ROH: FINAL BATTLE 2002 - 12/28/2002

ROH: FINAL BATTLE 2002

Murphy Rec Center
Philadelphia, PA
December 28th, 2002

ROH Champion: Xavier (Since 9/21/2002 - 2 Defenses)
ROH Tag Team Champions: The Prophecy (Since 9/21/2002 - 1 Defenses)

EARLIER TODAY: Punk & Cabana are driving to the show and Cabana’s again putting himself over while Punk is frustrated. Punk yells at Ace Steel to turn the camera off but he won’t. When they get to the Rec Center, Punk gives Cabana the keys and says he can drive himself home tonight after Punk beats him and gets the airfare.

Backstage, GMC is with Corino. He says Corino’s preparing to gather an elite Group of wrestlers here in ROH. Corino then ditches the King of Old School name and shits on ECW for leaving him $62,000 in debt. He shits on ROH and its fans for saying he’s too hardcore and doesn’t belong. He puts over Zero-One as the best promotion. Allison Danger walks up and says she got his call at home (I think that’s what she said) and Corino flips out on her for interrupting his promo time and tells her to go be a star on her own time and storms off. Weird segment.

Clips from High Impact TV Tapings. Homicide beat the debuting Jay Lethal.

Match #1: CM Punk vs. Colt Cabana [Winner Gets A Contract]
A slight step up from their last match. Punk was more on the offensive here and he was trying a lot of stuff I’m not used to seeing him do like a split legged moonsault. Punk wins it with the Pepsi Plunge.
**3/4

Backstage, the Backseat Boyz are here and they run into Homicide. They apologize for what went down in the tag match. Cide says he’s got no problems with them his problems with Corino. They dap each other up and Homicide tells them to kick Special K’s ass but be careful against DHS.

GMC is in the ring and he brings out Christopher Daniels. He comes out with Simply Luscious. Daniels snatches the mic and talks about what Alexis Laree did to Simply Luscious last show. They call Alexis out. Daniels challenges Alexis to face Luscious on the 3/22 the next time ROH is in the Murphy Rec. Alexis says they can do it right now and we’ve got an impromptu match.

Match #2: Alexis Laree vs. Simply Luscious
Luscious attacks Laree from behind to start. Alexis turns the tides and beats Luscious down some. Luscious says her eye is hurt and while the ref checks on her Daniels hits Alexis with the Last Rites. Luscious covers to win.
1/2*

Post-match, Daniels and Luscious play to the crowd but Steve Corino comes out on a mic and says to hold it right there. He circles the ring and brings up the personal vs. business deal they’ve talked about for months but Corino says he’s finally got business to discuss with Corino. Corino prefaces by repeating most of his points from the GMC interview earlier. Corino says 2002 was the best year of his career but 2003 is going to be better. He tells Daniels about The Group he’s planning on forming and puts the Prophecy on notice because they’re coming for all of the ROH gold that they have. Simply Luscious looks conflicted and Corino calls her over. He tells her how much he loves her, but he can’t have her telling Daniels all his secrets, SO IT’S OVER. Luscious starts crying and leaves to the back and Daniels gets pissed off and gets into Corino’s face. Corino takes off his jacket and tells Daniels if he wants to start a war then throw the first punch right now. Daniels hesitates and then dares Corino to take the first shot instead, and Corino won’t. Daniels says he’s got two title matches to worry about plus Luscious is a wreck, and he’ll deal with Corino later, and Daniels storms off.

Corino stays in the ring and says he’s got one last form of business, HOMICIDE YOU DISRESPECTFUL YOUNG BOY. GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE! And here he comes! They have a GREAT fist fight but when Homicide breaks out Abby’s fork, Corino immediately bails to the back.

More footage from High Impact TV tapings with the Prophecy squashing Dunn & Marcos. Prophecy hit the Villano IV Death Drop at one point.

DHS cut an interview backstage. They’re amped because they get to kill Special K tonight, AND, they get the Backseat Boyz for the first time.

Match #3: Da Hit Squad vs. Backseat Boyz vs. Special K (Deranged & Angel Dust) [Tag Team Scramble]
Each scramble match has gotten worse and more repetitive. I had my hopes high for this one because it cut out some of the dead weight of the last two. But it simply just existed. DHS were honing in on victory until Izzy, who is somehow still hurt, used his crutch to hit Maff and Angel Dust covered to win and score a huge upset.
**

More High Impact taping clips with Jay Briscoe and Ace Steel having a pretty competitive match that was won by Jay.

