Road to Final Battle 2015 Hype

[Big Red Machine]

We've got our first two matches for Nashville, and they are...

Heidi Lovelace vs. Veda Scott
Taeler Hendrix vs. ODB




Why would they let Veda wrestle if she is suing them for being an "unsafe working environment?"

[cero2k]

At least those matches should be better than the previous

[Big Red Machine]

At least those matches should be better than the previous

Probably. I don't have much faith in ODB vs. Hendrix.

[cero2k]

At least those matches should be better than the previous

Probably. I don't have much faith in ODB vs. Hendrix.

i think they could have an awesome heel ODB vs underdog Hendrix. But i haven't seen anything from her since joining the HoT aside from one promo, not sure if she's wrestling differently

for that Nashville show, Jerry Lynn has been announced to be there, i think he'll be doing an interview or something, maybe he'll kick Lethal in the face

[Big Red Machine]

At least those matches should be better than the previous

Probably. I don't have much faith in ODB vs. Hendrix.

i think they could have an awesome heel ODB vs underdog Hendrix. But i haven't seen anything from her since joining the HoT aside from one promo, not sure if she's wrestling differently

for that Nashville show, Jerry Lynn has been announced to be there, i think he'll be doing an interview or something, maybe he'll kick Lethal in the face

ODB has always been the babyface against the H.O.T.
As for Lynn... while I REALLY hope they are going have Lethal start wrestling against old dudes all the time, I do have to note that Nashville was the location of Jerry Lynn's first ROH World Title shot.

[Big Red Machine]

Bucks vs. Briscoes signed for Nashville as well

[Big Red Machine]

Here's everything else for Nashville:

Ring of Honor returns to the Fairgrounds in Nashville, TN this Friday night! And this huge night of action is even more special because ROH television cameras will be rolling. Be there LIVE on November 20th when the ROAD TO FINAL BATTLE barrels straight through Nashville!
Here's the latest update on what's lined up for Nashville on November 20th...

- SURPRISE 10-MAN TAG TEAM MATCH

Our special Christmas edition of ROH TV will feature a holiday surprise - Ring of Honor style! Two 5 man teams will square off, but the teams will be an unexpected mix of ROH stars.

TEAM CAPTAIN 1: ROH WORLD CHAMPION JAY LETHAL
TEAM CAPTAIN 2: ROH WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPION RODERICK STRONG

Before the event, Team Captains Jay Lethal and Roderick Strong will select 4 partners each at random. These two long-time rivals are always gunning for each other, and this time they'll have a team to back them up. But WHO exactly - and are they friend or foe? - is a will be a surprise unwrapped on November 20th and filmed for ROH TV!


- MATT SYDAL & ACH VS. RPG VICE (ROCKY ROMERO & TRENT BERETTA)

The Best of 5 challenge series between ACH and Matt Sydal is set to conclude during SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST weekend. But just one week later, they will resume their partnership to take on one of the best teams on the planet: RPG VICE! The entire premise of the series was for ACH to challenge himself against his partner and mentor, with each learning and growing from the other. Has increasing aggression as the series builds led to any unexpected animosity? We'll find out when they team up once again on November 20th in Nashville!

- SILAS YOUNG & BEER CITY BRUISER w/ The Boys VS. REDRAGON (KYLE O'REILLY & BOBBY FISH)

ROH's most disgruntled team takes on the former World Tag Team Champions on the ROAD TO FINAL BATTLE! Silas and the Bruiser have bonded over their mutual love of manliness and mutual hatred of just about everyone else in the ROH locker room. The Bruiser has aided Young in his quest to turn The Boys into Men, though results have not been stellar. We've seen The Boys forced to fight Young's battles before. Will he force them to face Fish and O'Reilly, quite possibly the hardest hitting team on the planet? You don't want to miss this live in Nashville on November 20th!

All this and a lot more is planned for our massive return to Nashville on November 20th! You can be there live and in person on the ROAD TO FINAL BATTLE. To get your tickets to this television taping event, click HERE!

