9 Ups & 3 Downs From ROH Final Battle 2022

8. Shimmer Footage

ROH Final Battle 2022 Shimmer Mercedes Martinez Athena
Shimmer/ROH

While the build to Mercedes Martinez vs. Athena felt incredibly rushed, one major positive was the use of Shimmer footage to detail the pair's prior history together.

It was only a small thing, but showcasing this history of this duo definitely added plenty to this bout. For those unfamiliar with Shimmer, the video package shown here added an extra layer of intrigue and tension to proceedings. These two had a brilliant trio of matches as 2011 rolled into 2012, and it was smart of Tony Khan to play that up here.

The build to Martinez vs. Athena could've been handled vastly better, and while it may have been too little too late, there's definitely an Up here for getting hold of Shimmer footage and adding some flavour to what had felt like an incredibly cold ROH Women's Title contest.

Of course, the video itself was put together earlier in the week to promote Final Battle, and featuring it as part of the PPV was a smart, smart move.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.