ROH: A Beginner’s Guide Before Final Battle 2018

The Kingdom – Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia, & TK O’Ryan

The Kingdom is one of the longest running stables in ROH, initially starting with Mike Bennett (Mike Kanellis in WWE), Maria Kanellis, and Matt Taven. Upon the departure of Bennett and Maria, Taven was left alone. Taven, who was out with an injury, had no friends with him in ROH anymore. However, Taven promised that The Kingdom would rise again, and Matt Taven brought in Vinny Marseglia and TK O’Ryan to join him.

Very quickly, they made a major impact, winning the ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles. Since then, they have held the titles three times and have been involved in absolute wars with The Young Bucks, The Briscoes, and SoCal Uncensored. While some were unsure of The Kingdom’s success early on, Taven has proven to be a good leader, as he has quickly moved up the ranks in ROH.

Taven has been denied a promised ROH World Championship match, one on one, over and over again, and you can bet that Taven does not take kindly to this. He has said that he is proud to be the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champion more than once, but the ROH World Championship is the title that he is after.

Taven has done successful tours of CMLL and held the IWGP Tag Team Championships with Mike Bennett, but Taven’s main goal of being ROH World Champion keeps eluding him. He has since claimed that he is the real World Champion, and debuted his own World Title at Death Before Dishonor on September 28, 2018. Taven continues to be denied the world title shot that he wants, but at Final Battle 2018 he will face Dalton Castle. If Taven can defeat Castle, how could he be denied?

SoCal Uncensored – Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, & Scorpio Sky

A long-time tag team, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian (known as The Addiction), were joined by Scorpio Sky in 2017. Sky, Daniels, and Kazarian have since seen much success in their short time as a group. Winning the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championships, the three men were looking to hold all the leverage in the world heading into their year end contract negotiations with ROH.

They were told earlier in the year that their contracts wouldn’t be renewed, which caused them to go on quite a heel run seeking as much power in the company as they could. The group turned babyface a few months ago when dealing with The Kingdom, and it’s possible that the contract storyline has been dropped. However, Kazarian and Sky are now the tag team champions, having defeated the Briscoe Brothers for them. Even if the story has been dropped, they now have an out with Sky and Kazarian being tag team champions heading into Final Battle.