Ring of Honor Wrestling Presents
ROAD TO FINAL BATTLE
Friday, November 20th, 2015
The Fairgrounds Nashville
625 Smith Avenue - Nashville, TN 37203
7:30 PM CST bell time

The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks

Women of Honor Match #1
Veda Scott vs. Heidi Lovelace

Women of Honor Match #2
The ODB vs. Taeler Hendrix w/ Truth Martini

Former ROH World Champion Jerry Lynn will appear

ROH STARS SIGNED TO APPEAR
Chris Sabin
Adam Cole
Michael Elgin
Moose
Adam Page
ANX (Kenny King & Rhett Titus)
Dalton Castle
Donovan Dijak
War Machine (Ray Rowe & Hanson)
And More...!

[cero2k]

i'm surprised they didn't save that 5-on-5 match for the Vegas show, we know how they love to play the vegas gimmick and that would have been perfect.

a bunch of tag matches, but they all seem good, some new pairings too

[Big Red Machine]

Ring of Honor returns to the Fairgrounds in Nashville, TN this Friday night! And this huge night of action is even more special because ROH television cameras will be rolling. Be there LIVE on November 20th when the ROAD TO FINAL BATTLE barrels straight through Nashville!
Here's the latest update on what's lined up for Nashville on November 20th...

- SURPRISE 10-MAN TAG TEAM MATCH

Our special Christmas edition of ROH TV will feature a holiday surprise - Ring of Honor style! Two 5 man teams will square off, but the teams will be an unexpected mix of ROH stars.

TEAM CAPTAIN 1: ROH WORLD CHAMPION JAY LETHAL
TEAM CAPTAIN 2: ROH WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPION RODERICK STRONG

Before the event, Team Captains Jay Lethal and Roderick Strong will select 4 partners each at random. These two long-time rivals are always gunning for each other, and this time they'll have a team to back them up. But WHO exactly - and are they friend or foe? - is a will be a surprise unwrapped on November 20th and filmed for ROH TV!

So Roddy vs. Lethal is still continuing?
Also, the "surprise" name is dumb.

- MATT SYDAL & ACH VS. RPG VICE (ROCKY ROMERO & TRENT BERETTA)

The Best of 5 challenge series between ACH and Matt Sydal is set to conclude during SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST weekend. But just one week later, they will resume their partnership to take on one of the best teams on the planet: RPG VICE! The entire premise of the series was for ACH to challenge himself against his partner and mentor, with each learning and growing from the other. Has increasing aggression as the series builds led to any unexpected animosity? We'll find out when they team up once again on November 20th in Nashville!

Wait? Sydal was supposed to me a mentor to ACH? When the hell did that happen? They did literally NOTHING to establish this at all. They've had a whole year of TV and house shows... so why haven't we ever seen Sydal give ACH some advice for an upcoming match during an interview? Why not use those house shows to give us some segments where ACH gets frustrated in a singles match but Sydal is at ringside and helps calm him down? Hell... I don't think this "mentorship" has ever been even been pushed on commentary (or possibly never even mentioned at all).

- SILAS YOUNG & BEER CITY BRUISER w/ The Boys VS. REDRAGON (KYLE O'REILLY & BOBBY FISH)

ROH's most disgruntled team takes on the former World Tag Team Champions on the ROAD TO FINAL BATTLE! Silas and the Bruiser have bonded over their mutual love of manliness and mutual hatred of just about everyone else in the ROH locker room. The Bruiser has aided Young in his quest to turn The Boys into Men, though results have not been stellar. We've seen The Boys forced to fight Young's battles before. Will he force them to face Fish and O'Reilly, quite possibly the hardest hitting team on the planet? You don't want to miss this live in Nashville on November 20th!

[/quote]
And how, exactly, does Silas force them to do this? What is the kayfabe explanation for it. Last time they said that the match was originally booked as the Young Bucks vs. the Boys... but right here for this one we have a clear-cut announcement that the match is going to be Silas Young & the Beer City Bruiser vs. Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly.

[Big Red Machine]

i'm surprised they didn't save that 5-on-5 match for the Vegas show, we know how they love to play the vegas gimmick and that would have been perfect.

