ROH Final Battle 2012: Doomsday Review

The rivalry between Kevin Steen & El Generico comes to a head in Ladder War IV!!

ROH Final Battle 2012: Doomsday

New York City, New York 12/16/12

1.) “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin vs. Roderick Strong: ***1/2

For a match that went just under 15 minutes, this wasn't bad at all. A fairly solid opener and a testament to how good both guys are. The cheap finish with Truth Martini coming down and interjecting his Book of Truth took away from it a little, but since we knew the feud was continuing, I didn't have that big of an issue with it.

After the match, Strong denounces Martini yet again, leaving him to an awkward moment with Elgin, who then disposes of Martini. 

2.) Jay Lethal vs. “The Man Beast” Rhino: **3/4

Lethal's put in this situation after the demands made by Kevin Steen following the incident at Killer Instinct. The match itself was fine, nothing really special. 

Steve Corino runs down Lethal on the mic after the match when Jimmy Jacobs attacks him from behind. The beatdown continues until Rhino gives Lethal a Gore.

3.) "Barrister" RD Evans (with "God's Gift" QT Marshall) vs . Prince Nana: **1/2

After much infighting involving The Embassy Ltd., RD Evans (making his in-ring debut in ROH) and Prince Nana finally go one-on-one. I think most people were expecting this to be more of a comedy match, but they actually wrestled...Nana even hit a dive to the floor! Evans eventually picks up the win.  It was a good deal of fun...for 7 minutes.

Tommaso Ciampa makes an appearance in the crowd, clamoring for the heads of Evans & Marshall. They scamper off.

4.) New York City Street Fight - Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team vs. BJ Whitmer & Rhett Titus: ***1/4

The feud between Titus & WGGT seems like it's been going on forever, but with BJ Whitmer in there it freshened things up a bit. This was a really fun street fight, filled with plunder and quite a bit of Christmas paraphernalia. The match will, of course, be more known for when BJ Whitmer went head first through a table, courtesy of Charlie Haas.

5.) "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett vs. Jerry Lynn: ***

Jerry Lynn is on his Pro-Wrestling Retirement Tour, and this is his final match in ROH. Nothing really special to this one, pretty much your standard Bennett vs. ROH Legend Match. There are, of course shenanigans involving Maria & Brutal Bob, and Bennett ends up getting the win, with Lynn getting the last laugh.

Afterwords, Nigel, along with some of the roster, come out to pay their respects to the retiring Jerry Lynn. He gives the typical speech, thanking ROH & the fans, and Nigel presents him with an award. Jay Lethal then intervenes by saying he wants to fight Kevin Steen tonight, but Nigel reiterates the demands forced on ROH by Kevin Steen. This leads to Lethal spitting on Nigel, and a scuffle breaks out. Nigel demands that Lethal be escorted from the building.

After intermission, Kevin Kelly interviews Mike Mondo in the ring about his recovery from injury (Mondo got little to no reaction when he came out btw). He is interrupted by Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish, who go after Mondo. Davey Richards comes out to help but he is subdued. Eddie Edwards comes out and they do a tease where it looks like Edwards will work with Fish & O'Reilly, but he attacks them and the match is on.

6.) The American Wolves vs. Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish: ***3/4

This was another match that was awesome despite being just under 15 minutes. Awesome action, as you would expect from four wrestlers of this caliber.

7.) Non-Title Match - Matt Hardy vs Adam Cole: ***

Expectations going into this weren't that high, since Hardy had more or less gained weight and gone though a lot of life trouble in the past few years. Surprisingly, this was actually decent. I though Cole came out of it looking very strong, both by the punishment he took from Hardy and the way he lost the match...essentially Hardy had to cheat to beat him.

8.) ROH World Tag Team Titles - C & C Wrestle Factory vs. The Briscoes vs. S.C.U.M. (Steve Corino & Jimmy Jacobs): ***

This was match that I think a lot of people were looking forward to, but it ended up disappointing slightly, due to the fact that it was so short. Despite that, the match I thought was still good. The Briscoes winning at the time seemed to not make sense, but in hindsight it makes total sense (to me anyway).

Jay gets on the mic afterwords and offers C & C Wrestle Factory the first shot at their newly won titles, which they agree.

9.) ROH World Title – Ladder War IV - El Generico vs. Kevin Steen: ****1/2

I will say there were some a bit disappointed in this, and I will say this did, to an extent, feel like some as an extended Kevin Steen squash, but I thought the match was very good. The fact that this would be El Generico's last ROH match made the way it went down make more sense. It had a lot of awesome spots and was an enjoyable Ladder War. I'd say it would be tied with Ladder War III for 2nd Overall, but still better than Ladder War II. A great sendoff for El Generico.

Overall: 8.0/10

While this in no way, shape or form matches the awesome Glory By Honor XI, I thought it was still a good show and enjoyable overall. Their was a not a single bad match on here and a lot of story/feud progression. Not as good as it could have potentially been, but still a pretty solid show to cap off 2012.