ROH Final Battle 2017 live results: Cody vs. Dalton Castle
Preview by Joseph Currier
The Hammerstein Ballroom hosts the last Ring of Honor pay-per-view of the year tonight as Final Battle 2017 takes place in New York City.
We’re looking for your thoughts on this show so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
Dalton Castle will finally get his shot at Cody Rhodes and the ROH World Championship in the main event. The match has some implications for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Tokyo Dome show as well. If Cody retains, the title will be on the line when he wrestles Kota Ibushi on January 4th. If Cody isn’t champion then, he’ll take on Ibushi in a non-title match.
The Young Bucks & Hangman Page are also set to defend their Six-Man Tag Team Championship against Flip Gordon, Dragon Lee & Titan tonight. Kenny King’s TV title will be up for grabs in a four corners elimination match against Silas Young, Shane Taylor, and Punishment Martinez, and Beretta & Chuck Taylor will challenge for Motor City Machine Guns’ Tag Team titles.
Bully Ray is set to team with Tommy Dreamer as they battle The Briscoes in a New York street fight, Marty Scurll faces Jay Lethal, Will Ospreay is in action against Matt Taven, and The Addiction take on War Machine.
Our live coverage begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
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WILL OSPREAY VS. MATT TAVEN
Taven won with the headlock DDT after blocking the Oscutter. This was a great opener. They are pushing Taven as a world title contender. Both did big dives in the first 30 seconds and it started so hot it was hard to sustain. Lots of interference by Vinny Marseglia and TK O’Ryan. Ospreay did a springboard shooting star to the floor on Marseglia and O’Ryan which allowed Taven to do a sliding kick through the ropes to the back of Ospreay’s head.
WAR MACHINE VS. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS & FRANKIE KAZARIAN
Another really good fast match match. The finish saw Hanson use a tope on Kazarian and then they did the double-team fallout on Daniels and Rowe pinned him. All action from start to finish. Both teams looked great.
JAY LETHAL VS. MARTY SCURLL
This was a great match. The story of the match is Scurll told Lethal he needed to go back to being a villain and Lethal said he wouldn’t do that. But for the finish.as Scurll got the ref turned around, it was Lethal who gave him a low blow and the Lethal injection. Earlier Scurll had used the umbrella and a piledriver but Lethal kicked out. Match told a great story and the crowd ended up more into this than the first two matches, and they were into the first two matches. This is turning into a great show already.
CHRIS SABIN & ALEX SHELLEY VS. BARETTA & CHUCKIE T FOR TAG TITLES
Weird finish. Cnuckie piledrove Sabin and then Sabin pinned Baretta with a jackknife cradle. It reads weird because it was weird. Fast paced match with a lot of spots and reverrsals. Good but I don’t thinki the crowd was as into this as the other matches fo far on the show.
KENNY KING VS. SILAS YOUNG VS. PUNISHMENT MARTINEZ VS. SHANE TAYLOR FOR TV TITLE
Young ended up as champion in the elimination match. Young and Martinez were the last two. Martinez did a running dive over the top onto Beer City Bruiser but Martinez injured his ribs. So Young kept working on the ribs with repeated knees to the body and hit mizery for the pin. With the story of match the crowd ended up pretty into it by the end. The first part of the match didn’t have much heat. Martinez came across like a star and the smart move here is Martinez chasing Young. Martinez pinned Taylor first with a springboad senton. Young pinned King after hitting him in the head with a beer bottle. Long match and overall good by the end.
MARK & JAY BRISCOE VS. BULLY RAY & TOMMY DREAMER STREET FIGHT
Long match, pretty much what you’d expect. The crowd was very into this. The finish saw the Briscoes use 3D on Bully on a table, but Bully didn’t go up well adn the table didn’t break. So Mark came off he top rope with an elbow off the top on Bully and Jay pinned him. A ton of action using kendo sticks, Star Wars sabres, Dreamer did a Spicolli driver on on Mark off the apron with table on the floor. Bully bled like crazy and they.used a cheese grater on him. Lots of ECW chants as well. .
They brought out Brandi Rhodes, Deonna Purrazzo, Jenny Rose, Jessie Brooks, Kelly Klein, Mandy Leon, Stella Gray, Sumie Sakai and Stardom star Mayu Iwatani. They announced a tournament to crown the firrst Women of Honor champion. Tournament starts on 1/20 in Nashville. Said other women from Stardom would also be coming.
YOUNG BUCKS & HANGMAN PAGE VS. DRAGON LEE & TITAN & FLIP GORDON FOR THE TRIOS TITLES
This was what you’d expect. They did almost no schtick, past a ton of missed dropkicks in successon. The rest was all the flying moves on both sides. Gordon is phenomenal as far as what he can do but he still doesn’t connect well with the crowd. Dragon Lee was super as usual as Lee & Titan have no issues working with Americans because of their time in Japan. age is standig out more including a crazy moonsault off the top to the floor. Page & Matt did a shooting star Meltzer driver off the apron to the floor to take out Lee. The finish saw Page have both Lee & Gordon in the rites of passage and Matt & Nick came off the top rope with a double indy taker on them and Matt pinned Gordon. Daniels & Kazarian & Scorpio Sky (who they put over as a friend of Gordon’s but the turned on Gordon after the match) came out and beat up both teams so they look like the next challengers.
Cody is wearing a mink coat like Flair & Dusty wore in the 80s.
CODY VS. DALTON CASTLE FOR ROH TITLE
Castle won the title clean with the bangarang. Good match, I don’t think the fans expected the title change at all. Big confetti celebration at the end. Cody came out with bleached blonde hair. Brandi Rhodes did a plancha on The Boys and Todd Sinclair kicked them all out. Cody bled heavily from being pulled into the post. There was a ref bump and Castle got Cody in the Julie Newmar submission and Cody tapped out but no ref. Cody escaped from the bangarang the first time and hit crossroads but Castle kicked out. Then they went to the finish.