I'm just thankful they didn't. The fact that promotions feel the need to scream "WE'RE IN VEGAS!" at the top of their lungs with everything they do every time they go to Vegas drives me nuts.

Doing the ten man tag here (i.e. before Final Battle, but airing after it) lets Delirious just throw a bunch of guys who will be in matches together at Final Battle in the same match. I'd be shocked if

Hidden text.

Elgin and Moose

don't wind up on the same team so they can push the whole "but can they get along?!" angle.

Also, doing it on this show gives you a fairly inconsequential but still great match for a show that will air soon after Final Battle, and, due to being on Christmas in some markets, is a show that many people probably won't watch.

I'm not a big fan of it, though. It will either give away the result of the FB main event or require you to edit out the entrance of Jay Lethal (who is one of the captains) on TV. Or just give the whole "taped before Final Battle deal" which we've all agreed isn't optimal. I think that doing it one of those ways is necessary, but if you can set it up so that it is ambiguous enough that it could have taken place after the PPV as well, that would be ideal, and I think that having Lethal in that match (and Roddy, too, now that I think about it, although they haven't actually done anything yet to set up a challenger for him) makes that very difficult to do.
I think would be much better to get them both out there early on in the tapings and do something that will air before Final Battle (especially in the case of Roddy, where you don't even have a contender yet). For Lethal, I think I'd have him call our Will Ferrara and offer him the "chance of a lifetime" with an ROH World Title shot tonight, have Lethal kick his ass totally cleanly with no problem and then claim that this is exactly what he'll do to AJ Styles at Final Battle.
With Roddy, I think you have him do an open challenge deal (not for the title) only to get jumped from behind by Sabin, then do the whole "Roddy is hurt but still wants to fight" deal, which results in Sabin pinning Roddy and setting up for a match at Final Battle where Roddy retains the title (I am assuming that Sabin is healthy again because it seems very weird that he would be booked on his own when The Addiction will be in Japan if he isn't able to work).

I do like the idea of a big tag match, though. It will feel like a fresh match, and give a chance to show some stuff to guys who don't always get it, and would also be a fine place to stick a couple of guys who either don't have anything going on right now or whose opponents for the PPV are already otherwise booked in situations which don't require their involvement. I'd book it with...
Cole, Castle, Dijak, & War Machine vs. Elgin, Moose, Page, & ANX (with Castle almost certainly getting pinned by either Elgin or ANX).
You could do some teases of stuff between Moose and Elgin without actually having them get physical, so that the spots make sense both before and after the PPV but don't necessitate continuing the feud after the PPV. I would also have some stuff between Moose and Page which would set the wheels in motion for a logical Moose vs. Decade feud.

[Big Red Machine]

Saturday, December 5th - War Memorial - Ft Lauderdale, Fl
ROH heads south for the winter with our Ft. Lauderdale return! The ROAD TO FINAL BATTLE is coming through the Sunshine State on December 5thfor a huge live event. With FINAL BATTLE looming on the horizon, all the action in Ft. Lauderdale could have major consequences for our end of the year pay-per-view!
Just signed for Ft. Lauderdale...

JAY LETHAL & DONOVAN DIJAK W/ TRUTH MARTINI VS. THE YOUNG BUCKS (NICK & MATT JACKSON)

The animosity between The House of Truth and Bullet Club intensifies just weeks before FINAL BATTLE! At our year end pay-per-view, ROH World Champion Jay Lethal defends his title against AJ Styles in a hotly anticipated battle. On Night One of SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, Lethal, Dijak, and Joey Daddiego teamed up to face the Bucks and Styles. Stunningly, Styles PINNED the reigning Lethal after a brutal Styles Clash! That night, the Bullet Club stood tall, with AJ Styles sending a clear message to the Champion.

Ever since then, Lethal has been even more incensed than previously. He considers himself the absolute best champion in professional wrestling - period. But with the recent loss of the ROH World Television Championship to Roderick Strong, Lethal (and Truth Martini) are feverishly clinging to the World Championship. With a challenger the caliber of AJ Styles, an athlete many call the best wrestler in the world today, the result of the FINAL BATTLE main event is completely up in the air.

