There were two things worth watching on Saturday’s Ring of Honor “Final Battle” – the FTR-Briscoes match, as expected, and the very end of the Chris Jericho-Claudio Castagnoli match, a bit of a surprise.
To the second one first. It had seemed in the build that Castagnoli was being booked to lose, because the stip to the ROH world title match was, if he did lose, he’d have to join Jericho’s AEW faction.
That one seemed foreordained, so, good work on their part to give us that swerve.
The result, then, was a surprise, but the way it was done was expert, with Castagnoli winning by submission with his signature Big Swing.
I’ve asked around, and nobody that I know remembers ever seeing anyone submit to the Big Swing, or anything like it.
So, good stuff there.
The FTR-Briscoes match was much better than expected, the reason for diminished expectations being the gimmick to the match.
FTR and the Briscoes don’t need a gimmick to put on a five-star match, so the stip requiring the teams to be tethered via dog collars was unnecessary.
Not surprisingly, the teams, the two best working in tag wrestling today, made it work, because they can make anything work.
The result was not something for the faint of heart, not at all.
There was more blood than any match you will ever see on a mainstream (that is, not Garbage Championship Wrestling) show, the most that I’ve seen since the Roddy Piper-Greg Valentine dog collar match back in 1983.
Ordering the replay
If you can catch the replay, fast forward to those two matches, though I’d advise being careful.
I purchased the show through Comcast’s pay-per-view service, and intended to watch it later, because of the odd early start time (4 p.m. ET), but the show didn’t record, and the several Comcast service reps who passed me back and forth trying to resolve the issue weren’t able to.
(They promised a refund. We’ll see if it comes through.)
I’ve not had luck in the past with the Bleacher Report streaming service, so I don’t know that I’ll go that route to catch the rest of the show.
HonorClub
Tony Khan announced after the show that he is relaunching the Ring of Honor streaming service, HonorClub, which for $9.99 a month will feature archived matches dating back to 2002, and will soon have fresh weekly TV content.
It’s odd that it took this long for Khan to go this route. He purchased Ring of Honor back in March, and has run three ROH-themed pay-per-view events this year, and had reportedly been trying to land the brand an actual TV deal.
The relaunched HonorClub will cost fans $9.99 a month.
Notably, HonorClub members don’t get immediate access to streaming PPVs. Instead, PPV content will be made available 90 days after the live events, meaning we’re stuck watching the live events through our cable or satellite providers or the untrustworthy Bleacher Report service.
Don’t expect this to be a big moneymaker for Khan, would be the message here.
Video
Share
Chris Graham
