KEVIN STEEN VS. EL GENERICO
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
This Saturday at Final Battle, Kevin Steen and El Generico will meet in the ring for the last time and I don't know what is going to happen. There might be murder. I don't know.
This unsanctioning business took this match up to a whole new level that I didn't even know was there. The match already had a lot going for it - this was the most heated feud of the year in any company, it's been going for a year strong, and the stakes couldn't be higher with El Generico's mask and Kevin Steen's ROH career on the line. And I believe that this isn't like another recent firing in pro wrestling, so if Steen loses, don't expect him to show up on HDNet buying a ticket and beating people up every week on a technicality.
But the way that ROH has now sold this match, with it being totally unsanctioned by the company, and it will go on AFTER the World Title match this Saturday, raises the expectations even higher. As if there wasn't enough emotion crammed into this match, they have now essentially promised blood and guts (and probably Kevin Steen licking things). This is seriously going to be crazy.
Just to put some perspective on things, every iPPV Ring of Honor has done (Final Battle '09, The Big Bang, Death Before Dishonor VIII, Glory By Honor IX) has ended with a World Championship match, because the ROH World Title is the most important thing in the company (not to mention the hardest title to win in wrestling - 14 champions in almost 9 years? Yep.).
So having Generico and Steen close the show with whatever remaining time the iPPV has, makes it feel not only important, but FRIGGING SCARY. Read the press release for yourself, even if it's in kayfabe, that still means something coming from ROH. Saying that they want to be "released from all obligation, liability, tax, etc." and to have no responsibility, financially or otherwise, to what Kevin Steen and El Generico do to each other in front of the live audience and people at home, sets a precedent for this match - it's going to be violent.
And that's the only way it should be. You don't need me to spell out every little thing that happened to get to this point, so I offer this video, which if you haven't seen yet, do yourself a favour and watch it now:
Steen has played the perfect villain: Sick. Ultra-violent. Crazy (but not in that Eli Cottonwood "I like to hurt people" way - in a real way, because he doesn't believe he's crazy, much like all truly crazy people don't).
Generico has played the perfect hero: Silent. Vulnerable. Pissed off. He does every bit of his talking in the ring.
From the initial kick to the balls ("I hate your fuckin' guts."), to Generico's first sign of rage with his BRAINBUSTAHHH to Grizzly Redwood, to their encounters at Death Before Dishonor VII and Hate: Chapter II, to their bloody double chain match at Glory By Honor IX and to whatever happens Saturday at Final Battle, this feud has been one of the best stories told all year.
Final Battle will be insane. I don't even want to begin to guess what could happen, who could win, who could make their presence known (although it's entirely possible that Corino and Cabana let these two go at it completely uninterrupted). But whatever happens, I fully believe it will be an incredible blowoff to a feud drenched in emotion and very real consequences.
See you Saturday, where "The End, Begins."
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