By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN’S “FINAL BATTLE 2014” PPV REPORT
DEC. 7, 2014
NEW YORK CITY
AIRED LIVE ON PPV

(1) Hanson vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Mark Briscoe. Good match that showcased
Hanson. Hanson won with a spin kick on Coleman. The spot of the match was Coleman's rolling suplex spot capped by a double suplex on Jacobs and Briscoe.

WINNER: Hanson.

Star rating: (**1/2)

Jacobs was still in the ring and he cut a promo saying there are nights where you live and die by your own sword. B.J. Whitmer said tonight Page would take his rightful spot as a member of The Decade. Adam Page then came down to the ring.

(2) Adam Page vs. Roderick Strong. Solid match. Page got in some offense, but it wasn't the type of match that elevated him. Strong won when Page passed out in the Stronghold.

WINNER: Roderick Strong

Star rating: (**3/4)

Whitmer went after announcer Steve Corino for the 1,000 time after the match.

The announcers skirted around Michael Elgin's locker room issues as he made his entrance.

(3) Michael Elgin vs. Tommaso Ciampa. These two beat the heck out of each other to very little reaction, as the crowd just wouldn't invest in the match. Ciampa kicked out of the Elgin bomb late in the match. Ciampa knocked down the ref in an obvious spot and McGuinness stormed off. Elgin won with a big double undertook DDT. The fans booed when the match was over.

WINNER: Michael Elgin

Star rating: (**3/4)

They aired a video for ROH's 13th Anniversary show in Las Vegas on March 1. The narrator said the show would be on PPV.

(4) A.C.H. & The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs. The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) & Cedric Alexander. The Young Bucks got a huge pop coming out. All action from the opening bell. Fans were super-hot for the match. They went to a big sequence that ended with Matt nailing Daniels with a superkick after he hit Angels wings on Nick and the fans went insane. A.C.H. monkey-flipped Kazarian into a double superkick from the Young Bucks a short time later to another huge pop. The Young Bucks hit the Meltzer driver on Alexander followed by a 630 from A.C.H. for the pin. Good Lord that was awesome.

Winners: ACH & The Young Bucks.

Star rating: (****)

(5) Moose (w/Stokley Hathaway & Prince Nana) vs. R.D. Evans. Veda Scott made her way to the ring with Moose in control. They did a horrible spot where Evans went for a springboard several times before awkwardly taking out Moose. Scott ended up getting into the ring. She eventually hit a low blow on Evans. Moose then hit a spear for the win. This was bad.

Nana got on the mic after and said karma is a bitch.

WINNER: Moose.

Star rating: (DUD)

(6) ROH TV champion Jay Lethal (w/Truth Martini and Jay Diesel) vs. Matt Sydal. Martini interfered during the early going and Lethal dominated the action. Sydal managed to counter a Lethal injection and he hit a SSP, but Martini pulled the ref out of the ring. Sydal took out Diesel and Martini. Sydal hit a SSP on Martini, but Lethal caught him with an ace crusher as he landed on Martini. He followed up with the Lethal injection for the win.

WINNER: Jay Lethal

Star rating: (**3/4) - This was a solid match, but we've seen this type of match before from Lethal and Sydal came across as just another challenger here instead of something special.

(7) ROH World Tag Team champions ReDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) vs. The Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA). Fish and O'Reilly worked over Shelley and targeted his arm for a long period of time. Shelley nearly tagged out at one point, but O'Reilly pulled KUSHIDA off the apron. KUSHIDA got the hot tag and ran wild. This match hasn't had the type of crowd heat I was expected so far. They put some cool twists from their last match in NJPW and KUSHIDA wiped out everyone with a big dive to the floor. The crowd didn't seem to react to the twists on the spots from their previous matches, but fired up for KUSHIDA's dive.

