January 9, 2008 Observer Newsletter: ROH Final Battle tapings, Triumph & Tragedy of WCCW DVD review

Ring of Honor taped its fifth PPV, scheduled for March, as the first of two weekend “Final Battle” shows at the Manhattan Center. But from most accounts, the spectacular show was the Sunday card that wasn’t taped, even with the company getting the injury bug the night before.

Champion Nigel McGuiness had his face jammed into the guard rail when hit with a tope by Austin Aries. He needed 14 stitches, suffered a broken nose and had a mild concussion which resulted in him not defending the title as scheduled the second night. Partially due to not having the singles title match advertised, the decision was made to do a previously unplanned tag team title change with Tyler Black & Jimmy Jacobs of the Age of the Fall beating Mark & Jay Briscoe.

McGuiness did a promo the next night causing a weird reaction. I’d been led to believe it was the kind of reaction John Cena would get, but it really wasn’t. It appeared to be about 15-20% or so booing him, and chanting “Drop the belt,” while the vast majority were behind him. Still, you could see that was enough that it unnerved him.

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