Live thoughts from Final Battle

By Scott Keith on 21 December 2024

After having a pretty darn good time at Forbidden Door over the summer despite having to leave before the main event, it was an easy decision for my friend Shasta and I to buy tickets for Final Battle at Hammerstein. He'd last seen Ring of Honor live in that same venue for the 2012 edition; I was at the LAST last one in 2021. I haven't seen much since the reboot but I follow AEW so I'm tangentially aware of most of the goings on. The novelty of that company, even if in name only, back in maybe my favorite building for live wrestling… Chris Jericho as champion wasn't a complete turnoff, let's do it.

It was fun explaining to a casual fan the evolution of Mansoor from Saudi Arabian opening act to independent male model, and every company should hire he and Mace for every opening match until the end of time.

I decided not to go to see Nigel vs. Bryan at Arthur Ashe because it was too soon after Forbidden Door and they didn't actually book it. I'd already seen Bryan do his twitchy retirement tour. So I'm so glad to have gotten a Nigel return match, and I didn't mind the Pure rules after he Eddie Guerrero'd a rope break away off a “closed fist.”

“Why are people booing Goldust's partner?”
“Because he's young, and sexy, and a shithead.”

I don't know if there was a storyline reason they both dressed as Savage but QT vs. Black Machismo gave me Jeff Jarrett smashing a guitar in damn near 2025 so I'm a happy camper. You can't give him an opportunity to draw the dimes, he's just gotta pop up and smash the guitar.

TV title 6 man was pretty great but goddamn did it feel long. Cardona and Jericho's entrances were great, And Then the Bell Rang. No fault of Cardona's of course, it's just… Jericho, man. What do you even say. Shasta was terrified of that Lionsault, I told him there've been worse.

Felt bad to leave before the main event AGAIN but I picked up Final Battle 2022 and '23 so I can watch where the feud started and maybe get around to Athena/Billie someday. I'm not subscribing to Honor Club or whatever it is, and I'd think long and hard about ever attending a Tony Khan promoted wrestling show again because I don't like my main event video packages starting at 11:30. Trim a match, cut a match, I don't care, FUCK… but this felt like a pretty darn good approximation of an old school RoH show, of which I will always buy a DVD. (It doesn't look like 2021 is on DVD.)

GCW is running there on my birthday, anybody know when those crazy fuckers go to bed?

Earlier than Tony. I recall that most of their shows run a reasonable length. I was debating getting Honorclub for a month and checking this out for Cardona, but 4.5 hours or whatever it is, is just too much on a Friday night. They've gotta get the length on these things under control.