Just 2 weeks before, Lethal faces his now-familiar foes, The Young Bucks, and there's no doubt the House of Truth will do whatever it takes to get their win back from the Bullet Club - and send their own message to AJ Styles. How much has the loss in Milwaukee shaken the current champion? In Dijak, he will have one of the most intimidating forces in ROH at his side. The past months have seen the 2014 Top Prospect Winner step up and seize every opportunity presented to him, and the world has definitely taken notice. While some might be intimidated by the sheer star power and international acclaim of a team like The Young Bucks, Donovan Dijak sees them as just another chance to prove he belongs in ROH among the best in the world.

This incredible tag team contest is just one of many exciting matches ROH officials are working on for our Ft. Lauderdale return! ROHWRESTLING.com is your source for all the latest updates on matches signed for December 5th. To be there live on the ROAD TO FINAL BATTLE, click HERE!

Signed to appear in Ft. Lauderdale...

ROH WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPION: RODERICK STRONG
MARK & JAY BRISCOE
MATT SYDAL
ADAM COLE
reDRagon (BOBBY FISH & KYLE O'REILLY)
MOOSE
ACH
ANX (KENNY KING & RHETT TITUS)
DALTON CASTLE
SILAS YOUNG
WAR MACHINE (RAY ROWE & HANSON)

[Big Red Machine]

I really don't like this because, ultimately, it's just a meaningless match for Lethal, which has been a big problem of Delirious' booking, IMO.

****For the purpose of this post, I am counting the number of times a champion steps into the ring with his belt on the line, so the match in which you lose your title counts as a "defense," and the number of shows listed includes each night of TV tapings as one show.****

Final Battle will be Jay Lethal's FOURTH title defense since winning the belt SIX MONTHS ago. The only guys who have had that few are Homicide (lost the belt in his fourth defense), Eddie Edwards (lost the belt in his fourth defense), and Low Ki (lost the belt in his second defense). Of those guys, Eddie's reign lasted for three months, totaling just six shows. Ki's and Cide's lasted about two months each, and they both defended the title on every single show they were on. Final Battle will be Lethal's TWENTY-FIRST show as champion.
Even when we look at guys with a similar number of title defenses to Lethal, we see that Lethal looks pathetic in comparison:
CM Punk- 5 defenses on 5 shows in two months
James Gibson- 5 defenses on 5 shows in just over one month (4 defenses on five shows if you want to factor out the FIP show he defended the title on)
Jerry Lynn- 7 defenses on (I think) 13 shows in just over two months
Roderick Strong- 6 defenses on (I think) 15 shows over six months
Jay Briscoe (first reign)- 7 defenses on 9 shows in three months
Michael Elgin- 8 defenses on 8 shows (9 shows at most) in two and a half months
Xavier- 5 defenses on 9 shows in six months
Tyler Black- 8 defenses on 26 shows in seven months

All of these guys had more defenses on fewer shows in less time (aside from Tyler, who still had twice as many defenses)... and let's not forget that Xavier's entire reign and the last two months of Tyler's were about trying to duck challengers (Punk's was, too, but he was always unsuccessful).
The real difference, though, can be seen in the way the champs were used on all of these shows. With the exception of a couple of matches for Lynn and Tyler (and probably one or two for Roddy as well- and with the exception of one or two each for Tyler and Roddy, ALWAYS on television, where it's possible they might have also taped some angle I'm forgetting about), the champion was always either defending the title, involved in a match that would help to set up title defense or further a story in that direction, or a match that somehow required his involvement (either as world champion or as an individual), or was booked a BIG main event tag match that felt absolutely HUGE when it was announced (like Tyler & the Briscoes vs. Hero & The Wolves from Gold Rush or American Wolves vs. WGTT from Honor Takes Center Stage: Chapter 2.

