El Generico's Final Battle | The Wrestling Estate

By the close of 2012, many wrestling fans were looking for something to carry them into the next year. On one side, WWE was in the home stretch of one of its longest title reigns in history with CM Punk dominating the roster. On the other side, TNA was in full gear with its “Aces and Eights” storyline, while creating a new main event player who wasn’t fitting the bill of a younger talent for the future in Bully Ray. Then, Ring of Honor was in the midst of change with the recent exit of Jim Cornette and the rise of Kevin Steen alongside Jimmy Jacobs and Steve Corino, collectively known as SCUM, whose sole goal was the total elimination of ROH.

Steen had been champion at this point in December for almost six months and found himself facing off with a familiar foe in El Generico, in what was the fourth incarnation of the bloody and violent match known as Ladder War. Generico had come back to ROH after a seven-month absence with his goal being to stop Steen and take the one thing that mattered most to him – the ROH World Title. For Steen, it was all about ending this rivalry with his former best friend once and for all.

Final Battle was exactly that on this night – the final battle between two men who had one of the greatest rivalries in ROH history.

The show opens with a great video promo highlighting the rivalry that is Steen and Generico, from winning the Tag Team Titles from Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs (The Age of the Fall) to Final Battle a couple years earlier when Steen laid out Generico with one of the most vicious chair shots ever seen. It wraps up with Steen winning their last encounter back at the Showdown in the Sun in March.

RODERICK STRONG DEF. MICHAEL ELGIN

This was a good opening match between two members of the House of Truth faction. This match contained many strikes that would be close to knockout blows. Strong won after hitting Elgin with Truth Martini’s Book of Truth during an attempted Elgin sit-down powerbomb. Martini would then claim that everything went according to plan, but Strong turned against him, vowing to go solo from now on. When Martini turned to Elgin and claimed how much he did for Elgin’s career, “The Unbreakable One” laid him out with an Elgin bomb. Good match to start with and good way to get both men into their own singles careers moving forward.

JAY LETHAL DEF. RHINO

Lethal had been asking for a rematch with Steen for the ROH Title ever since the Killer Instinct show in Lethal’s hometown of Elizabeth, NJ. He vowed that he would make his presence known in the main event, but had to go through Rhino first. The Manbeast was being paid off by Steve Corino and SCUM to make sure that Lethal wouldn’t interfere in Steen’s match. Lethal won with the Lethal Injection. Good, but basic match. It’s honestly hard for me to believe that Lethal couldn’t have a good match with anybody outside of TNA. Afterward, Lethal was assaulted by Rhino, Corino and Jimmy Jacobs.

RD EVANS DEF. PRINCE NANA

Evans won the match after a Styles Clash. Match wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Every time I see Evans, I just think about how he quit/got fired for Bret Hart’s Hall of Fame speech and how stupid everything behind it was.

SHELTON BENJAMIN & CHARLIE HAAS DE.F BJ WHITMER & RHETT TITUS IN A NYC STREET FIGHT

I love a good street fight, but lose interest when you bring in candy canes, Christmas ornaments and trees. However, they also used tables, chairs guardrails and kendo sticks to keep things credible. Match ended with a scary spot when Haas threw Whitmer from the top rope through a table, but Whitmer appeared to under rotate and spike himself head first. It took a few minutes for BJ to be helped out of the ring, but he was shown walking to the back which was obviously a good sign. The fight got much better after the corny start.

MICHAEL BENNETT DEF. JERRY LYNN IN LYNN’S ROH RETIREMENT MATCH

This was not a good match at all and ended with lots of interference from Brutal Bob Evans and Bennett’s wife Maria. I understand Lynn putting over Bennett on the way out, but maybe Lynn should have done something with Lethal or Strong to get a better sendoff. The celebration continued with Nigel McGuinness coming down and presenting Lynn with a plaque similar to a Lifetime Achievement Award. Great speeches by both Lynn and McGuinness and the ring was surrounded by the locker to show their appreciation for the former ROH Champion.

At the end of the celebration, Lethal claimed that this was the only way that he has been able to get a chat with Nigel about the world title situation. He demanded that Generico be replaced in the main event. Nigel promised Lethal that he would work on his title shot, but that he wasn’t doing anything about it this evening. When Lethal didn’t like this answer, he got physical with Nigel, which led to shoving match and Lethal being escorted out of the arena, guaranteeing no interference in the title match later on.

There is a Mike Mondo interview with Kevin Kelly as he updates the crowd on his ankle injury. ReDragon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly) would come out and beat down Mondo until Davey Richards made the save. When the numbers game was too much for Richards, Eddie Edwards saved his former friend and reunited the American Wolves.

DAVEY RICHARDS & EDDIE EDWARDS DEF. BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY

Good tag match with lots of striking as expected. There is a great exchange in the middle of the match between O’Reilly and Richards that honestly hurts your own body watching it. The Wolves won after Edwards put Kyle in a single leg crab and stomped on his head in the process, leading to a referee stoppage. The Wolves would hang around ROH for another before leaving for TNA.

MATT HARDY DEF. ADAM COLE

“The ICON” wins after pulling the referee’s shirt over his head, like in a hockey fight, and then kicking Cole low and capturing him in a small package roll up. Good match that was used more to get Cole over despite the loss and keep Hardy on his winning ways. This show was also a reminder of how bad Cole’s entrance music was before joining The Kingdom and getting the “Something for You” theme he would have for rest of his ROH career.

THE BRISCO BROTHERS DEF. JIMMY JACOBS & STEVE CORINO AND CAPRICE COLEMAN & CEDRIC ALEXANDER TO WIN THE ROH TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Briscoes won after a Doomsday Device on Jacobs to begin their eighth reign as Tag Team Champions. The match was a free for all the whole time with no tags to be found. It seemed like the whole thing was rushed. When watching it, the match began with 45 minutes left in the stream, so I figure they were likely behind script on timing and they needed to give Ladder War as much time as possible. It’s a shame because this could have been better if it went a little bit longer.

KEVIN STEEN RETAINS THE ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DEF EL GENERICO IN LADDER WAR IV

This was an unbelievable match with Steen controlling the majority of it. Of course, Generico kept hope alive on many occasions. There were many spots that likely left both men black and blue the next morning. The most insane one was the finale, in which Steen gave Generico a package piledriver through two ladders that were both bridged between two standing ladders. Afterward, Steen retrieved the newly minted ROH Championship and continued his reign of terror. Steen’s title reign would eventually end at the hands of Jay Briscoe during SuperCard of Honor weekend in April of 2013. Generico would leave the company soon after Final Battle, never to be seen again. Legend is that only Sami Zayn knows about the continuing existence of the “Generic Luchador.”