Match #4: The Prophecy (Daniels/Morgan) vs. The SAT [ROH Tag Team Championships] [Two Out Of Three Falls Match]
So while my theory from the last show about why SAT got this spot is correct, my additional theory that they stink is proven to somehow be even more correct. They’re below average spot monkey guys and they’re in there against a team that is one half great one half dreadful. Daniels cannot carry the weight of this alone. If there’s one major weakness in this company it’s the tag team division and I really hope it gets addressed soon. The Prophecy win the first fall in hopes of getting their two straight prediction to come true. Meanwhile, the SAT end up winning the second fall. But in mostly undramatic fashion the Prophecy win the third fall and the match. Crowd was ice cold again for this. After starting this show so hot with Punk/Cabana and the Daniels/Homicide/Corino stuff, these last two matches have thrown water on that fire. The crowd did not care one fucking bit. Gabe seems borderline obsessed with Mikey’s kids thinking that they’re all gonna be like Red, and he refuses (as of now) to use Red properly these last 5-6 months for some odd reason. It’s a joke. The SAT stink and their only saving grace is that they’re still somehow better than Divine Storm. I’m angry right now so I’ll likely recant this later, but I love the 2/3 falls stip, it’s probably my favorite wrestling stip, and this was very likely the worst two out of three falls match I’ve ever personally seen.
*1/4

MORE High Impact TV taping highlights as Samoa Joe squashes both of the Outcast Killaz.

Backstage, Special K talk to Jody Fleisch and invite him to party.

Match #5: Carnage Crew vs. New Christopher Street Connection
It took me longer to write this whole thing than the match ran. Buff-E is gone. This was Mace and Japanese Pool Boy. Carnage Crew squashed them but get DQ’d so CSC win.
1/2*

Backstage, Homicide hypes the #1 contenders four way later on. He talks about his rough upbringing and how he wants to give his son a better life but he can’t do that unless he’s ROH Champion and making more money. This was a good character piece.

Match #6: Amazing Red vs. Jody Fleisch
They didn’t get much time which is a shame because this could’ve been a super fun spot fest instead of the mediocre one that was shat out. Typical indie shit really, they didn’t break out anything too spectacular except for Jody’s shooting star to the floor. Special K all come out and hey look Brian XL is back randomly. They huddle up at ringside. As Red is going for the Infared, Special K pull Jody out of the way. Jody then hits his 720 DDT to win.
**1/4

Post match, Special K hit the ring and start beating Red down. Jody looks conflicted and eventually pulls them away from Red…but then Jody starts rave dancing, he’s in Special K now, and now they ALL beat Red down. The SAT run out, they get beat down. Divine Storm and Trinity run out, they get beat down. DHS run out and JT SMITH IS WITH THEM, YEAH! Special K back off and we have a stand off. BUT THEN 411 COMES FROM THE CROWD. JT tells DHS he’s cool since he helped JT last time, BUT THEN 411 CHOKESLAMS JT! HE’S BEEN WITH SPECIAL K ALL ALONG? They all gang up on DHS and continue to beat the rest of Mikey’s kids before dancing their way to the back.

Next up is the ROH Title match and it’s very funny that yet again the main belt isn’t in the main event.

Before the match, Xavier cuts a promo on the crowd that they try to play off as heel heat, but this crowd fucking hates him. Complete go away heat. Gabe then says on commentary how the casual fans hate him, the message board fans hate him and the dirt sheets hate him and no one thinks he deserves to be champion. Yeah well no shit. Stop working your little lame worked shoots and get the belt off this bozo.

Match #7: Xavier (c) vs. Paul London [ROH Championship]
This wasn’t good. But somehow the lesser experienced London was able to get something only slightly below average out of Xavier. I just can’t think of too many other words to describe how bland and bad Xavier is. London bumps like a fucking sociopath and makes some of Xavier’s shit look borderline good. And then just like happens pretty often, this goes WAY too long. In all seriousness? I might’ve put this in *** territory or close to it if this stayed a ten minute sprint. Going 18 minutes is the wrong kind of perverted. London connects with SSP and has the 3 but Xavier had his foot on the ropes. Xavier puts on a Cobra Clutch and London does the Bret Hart run up the corner to turn it in a pin on Xavier but he kicks out. Xavier immediately grabs London for a cobra clutch suplex and then hit his shitty neckbreaker for the win.
**1/4

Backstage, GMC is trying to interview Special K. But they just keep putting hats on him and messing with him. The camera then sees a drug deal going on in the corner and 411 steps up to push the cameraman out and he stands guard at the door. DHS walk up not knowing who 411 is (so I guess this was taped before they knew what angle they were running earlier?) and 411 says his name is Slugga and he’s personal security for Special K. He denies DHS access into the locker room unless they have a VIP pass and they leave angrily.