With Jay Lethal, nine times out of ten (well... more literally it's five, but that's only if I'm being nice), he has been involved in a completely meaningless match like this one:
POST-BITW TV TAPINGS: Meaningless 8-man tag (continuing the Briscoe feud serves no purpose if you're never going to give Jay a return match, and Roddy had already been established as #1 contender and this did nothing to actually further that idea. All it did was stick him in the ring with Lethal).
HOPKINS: Meaningless tag match with Truth vs. ODB and Briscoe, once again continuing a feud which should have ended already
VEGAS: Used to set Kyle up as world title contender
DBD: Defense vs. Roddy
POST-DBD TV TAPINGS: Defended TV Title vs. Hanson in a match that really should have happened at some point in the previous EIGHT MONTHS since Hanson had beaten Lethal while Lethal still held the title
PHILLY TAPINGS: defended title against Roddy
FIELD OF HONOR: Teamed with Nakamura to face reDRagon- I'll give this one a pass since it both felt big and also seems to have been intended to set up a match with Nakamura down the line, but having Lethal and Nakamura win, pinning the guy who was going to challenge for the TV Title instead of having one of the reDRagon guys tap Lethal out was a mistake)
ATLANTA: Teamed with Addiction to face Cole & reDRagon- I'm going to give this one a fail for the following reasons:
1) it's basically Champions vs. All-Stars... except that it wasn't, and they did Champions vs. All-Stars for real two months later
2) we just did Lethal vs. reDRagon to build up to him defending the titles against them on the PPV the previous week
3) you could argue that Lethal's match on this show didn't need to build to anything because they did the Stevie Richards thing... except that never led to a title defense, either.

DEARBORN: Defy or Deny match- I would normally give this a pass except that his opponents all felt completely out of nowhere
CHICAGO: Proving Ground match against Moose- went nowhere
ALL-STAR EXTRAVAGANZA: Defended titles
SAN ANTONIO TAPINGS: Defended TV Title vs. Watanabe
CALIFORNIA: Meaningless six man tag against Moose and War Machine
LOCKPORT: Proving Ground match against Stevie Richards which hasn't let to anything.
KALAMZOO TAPINGS: Defends TV Title against Roddy
GBH: Champions vs. All-Stars match- I'll be nice and give it a pass even though it, too, only felt like an excuse to stick Lethal in a tag match and put AJ on the other side.
SOTF NIGHT 1: Six man tag against Bullet Club- I'll give this one a pass because it very much felt like the natural thing to book and was a big match people had been talking about doing since AJ had earned his title shot
SOTF NIGHT 2: Meaningless tag team match with Dijak vs. reDRagon
NASHVILLE TV TAPINGS: Meaningless goofy random partners tag match vs. Team Roddy
FT. LAUDERDALE: Meaningless tag match with Dijak vs. Young Bucks- seriously... what's the point of doing this when you just did a much bigger version of it at SOTF Night 1? This just feels like a pointless retread.
FINAL BATTLE: Defends world title vs. AJ

So ALMOST HALF of Lethal's matches as champion have been COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS, doing nothing to further any stories whatsoever. And that's with me being generous about Champions vs. All-Stars and the Hanson TV Title defense (why the hell wouldn't you do that at the March Chicago show instead of using f*cking CLIFF COMPTON?), and also not bringing up the poor booking via lack of clean finishes in Lethal's matches and the lack of follow-up to that fact.

What's worse is that aside from hurting Lethal's world title reign (someone on the ROHWorld forum made the point that with the rocket they have strapped to Lethal's back going into his title reign, this reign has been so lackluster that him losing the belt to AJ at Final Battle would feel like a HUGE step backwards for a guy they seem to be trying to build the company around), this lazy-ass strategy to just throw Lethal in a tag match against a guy he is defending the title against (or failing that, against that guy's friends) has been extremely detrimental to the booking of the rest of the promotion as well.
For example, if they want to build to Roddy vs. Fish for the TV Title as Meltzer has claimed they are building towards (and really, the only guys left without matches for Final Battle who could challenge Roddy are Cedric and Fish, and Roddy beat Cedric on night one of SOTF), instead of having Lethal in meaningless tag matches at SOTF Night 2 and in Nashville, why not do the following:
Keep night 1 mostly the same, except have Roderick lose to Cedric in their qualifier. Kingdom would retain the tag titles against reDRagon via interference from Cole, while Lethal would be in the H.O.T. vs. Bullet Club six man main event.
For Night 2, have Fish beat Roddy clean to set up a TV Title shot, have Kyle beat either Taven or Bennett, and instead of facing reDRagon in a tag match that won't mean anything, have Lethal and Dijak team up against ANX. In that match, you could either have one of the ANX guys get a visual pinfall on Lethal. This would lead to either a world title match in Ft. Lauderdale where Lethal retains.
For Nashville, you do a segment setting up a three-way for the TV Title for Final Battle between Roddy, Cedric, and Fish. You would also book reDRagon vs. Young Bucks and have Roddy come out on commentary to scout Fish. The match would end in a quick DQ when the H.O.T. would attack the Bucks with some weapons. reDRagon would defend the Bucks, but then Cole comes out to attack Kyle. Roddy would jump in to make the save because he's a nice guy, which would lead to Cedric running out to attack Roddy and Fish, and wind up with a big ten man tag that, due to it being set up by a series of run-ins, you can easily air either before the PPV or after it, as the only guys who would get real entrances (the Bucks & reDRagon) wouldn't have belts (let's be honest, Fish isn't winning the TV Title).

