Match A Day 09.10.09: Week 21 - ROH Final Battle 2008

Posted by Jake Chambers on 09.10.2009

Final Battle is the playoffs for Ring of Honor, so all of these great athletes bring their A-games to compete in some of the greatest wrestling matches ever!

Previously on Match A Day:

-Jake Chambers swore off watching Pro-Wrestling in regular continuity following the continual letdown of television and pay-per-view, finally culminating at the super lame Wrestlemania 25.

-taking a break from reading websites, backstage gossip, and taping and live results, Jake decided to only watch ONE match a day of old matches and international wrestling, while following the American continuity on delay, buying DVDs and borrowing tapes a few months in advance, inspired by the way in which he usually followed Ring of Honor.

-then "Jake" (not his real name) had a breakdown and now he's not as much of as smart ass as he used to be! Me, I'm his girlfriend Katie (you'll know it's me talking when you see this beautiful red font) and I have to take care of him 24/7 now, and just to keep him happy I let him watch one match a day and write out his rambling, moronic thoughts, which I then copy edit into something decent… You're welcome :P

And now MAD Week 21 begins…



[all matches from ROH Final Battle 2008, December 2008]

Match # 136 – Sunday, August 16th
Four Corner Survival: Rhett Titus vs. Chris Hero vs. Necro Butcher vs. Jerry Lynn

Action packed! When you've got four guys like this in the ring, you're guaranteed action! No disappointment here, especially from the big win Jerry got after using his awesome Cradle Piledriver. Don't you think, that way he grasps his hands around the groin and midsection, that the piledriver must ram the opponents head into the mat with even more force? I would say like probably 4 times the pressure, but I don't want to get too technical and bore you with the math… but believe me, it's gonna hurt a lot!



I agree with the rational ROH commentator Lenny Leonard, and disagree completely with that smart-alecky Dave Prazak, that the New York State Athletic Commission needs to look into the elbow pad Chris Hero uses. What is wrong with Dave Prazak anyways? He's friends with American-hating Nigel McGuiness, he loves wanna be ladies man Rhett Titus, and he totally sticks up for all the rule breaking done by Chris Hero! What kind of a journalist is he, and how does he expect the fans to take him seriously if all he's gonna do is irrationally defend those who break the rules and act like jerks?

Match #137 – Monday, August 17th
ROH Tag Team Title Match: Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Delirious

Great battle! As much as I disagree with the anarchy politics of Jimmy's Age of the Fall, I was impressed by their wrestling in this match. They decided to isolate one member of the championship team, Kevin, and wrestle him without allowing him to tag for a while. Once he was in their corner, they focused all of their moves on one of his legs. This made it hard for him to move quickly and get to the tag, or even do any of his moves. What a great strategy!



In the end though, it was more drama that kept the Age of the Fall from winning, because although they wrestled well, they lost because Jimmy turned his attention on Daizee Haze, and so he and Delirious started to argue, and then Kevin and El moved in for the winning moves. Poor Delirious, he really seems confused by what's going on. Pick the girl over the guy dude! It only makes sense to me… unless you're gay!

Match #138 = Tuesday, August 18th
New York Street Fight: Brent Albright, Erick Stevens & Roderick Strong vs. Sweet & Sour Inc. (American Wolves & Go Shiozaki)

War! Plain and simple! New York style! It's almost like all six of these guys were fighting in an alley, because they were wearing jeans, t-shirts and sneakers or boots… how cool is that? They fought (I won't even say ‘wrestled' because this was a fight) all around the ringside area. They used so many chairs and tables, that it looked more like a high school cafeteria brawl than a typical ROH wrestling match. I was glad to finally see those creeps from Sweet and Sour get some of the trouble they cause back at them! But, they got in a lot of big shots too, damn it!

In the end, Go Shiosaki, the Japanese Jerk, tapped out to an arm bar by the Gentleman Brawler Brent Albright! Afterwards, even after the American Wolves turned their backs on Go for losing the match, and the fans embraced him by chanting his name… he still flipped the audience off! I hate to be the one to tell you Go, but that's no way to win over new fans in a foreign country!



Match #139 = Wednesday, August 19th
Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Kensuke Sasuke & Katsuhiko Nakajima

Man Up! The Briscoes did it again, showing why they are my favorite tag team of all time! Kensuke and Katsuhiko are a good team, but they don't have the Briscoe magic of toughness, extremeness and fancy moves! All it took was one Jay Driller and Boo-yah, another check in the victory column for the Briscoe boys! This just proves that nobody can beat the Briscoes!

Match #140 = Thursday, August 20th
#1 Contender's Match: Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black

Aries has changed! I thought Austin used to have so many cool moves but these days he seems to always use the same moves over and over. I don't think that's a great way to win so many matches if everyone knows what you are going to do over and over. It's so repetitive.

Even though Austin won this hard-hitting bout, the real story came after the final bell. Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black's tag team partner, came to the ring and yelled at Tyler and then started to choke him out. Then he was going to take his head off with a chair until Austin Aries came back to save him. But… oh no… Austin didn't save him, he grabbed the chair and hit Tyler with it instead! Then he looked really angry, yelled at the audience, and then him and Jimmy beat up Tyler together!



I don't understand Austin, he used to be one of my all time favorites, but this is just some of the worst backstabbing, unsportsmanlike behavior I have ever seen! Tyler Black was a good competitor and he didn't deserve this kind of treatment. Austin Aries, what happened to you?

Match #141 = Friday, August 21st
ROH Title Match: Nigel McGuiness vs. Naomichi Marufuji

Heartbreaker Jawbreaker! I was screaming at the screen for this one! I so thought Naomichi was going to be the one to finally end the frustratingly long, ROH Title reign, of the undeserving, disrespectful, foul mouthed, British b*st*rd, Nigel McGuiness. Naomichi used a top rope neck drop onto the apron outside the ring, he used a drop kick from one turnbuckle all the way to the other side of the ring, and he super kicked Nigel three times! But still Nigel kicked out, got back up, and hit Marufuji with the Jawbreaker lariat and won another one.



Afterwards, Jerry Lynn came out, and Nigel continued to show his lack of class by calling him a has-been. Well, I'll tell you what Nigel, even though you've beaten Jerry before, he's no has-been, but you're gonna be a used-to-be champion if you ever get in the ring with Jerry Lynn again!

Match #142 = Saturday, August 22nd
Fight Without Honor: Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima

Defeating Morishima = Mission Impossible! Well, just like Tom Cruise at the end of War of the Worlds, Bryan accomplished the impossible and finally beat Morishima in a match! And what a match! Probably one of the most vicious, brutal, bloodiest matches in wrestling history! When you look at Bryan Danielson, an average sized guy, you would never think he could hold his own around the obese Takeshi Morishima, but somehow, with a lot of gumption and inner strength, Bryan kicked, hammered (literally), choked, and slammed, the big man until finally making him pass out from pain. And just like that, this feud is Ov-aH!



I'll tell you what's not impossible, that Ring of Honor topped itself again with another fantastic DVD!

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Here's an article that I read online last week that really seemed to jog my memory, reminding me about my good old days of video gaming: 411 Games Top 5

Did you see all those amazing ROH photos! They all come from this awesome photographer Scott Finkelstein and his incredible website, so check it out!

If you want to read something truly enlightening, go to the Wacky Wrestling Theory Myspace Page to read MY blog about the recent Miss Universe contest!