9 Ups & 3 Downs From ROH Final Battle 2022

7. Keith Lee Vs. Shane Taylor Felt Big Time

ROH Final Battle 2022 Swerve Strickland Keith Lee Shane Taylor
ROH

The ending may have felt somewhat awkward, but Swerve in Our Glory vs. Shane Taylor Promotions had the crowd hooked from start to finish.

Going into Final Battle, some had complained how Shane Taylor and JD Griffey were unknowns to a large portion of the AEW audience. While that might be true, Taylor and Griffey turned up big time in their match against Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland - and a big part of the success of this contest was how Lee vs. Taylor felt like a major deal.

Part of the key to this was the excellent commentary from Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman, with the duo doing an great job of detailing why Lee and Taylor have a personal issue. Added to this, the way that the two performers were largely kept away from each other throughout the match made it mean so much more to the watching crowd when the two powerhouses did square off.

It's also fair to say that Keith Lee felt like, well, Keith Lee here. For so much of his AEW run, Limitless has often felt off a step or has been overshadowed by the unique physical charisma and star power of Strickland. Here, Lee was on phenomenal form.

Advertisement
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.