ROH Final Battle 2008

ROH Final Battle 2008

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kenny Omega: **½  

2008 Kenny Omega looks so unusual. Much smaller in size and much shorter hair. Crazy to think he later become IWGP Heavyweight champion. Big step. This was a good opener I thought. It told a nice story of Castagnoli dominating Omega, showing off his power and superiority which makes him overconfident, eventually backfiring and allowing Omega to make some comebacks and gets the win at the 6:59 mark with a inside cradle. The match popped the crowd, made Castagnoli look great but flawed at the same time and got Kenny Omega over as the underdog.

Chris Hero vs. Jerry Lynn vs. Necro Butcher vs. Rhett Titus: **¾ 

Pretty fun four way match. Some good interactions between Hero and Lynn. Liked the ending of Hero trying to cheat but failing, losing as a result. 

ROH World Tag Team Title Match

El Generico & Kevin Steen (c)vs. The Age Of The Fall (Delirious & Jimmy Jacobs):  ***¼ 

No wasting time with this match, them starting of with Jimmy Jacobs cutting a promo on Necro Butcher and beating on him allowing Steenerico to make the save. There is some great chemistry between Steen and Generico, some great tag team wrestling whether it's double team moves or sequence. They worked well with their opponents and it made for a good match. Delirious and Jacobs aren't the best wrestlers but they looked pretty good here and did some nice work on Steen’s legs which were sold well. Only criticism I have is that it went 5 minutes to long but otherwise, it's a good match. 

Brent Albright, Erick Stevens & Roderick Strong vs. Sweet 'n' Sour Inc. (Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards & Go Shiozaki) (w/Larry Sweeney): ***¼ 

A fun little brawl between the two stables. Never felt liked it dragged and it oddly suited the Wolves which never expected. Go tapping was surprising but I suppose his run was coming to an end at this point so it's not a big surprise. 

Kensuke Office (Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kensuke Sasaki) vs. The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe): ***¾ 

Kensuke Office or Sasaki and Son as I call them, in ROH. Dreams do come true. Nakajima isn't as refined as he would become but he sold really well for most of the match and was a great FIP, Sasaki was at his best in this match but he brought that explosive power to it and it was very enjoyable. The Briscoes were great as always and did some great work throughout the match. 

ROH World Title #1 Contendership Match

Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black: ***½ 

Good back and forth match between two good indie workers. Aries looked the better of the two, but Tyler Black held his own and made it a competitive match. The aftermath of Jimmy Jacobs turning on Tyler Black was very interesting. 

ROH World Title Match

Nigel McGuinness (c) vs. Naomichi Marufuji: ****

Two of my favourites facing off right here. ROH World Champion vs the AJPW Junior Champion against each. It's an interesting dynamic. Two different styles as well, Marufuji, more flashy, high flying whereas Nigel is more of a technical wrestler with some stiff STIFF striking. So yeah I was looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint. Great match with Marufuji staying ahead of Nigel, never letting Nigel get the better of him, forcing Nigel to be smarter and look for openings and eventually getting the rebound lariat for the win. Marufuji was very good here, his offence meshed well with Nigel, who made Marufuji look great with his selling. Obvious winner but it didn't take away too much. 

Fight Without Honor

Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima: ****½ 

Awesome match and end to the Morishima vs Danielson story. Very brutal and some good storytelling. Danielson going for Morishima’s eye early on, referencing the detached retina. Danielson going after the legs and arms of Morishima, trying I limit what he could do, attacking him with a chain. Morishima not going down, beating down Danielson for most of the match. Great stuff. Great main event. 

Overall

Really good show. The opening matches were decent and everything from Briscoes vs Sasaki/Nakajima onwards was very good-excellent. Morishima vs Danielson and Marufuji vs Nigel were MOTYC with a fun undercard. 

MOTN: Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima

MVP: Naomichi Marufuji