ROH - No title changes at the last Final Battle

[Snowman]

This was the first time since 2002 that there were no title changes at Final Battle. Do you think this was the right move by ROH?

[Deleted]

Brings abit of variety to the board, don't see the problem with it personally

[Jay Carroll]

Marafuji is over in ROH, but who would he have feuded with had he won? After Nigel, who would you say is the # 2 heel in the company, or due to be elevated into the # 1 slot?

[HMARK Center]

Feb 2, 2009 14:12:21 GMT -5 Snowman said:

This was the first time since 2002 that there was no title change at Final Battle. Do you think this was the right move by ROH having the title sucessfully defended?

Final Battle 2003: Samoa Joe (c) def. Mark Briscoe

Final Battle 2005: Bryan Danielson (c) def. Naomichi Marufuji

To be fair, if you're also including the Tag Titles or Pure Title, I suppose in 2007 you had Age of the Fall beating the Briscoes, in 2005 Gen Next beat Mamaluke and Rinuaro, blah blah blah.

[H-Fist]

The question is whether or not Ring of Honor made the right decision to continue the title reigns of World Champion Nigel McGuinness and World Tag Team Champions Kevin Steen and El Generico. I’ll answer in the affirmative. Neither the World Title nor the Tag Team Titles absolutely needed a change. And simply making a title change for the sake of a title change is not something that Ring of Honor typically does.

In the case of Nigel McGuinness, Naomichi Marufuji certainly is a credible threat to his championship. However, a Marufuji victory would have risked devaluing the World Title. If most of the ROH roster had already failed, in some cases multiple times, to dethrone McGuinness, a Marufuji win would have made all of the men against whom Nigel had defended look that much weaker. Unlike the case of Morishima, who won the title shortly after his arrival, Marufuji would not have been conquering a transitional champion like Homicide.

Furthermore, the primary focus of the company over the final few months of 2008 had been the evolving relationship of Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black, and Austin Aries. While Nigel was the champion and, thus, the man of the company, he was not the driving force. The reconfiguration of the aforementioned trio would have been less significant to the fans had Nigel been conquered by Marufuji over the final weekend.

The goal was to keep McGuinness strong through the slow build of Tyler Black into a top babyface contender. Simultaneously, Jerry Lynn was built as a credible threat, as well. Rather than making a quick change, Ring of Honor has put the future of the World Title up in the air. Tyler Black has his chance to cash in his title shot, but Jerry Lynn or even D-Lo Brown might beat him to the punch. It also cements Nigel as the only Ring of Honor World Champion whose reign has covered parts of three calendar years.

I would suggest that the reign of Kevin Steen and El Generico is not yet developed enough to merit a change. The American Wolves were not yet established at all, not to mention that they were sorely needed to flesh out the storyline with Team Albright. The combination of the fans’ changing response to the Briscoes and Mark’s injury made the tag division stalwarts a non-factor. That leaves the Age of the Fall as the only legitimate contender. However, as already mentioned, Jacobs and Black were in the process of parting ways, while Delirious was and still is occupied by Daizee Haze. So what options did Ring of Honor have? They could have given the ball to some group of the YRR and hope that the kids could run with it. Or they could have used a makeshift team to carry them into the new year. But a makeshift team typically signifies transition or lazy storyline progression, whereas the problem of credible challengers would remain.

So both Nigel and Steenerico needed to keep their titles through Final Battle 2008. Steen and Generico had to stay on top simply because they belong on top. Nigel needed to keep the title because no one was quite yet ready to take it.

[x]

According to Gabe on the Gabe shoot, Tyler Black was going to win the ROH Title from Nigel at Final Battle.

[Supersmark is a Troll]

Feb 2, 2009 19:50:23 GMT -5 @x said:

According to Gabe on the Gabe shoot, Tyler Black was going to win the ROH Title from Nigel at Final Battle.

I personally think Nigel should hold it until FB 2009 and then have Tyler Black win it.

[Andrew is Good]

I think that's good. Title changes should be surprising. It kinda takes away from the surprise when a title change happens at Final Battle.