV. Oh, well. There literally wasn't anything to this. 1/2*

THE VON ERICHS vs. THE OUTRUNNERS (6:10): The Von Erichs are the sons of one of the famous Von Erich wrestlers. The one who is still alive. The Von Erich's were famous wrestlers but I never saw them because as far as I can tell they were never in WWE or WCW and I doubt any Texas wrestling was on TV in Pennsylvania when I was a kid watching wrestling. There's a new movie coming out called The Iron Claw about the Von Erich's. I guess that's why they were on this show and on Rampage (which aired at the same time as this show). This was another forgettable match. No one looked particularly good. 1/2*

BRYAN KEITH vs. JACK CARTWHEEL (7:14): Jack Cartwheel is awesome. He's pretty much just a modern RVD. Too bad his name is horrendous, albeit apt. I always wonder about when someone picks a name, like say a band picks a name. Don't you want to envision that name being the headliner at a big stadium? There's so many stupid band names and you have to wonder if they thought about, well, what if we get famous and have this stupid name? What if Jack Cartwheel headlined Wrestlemania? No one can imagine the main event of Wrestlemania being so-and-so vs. Jack Cartwheel because it's a stupid, comedy name. Change it to Jack C. or J.C. or something. It's probably why AEW or any big company hasn't signed him. Too bad, because he's super athletic and super exciting. He also lost here, which made no sense, as the winner got to be in the Survival of the Fittest match later on. ***

DANIEL GARCIA vs. BLAKE CHRISTIAN (12:16): This was a fun, exciting match. The fans really like Garcia and he's a good wrestler. Will he ever be pushed to a bigger stage, though? Probably not, which is a shame. **1/2

EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO vs. BLACK TAURUS (16:29): Black Taurus has one of the coolest looks in wrestling. He wears a Minotaur mask with the ringed nose and horns. He looks menacing as hell, and is a big, thick dude who does a bunch of power moves plus some high flying. Both of these guys are in AAA, although you wouldn't know that since Vikingo is on Rampage every week. While this was a really good match with a lot of big moves...the problem was that Taurus beat the living shit out of Vikingo non-stop. It was kind of ridiculous. **1/2

THE MOGUL EMBASSY vs. TMDK (12:03): The Gates of Agony, the tag team, were just in New Japan's tag team tournament. I didn't watch any of those shows so I have no idea how they did. Brian Cage was probably the star in this anyway. He's another guy that's kind of been sent to the purgatory of ROH for no apparent reason. I remember a few year's ago his wife bitched online that he wasn't being pushed. That made me think he would quit...but he's still here, being used sparingly, I guess just happy he's getting paid for not wrestling a lot. TMDK is Zack Sabre, Jr.'s stable. Without Zack, though, they're mostly a bunch of scrubs. The match was entertaining at least. **1/2

ETHAN PAGE vs. TONY NEESE "I QUIT MATCH" (20:05): Mark Sterling, Neese's manager, had to be handcuffed to the post for this match for unknown reasons. Of course he got out anyway after a while. Page did a cool Diamond Cutter off the apron through two tables at ringside. Page ended up handcuffed at one point. They used a 45 pound weight and steel chairs to hit each other. Neese quit when Page was choking him with the handcuffs. Pretty entertaining match. **1/2

NYLA ROSE vs. VERTIVIXEN (2:41): This was a squash. Nothing to see here. -No Stars-

KYLE FLETCHER vs. BRYAN KEITH vs. DALTON CASTLE vs. KOMMANDER vs. LEE JOHNSON vs. LEE MORIARTY "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST MATCH" (25:54) This was an elimination match for the TV title. Somoa Joe relinquished the title for no reason. By the end of this match, when Fletcher and Kommander were trading devastating, wild moves to each other, the place was going ape shit. The crowd also loved everything Dalton Castle did. Castle was being tossed out of the ring by everyone constantly so when he finally reversed Fletcher and tossed him out the place went crazy and Castle walked around like he won the title. That was funny. Kommander did all of his insane high flying, rope walk stuff which was great as usual. This was the best match on the show. Very entertaining. ***

WHEELER YUTA vs. TOM LAWLOR (13:11): Yawn. These Pure matches without Shibata are always dull. And the ending was kind of anti-climatic and came out of nowhere. Yuta retained the Pure title. 1/2*

KEITH LEE vs. SHANE TAYLOR (14:40): I thought this would be better, as Shane Taylor is actually, usually in pretty good matches. They did some big, surprising, devastating moves which were cool, though, including a top rope flip into a Canadian Destroyer that was wild. Maybe because they're both big and slow it didn't work, as having one small, fast guy against a big, slow guy would work better. It was decent but I just expected something better. **

BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB vs. FTR & MARK BRISCOE (29:37): These guys wrestled for 18 minutes and were brawling by the stage when they were all counted out. Mark Briscoe took the mic and said that he wanted to continue because this match was in honor of his late brother. They continued the match as a hardcore, no rules match. Mark Briscoe was tossed off the top rope onto a barbed wire ladder. Dax gave Moxley a pile driver through a thumbtack covered table. And Moxley used a fork to get everyone to bleed. I figured with all these big names this would have been the main event. Maybe it should have been. It was entertaining but probably too long. They should have just started with the hardcore stuff. ***

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. ANTHONY HENRY (5:45): Kingston was the ROH champ...but for no good reason they let the winner of AEW's Continental Classic tournament be the ROH champ. No, I don't understand that, either. Henry is in The Workhorsemen tag team. No, I don't know why this match was on this show. It wasn't even good. 1/2*

ATHENA vs. BILLIE STARKZ (28:30): Starkz is 19 but looks 30. She's decent though obviously a little green. Athena retained the title. This is the 2nd straight ROH PPV with an Athena main event for the title. The last one was better. This started kind of slow and was boring in parts. The crowd was into this match which was shocking considering the show was 5 hours long. By the end with the near falls and the ref bump and everything it was fairly dramatic and exciting. The next ROH PPV should be in Philly because Wrestlemania is there in April. I'm wondering if they'll do it at the Liacouras Center or maybe the ECW Arena. Maybe I'd actually go...though I doubt I could talk anyone into going to a 5 hour wrestling show. **1/2