WhiteTail Wrestling

ROH has its Final Battle of 2022 from the College Park Center in Arlington Texas.

The opener sees AR Fox team with Black Christian to take on the team from La Faccion Ingobernable (Dralistico & Rush). Fast paced start with first some evasion and then some physical action as Rush gains control of the match for his team. Rush and Dralistico dismantle Fox and Christian on the outside before taking Christian back into the ring. The match could have ended right here but LFI spent too much time showboating allowing Christian to make the tag. Fox makes a good comeback flying around the ring and to the outside with dives onto both of his opponents and gaining a near fall on Dralistico after a senton leg drop. A bad finish impacted what was otherwise a very good opener firstly the referee gets in the way of Christian when he tries to make a dive to the outside and then when Fox hits a 450 Dralistico kicks out on 2 and the referee counts the fall anyway. After the amtch Dralisitco and Rush attack their opponents with steel chairs.

The ROH Women’s Title match is next as Athena takes on defending champ Mercedes Martinez. A tough physical start with lots of hard hitting strikes by both women. The match slows down a little developing more into a battle with power moves more than striking now. The battle continues with both women gaining near falls with Athena despite being a heelish character a heavy favorite with her home town crowd. Athena wins after the move that used to be called the eclipse. A new champion in her home town this was a very good match.

The next match was a tag encounter with Shane Taylor Promotions (JD Griffey & Shane Taylor) taking on Swerve in our Glory (Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland). Each team featured a big man with power moves and a smaller more agile athlete capable of avoiding the offense of the big man. This played into the match as both Strickland and Griffey use avoidance measures to try and avoid being decimated by a much bigger opponent this works but not all the time. Another story of this match is the ongoing disagreements between Strickland and Lee which have been occurring in the last couple of months and this has been made worse by a history between Lee and both of his opponents but particularly Griffey who Lee is reluctant to fight given they were former tag mates. An awesome little battle begins with all four men in the ring brawling and hitting move after move with one team gaining an advantage then the other Swerve in our Glory try the double team but Lee accidently hits Strickland allowing STP to hit two big moves but Lee kicks out both times. The match was now in the balance. Strickland abandons Lee and it looks like all hope is lost but Griffey this time misses a kick which drills Taylor allowing Lee to get the upset win in the circumstances. An excellent ***1/2 match.

The ROH World Six Man Titles were on the line as Dalton Castle & The Boys (Brandon & Brett) defended their titles against The Embassy (Brian Cage & Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona). Fairly even start but The Embassy soon gains control with Cage using his power to destroy Brandon and prevent him from getting a tag. Castle gets the hot tag and shows off his excellent technical wrestling skills with some high quality suplexes to his opponents. An all action finish with everyone involved but in the end the titles change hands as The Embassy get the chance to triple team one of the boys and win the match.

Daniel Garcia defends the ROH Pure Title against the former champion Wheeler Yuta. The match begins with both men brawling with strikes but both men used the closed fists and were warned by the referee which means that for the rest of the match both men would use open handed slaps. Garcia wrestles a really smart match forcing Yuta to use up his three rope breaks early using submission holds. Yuta facing a disadvantage but he keeps going and the match is excellent with strikes kicks and submission attempts. Yuta wins the match and regains the Pure title using elbow strikes and forcing the referee to stop the encounter with Garcia seemingly unconscious. An excellent ***1/2 match.

The biggest match of the night follows with FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) defending the ROH World Tag Titles against The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) in a dog collar match. It is very hard to describe the action in a match like this. This was a war from the opening seconds with brawling inside and outside the ring and the blood that opened up from the chain this came early in the match as well with both the Briscoes busted open with FTR joining them later in the match in addition to the blood we had lost teeth with Harwood losing a tooth early in the match. The action and drama of the match was awesome with not only chain shots but steel chairs. A referee even ends up being bloodied by an accidental shot from Harwood. In between the sheer violence there was some pretty good hard hitting wrestling when the chains allowed it. So many crazy spots and some good near falls as well. Blood is everywhere on the wrestlers and on the mat which is becoming crimson. An epic conclusion to the match with the Briscoes using the chain on Harwood to submit him as Wheeler struggled to reach him while being held back using the chain. An epic and classic match I have to go ***** the drama and excitement of this match was off the charts both teams deserve an awesome amount of credit for putting their bodies on the line in such a way. The Gunns attacked FTR after the match which wasn’t really necessary after that match. But it worked in the end as the Briscoes come back out to stop the attack and the two teams that put on this match join together as Blood Brothers.

It is always a hard task to follow on from a classic match the wrestlers that would have to do that are Samoa Joe defending his ROH TV title against Juice Robinson. The match was good with some nice wrestling action although of course it couldn’t match what had come before it. Joe defends his title winning with the musclebuster but Robinson had some moments although I never felt like the match was ending differently to how it did.

And now for the main event as ROH World Champion Chris Jericho defends against Claudio Castagnoli. Castagnoli starts really well even hitting neutralizer for a count of 2 but Jericho comes back into the match. Jericho locks in the Walls of Jericho but Castagnoli gets to the ropes. Angelo Parker and Matt Menard come to the ring and allow for a weapon shot but Castagnoli kicks out and Parker and Menard are sent from ringside. Weird finish Jericho submits after being swung around 32 times in a giant swing. An excellent ***1/2 match but I feel like it could have been better.

An excellent PPV with a genuine ***** match which will go down not only as a MOTY contender but as one of the great tag matches and perhaps the greatest ever dog collar match. Numerous other matches reached the recommended level and there wasn’t a single bad match on this card. A PPV event well worth watching.