O'Reilly caught KUSHIDA in a triangle when he went for a moonsault and Fish hit a diving headbutt while he was in the hold. Shelley then broke up the submission with a double stomp. KUSHIDA kicked out of chasing the dragon and O'Reilly locked in an armbar. Fish held Shelley off and KUSHIDA had to tap. This was really good, but didn't have the atmosphere of their match in NJPW last month, as the crowd only popped big for the cool sequences.

Winners: Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly to retain the ROH World Tag Team Titles

Star rating: (***3/4)

(8) ROH World champion Jay Briscoe vs. Adam Cole in a Fight Without Honor. Jay hit a Jay-driller during the first minute of action and Cole kicked out at the very last second. The crowd woke up and was solidly behind Jay. Jay hit a double stomp off the apron that put Cole through a table at ringside a short time later. Jay got a staple gun, but turned around right into an unprotected chairshot from Cole with the chair reserved for his dad in the front row. Cole then stapled the sign on the chair into Jay's forehead. Brutal match with both guys using weapons.

At one point, Jay put Cole through two chairs with a Falcon Arrow. Cole went for a Figure Four around the post, but Jay used his legs to force Cole into the ringpost. Cole went under the ring to gif and came up bleeding. The athletic commission came down to the ring to check on Cole's cut and the fans booed. Jay fought off the athletic commission and went after Cole. Cole nailed Jay with a belt shot for a nearfall later in the match, but he kicked out at two. Cole hit the Florida Key, but Jay kicked out at the last second.

Jay caught Cole going for the Panama Sunrise and hit a DVD through the table. Jay took out a bag of tacks and dumped them on the mat, but Cole hit a low blow. Cole shoved some tacks in Jay's mouth and nailed him with a superkick for a nearfall. Briscoe back dropped Coke into the tacks a short time later and hit the Jay-driller for a near fall. The fans went insane when Cole kicked out. Jay stood over the title belt and lifted Cole into another Jay-driller onto it for the win.

WINNER: Jay Briscoe to retain the ROH World Title match.

Star rating: (***1/2) - This was tough to watch at times with all of the risks Cole and Jay took in this match. The unprotected chairshot Jay took early in the match was unnecessary and I'm not a fan of staple guns being used in matches, either. The crowd heat for this match was insane and the match was a fitting ending to this bitter feud.

Overall thoughts: (6.5) - This PPV was a mixed bag for me. There were a number of good matches, but Terminal 5 didn’t look good on PPV and the crowd heat was missing for many of the matches. With the crowd not investing in much of the undercard, “Final Battle 2014” didn’t have the big show feeling expected from the tradition of this show with the exception of a couple of matches.

It’s amazing to see how cold Elgin, Ciampa, and Sydal have gotten under the watch of ROH booker Delirious. The Ciampa-Elgin match had almost no heat, although the match was good it wasn’t that interesting to watch with the crowd sitting on their hands.

Sydal also seemed like just another guy and not something special in his post-WWE run in ROH. His match with Lethal was fine, but it’s clear he doesn’t have a lot of value in ROH right now, especially losing the way he did to Lethal in a match I’ve seen from Lethal a countless number of times where he wins because of the House of Truth interfering.

The Young Bucks & A.C.H. vs. The Addiction & Cedric Alexander stole the show. They had an incredible train wreck of a match and the crowd treated the Young Bucks like Superstars. This match is worth going out of your way to see.

The Tag Title match between ReDRagon and the Time Splitters was also very good, but the crowd seemed to be dead for a lot of the action and only really got into the action late in the match. Both teams put together some cool sequences that played off their previous matches in NJPW, but the crowd didn’t respond to them.

The main event was a fitting end to the feud between Adam Cole and Jay Briscoe, but the match was hard to watch at times with blood, a staple gun, and unprotected chair shots playing into the equation. The crowd was red-hot for the action and it was the one match on the card that felt like a huge deal with a built in storyline, which was missing elsewhere on the card.

Overall, the good outweighed the bad on this show. It was a letdown of sorts to see “Final Battle” not deliver an excellent show given the tradition of it being a huge show for the company in the past. There were some bright spots on the card, but nothing outside of the six man was excellent.

***

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