Instead of putting Lethal in a random tag match against reDRagon with no consequences at SOTF Night 2, we have created a scenario where we are using Lethal to set up an additional world title defense, using O'Reilly to add a bit more fire to the Cole vs. Kyle feud and also give us a bit more ammo in our pocket for another eventual tag title shot for reDRagon, AND building up challengers for the TV Title, and we are creating a world title match for Ft. Lauderdale instead of sticking Lethal, the Bucks, and (probably) ANX in pointless tag matches there, giving that show at least a modicum of kayfabe importance... and even if no one really thinks Rhett/Kenny has a shot of beating Lethal, we will at least be giving him a chance to shine in a main event and putting on a fresh singles title match.

[Big Red Machine]

Apparently Jay Briscoe vs. Matt Sydal and Roderick Strong vs. Delirious have both been booked for Florida.

[Bulletclubfan2014]

Final Battle will be Jay Lethal's FOURTH title defense since winning the belt SIX MONTHS ago. The only guys who have had that few are Homicide (lost the belt in his fourth defense), Eddie Edwards (lost the belt in his fourth defense), and Low Ki (lost the belt in his second defense). Of those guys, Eddie's reign lasted for three months, totaling just six shows. Ki's and Cide's lasted about two months each, and they both defended the title on every single show they were on. Final Battle will be Lethal's TWENTY-FIRST show as champion.

Actually it'll be Lethal's 8th defense in 24 shows given he's defended it 3 times on the PCW/ROH Supershow Of Honor shows over in the UK so far and he's scheduled to defend again tomorrow

[Big Red Machine]

Final Battle will be Jay Lethal's FOURTH title defense since winning the belt SIX MONTHS ago. The only guys who have had that few are Homicide (lost the belt in his fourth defense), Eddie Edwards (lost the belt in his fourth defense), and Low Ki (lost the belt in his second defense). Of those guys, Eddie's reign lasted for three months, totaling just six shows. Ki's and Cide's lasted about two months each, and they both defended the title on every single show they were on. Final Battle will be Lethal's TWENTY-FIRST show as champion.

Actually it'll be Lethal's 8th defense in 24 shows given he's defended it 3 times on the PCW/ROH Supershow Of Honor shows over in the UK so far and he's scheduled to defend again tomorrow

Doesn't matter. None of those defenses have been built up at all for the ROH-only viewer (compare this to Aries' first reign when the announcers would push Aries' grueling schedule and how he was defending the belt outside of ROH against big stars or in places the title had never been before like Mexico). They're basically like the "win this four way and get a title shot later tonight" thing that Delirious loves to do, except that at least those are on ROH shows.
It doesn't mitigate my criticism of the booking, which is that it doesn't feel like much of anything is happening, and that the world champion feels like he is being completely wasted on most shows.

[Big Red Machine]

ACH vs. Bobby Fish announced

[Big Red Machine]

ADAM COLE VS. KENNY KING

4 CORNER SURVIVAL
RHETT TITUS VS. CHEESEBURGER VS. MOOSE VS. DALTON CASTLE

MARK BRISCOE VS. WILL FERRARA