Shit Battle '15

Final Battle 2015

(2015/12/18)

1.      3-WAY for Tag Title No. 1 Contenders: Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs. All-Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King) vs. The Briscoes (Jay & Mark)

Honest to god, I forgot Rhett Titus ever existed until Kenny King returned to the company. Where the fuck has he been all this time? Seriously, where? Anyway, he’s in really good shape, so I guess he did work somewhere. This match was disappointing, as I thought it might be a wild spotfest full of charming chaos and indie wrestling disorder, but instead we got a generic ROH match with lots of empty moves and shitty sequences, but not so much substance. Totally forgettable shit.

**

2.      Silas Young vs. Dalton Castle

Good match! They had an easy and simple story and angle to work, it had this old school vibe to it and I totally dug it. Both dudes worked hard and delivered a nice little match and post-match. Good storytelling right there, folks!

***

3.      Moose vs. Michael Elgin

Moose is not even good to begin with (Cedric Alexander is WAAAY better), and when you pair him with the walking abomination of a pro-wrestler that is Michael Elgin, all you get is disaster. Obviously. Man oh man, I have one word for this match that comes to mind: “disgusting”. Seriously, I felt disgusted throughout the entire duration of this dumb motherfucking pile of shit. And then #BigMike finishes off Moose with a fucking Burning Hammer, I swear a god I almost puked. I hate Michael Elgin so much. It’s absolutely incredible to me that he has fans.

DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUD

4.      Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly

The first half was very good and intense, felt like a true dirty fight between two guys who can’t stand each other. But then it got overambitious and almost everything went down the shitter. The match was much longer than needed, they turned it into a generic indie workrate mediocrity instead of fierce fight that looked so promising early on. Such a wasted opportunity. Did they even watch their amazing tussle from few years ago? Because THAT match was fucking great.

**1/2

5.      Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley, Matt Sydal, ACH

So, the central storyline here is Sabin vs. Shelley. Or at least it should be. They were teasing it the whole time and never delivered. It wasn’t a swerve that would serve as an accelerator in the feud, no, they simply never delivered Sabin vs. Shelley on a show called “Final Battle”. Much wow. Anyway, this was your generic indie workrate match, it had some nice moments, and some awkward ones too. Nothing memorable here, everyone is equal, everyone is the same, there is no any hierarchy, no depth, it’s just a spot after spot after spot, etc. Realistically, the match doesn’t deserve **3/4, it’s just that I was being generous due to emotional connection to the good old TNA crew.

**3/4

6.      ROH World TV Championship: Bobby Fish vs. Roderick Strong ©

This match put me to sleep. Literally. I had to rewatch it. Still sucked. Also, dat finish. Long live RUSSO!

bad

7.      ROH World Tag Team Championship: War Machine (Raymond Rowe & Hanson) vs. The Kingdom (Michael Bennett & Matt Taven) ©

Damn, they couldn’t hold it tight for even three minutes.

bad

8.      ROH World Championship: AJ Styles vs. Jay Lethal ©

As good as it gets with modern Jay Lethal, and it took an elite pro-wrestler to achieve that. Really good match with some truly great moments, but there were also some truly blank moments that were so Jay Lethal. The table bump from AJ was totally nuts. Lethal’s crappy finisher is still the worst. AJ should be very proud of himself for this carryjob.

***3/4