Steve Corino comes wandering out in his wrestling gear and the announcers don’t know why. He says just like you can’t have Ring of Honor without Steve Corino, you can’t have a main event either. He has a chair with him and he sits in it in the ring. He says he ain’t going nowhere he should be in this match and the participants might as well come out and try to stop him. Someone takes the bait — it’s Homicide! Homicide slides in and Corino tosses the chair away, BUT HE HAD A FORK HIDDEN UNDER THE CHAIR AND HE STABS HOMICIDE IN THE FACE WITH IT! He hits Homicide with a northern lights driver and several piledrivers. Samoa Joe’s theme hits (the Godzilla intro debuts!) and he comes to ringside. He looks confused but doesn’t stop Corino. Corino continues to hit piledrivers on Homicide. Low Ki finally comes out after a long delay between his music starting and him coming out. Why isn’t Ki rushing to help his friend? He starts jogging around the ring and goes to finally get in but Joe blocks him. Ki eventually finds his way in and Corino & Joe go to the floor. Danielson’s out next and he IMMEDIATELY invites Joe to come get him some. Convicted Sex Offender Rob Feinstein comes out with some “officials” and examine the situation as refs tend to Homicide. Corino talks to RF and RF makes the decision that Homicide can’t compete and Corino will take his place. Well that doesn’t seem fair. And Low Ki rightfully complains. Corino then shakes Joe’s hand and even Danielson’s hand. Low Ki shakes Danielson and Joe’s hands too. Corino and Ki stare each other down. Corino says “he stabbed me first” and Low Ki really doesn’t have an argument. Corino is also heard bringing up their time in Zero-One together. Low Ki finally sticks out his hand to shake but Corino slaps it away. Ki lunges at Corino, Joe lunges at Ki and Bryan lunges at Joe, and it’s on!

Match #8: Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe vs. Low Ki vs. Steve Corino [#1 Contd’rs Trophy]
I was going to make a snarky comment about how ridiculous it is to have your #1 contenders match main event over your world title match just to be a dick but then I remembered that happens most every year at the Royal Rumble. Anyway. It’s very clear they wanted to make this the sequel to the Four Way Title Match over the summer. And I get it. End the year on the bang. But this just didn’t click. Not to say it was bad wrestling. But ok, for example, there’s an EXTREMELY long period where it feels these guys are trying to get a feel for each other and it just doesn’t end. And then around the middle of the match, the structure really just felt like it was a 3 on 1 handicap match against Danielson. And unless he’s going to win here, I’m not sure what this accomplished or who it helped. Also, unlike the four way iron man match, there’s no sense of urgency. I’m not expecting it to match the same level you’d see in an iron man match, but this just felt kind of laissez-faire at way too many points. To their credit, they turn the heat up in the last ten minutes or so and it’s entertaining as hell but it’s too late to really save the match and make the whole thing great. Joe and Corino finally really start going at it, all the pairings are great, and it builds to Danielson and Ki really getting into it to mirror the first main event in ROH history. The pace picks up even more as they exchange reversals, counters and finishers. Joe and Ki even re-do their “taking the tape and pads off” bit from their Fight without Honor. They start breaking out kill shots on each other with pinfall attempts to follow and there’s kick outs galore. It comes down to Corino and Ki standing and Ki traps Corino in the Dragon Clutch. Corino holds for dear life and time EXPIRES, and Corino taps almost a quarter second after the bell rings. We have a draw. Perfectly fine if not wonky for the first 2/3rds. If you’re into that sort of thing, then it’s definitely worth watching to get to the AWESOME final ten minutes.
***1/4

Post-match, everyone’s exhausted and shakes hands. Corino extends his hand to Ki this time out of respect and Ki lightly shakes it. The crowd was NOT happy about the draw by the way.

Backstage, DHS come back with Divine Storm, The SAT & Amazing Red. They ambush Special K’s locker room and beat on them but Special K bail leaving Slugga behind. Slugga is ready to fight the whole contingent but instead he just tells them they have no idea what they just got themselves into, and he leaves.

Carnage Crew cut another promo in the same vein as last show. They call the CSC a joke and it made a joke out of the Crew so they turned the joke on them. They don’t care that CSC technically won, they really win because they got to hurt people. At the next show, they have a match with DHS in a weapons match and they hype that up. They say they’re gonna finish the job and cripple Maff.

Elsewhere, Low Ki dick sucks ROH a bit before saying in 2003, he’s going to accomplish three goals: hurt Xavier, destroy the Prophecy and win back the ROH Championship.

And finally, GMC is with Steve Corino again. He refuses to name The Group. GMC asks who the first member is gonna be, what his name is. Corino says he’s foolish to assume it has to be a “he” and he introduces the first member as his girlfriend, Simply Luscious! So why do that angle earlier? Why not have Luscious turn on Daniels in the ring during that seg? Or why not have Luscious help Corino in the main event? Or why not save Luscious joining for an angle on the next show? That doesn’t make any sense.

Disappointing show.

NEXT MONTH: Danielson/Joe! Carnage Crew/DHS!