ROH: Final Battle 2003

This was one of Ring Of Honor's finest efforts. The show was put together well, with just about each match better than the one before it (a few exceptions of course). It seems to me that all of the wrestlers kicked it into high gear for this awesome show. The inclusion of Japanese wrestling stars on this show only made it better. I had never seen Satoshi Kojima work before, but I was a fan of his after watching his match with Homicide. Not that the match was anything spectacular, I just liked Kojima.

There did seem to be some glitches in the DVD. I'm not sure if it was just my copy or if everyone's was this way. It was a little distracting, but the matches did more than make up for it. And one more thing before the match reviews- Am I the only one who is getting tired of hearing C.M. Punk threaten to ruin every match on every show? This angle is pretty much played out, and I'm glad to see it get moved along (finally) on this show.

Match Reviews.

Bryan Danielson vs Jay Briscoe - Good, solid and traditional style wrestling between these two. Perfect for the opening match.

"Hurricane" John Walters vs Xavier in a Fight Without Honor - This was basically a hardcore match, but ROH does a great job of making it seem like it's much more special than just a regular hardcore match. You feel like you're watching something special, which in reality, you are. At least in this case. It was built up well with the announcing and you really feel like this kind of match is the only way these two people who hate each other this much can settle their differences. The match itself was nothing short of great. It sticks in my mind in such a way as Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon in their first Ladder Match did at WrestleMania X. It was that good. I didn't like Xavier that much before this match, and thought his involvement in The Prophecy didn't make too much sense, but that was fixed and I respect Xavier's ability as a wrestler much more now than before I saw this match. Probably the best on the show, that's pretty good for a hardcore match!

Matt Stryker vs B.J. Whitmer (Field Of Honor Finals) - This would have been a better match than it seemed, but it was really overshadowed by the rest of the show. It started off slow but turned into a pretty good match. Following the Fight Without Honor with this match may have hurt it a little (I'm sure no one expected the second match on the show to steal the spotlight from this show). It should be noted that the announcers said that Whitmer was sick and that both of the wrestlers were working with an injury. I'm not sure how much of that is a work, but if it was true, they both did more than hold their own with the rest of the show.

Samoa Joe vs Mark Briscoe for the ROH World Championship - This match came about due to Mark Briscoe pinning Joe in a previous tag team match. Samoa Joe was surprisingly fast in a surprisingly quick paced match. Very brutal, as Joe manhandled Mark. Joe worked for the whole match trying to get Mark with his patented "Ole Kick" and once he got it, he did his best Joe Horn impression of New Orleans Saints fame by pulling his cell phone out from under the ring and making a phone call.

C.M. Punk & Colt Cabana vs Kazushi Miyamoto & Tomiaoki Honma - Honma is known mainly for his hardcore wrestling, mainly in FMW I believe. This was a pretty good strong style match with some innovative moves all throughout. This match was one of

the many highlights of the show.

A.J. Styles vs Kaz Hayashi - This was an even match between both wrestlers and also full of innovative moves. I've come to expect a bit more from A.J. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad match by any means. It was still just as good as the match before it, I just think it should have blown the match before it away.

Satoshi Kojima vs Homicide - Kojima was definitely over with the Ring Of Honor crowd. He had a bit of a lazy match by All-Japan standards, but it was still very entertaining and a good contest. There was a lot of contrast between these two as well. As far as match quality goes, this wasn't as good as the two before it, but Kojima did top Samoa Joe's cell phone antics by taking a fan's camera and taking pictures of his beaten down opponent for a lucky fan. Also, the fact that he screamed in English to the referee that he doesn't understand English was humorous as well. I can see why he is over with this crowd.

The Great Muta & Arashi vs Christopher Daniels & Dan Maff - I thought this would be the best match on the show, with having both Muta and Christopher Daniels being involved. Boy, was I wrong! I got the picture the main Japanese stars were being a bit lazy with the "smaller" crowd than they were used to. They did just a basic match, which I guess was fine because I was pretty entertained by the rest of the show, just not as entertained by the last match as I should have been. No big deal though. I thought Dan Maff was a big guy until seeing him next to Arashi. I believe he was a sumo wrestler in his day, so no surprise he has a little size to him.

I give this DVD 9 out of 10.