Background: For the ninth time in the company’s history, Ring of Honor hosted the “Survival of the Fittest” tournament were a group of men would battle for the right to be a future World title contender. The 2012 iteration witnessed former tournament winners Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin, then-Television champion Adam Cole, former ROH World champion Davey Richards, Jay Lethal and Mike Mondo advance to the tournament final – a six man Elimination match.
ROH TV Episode 58
Baltimore, MD
September 22, 2012
Adam Cole vs. Michael Elgin vs. Roderick Strong vs. Jay Lethal vs. Davey Richards vs. Mike Mondo
During the entrances, it was shown how each man made it to the finals. Davey Richards and Roderick Strong had the privilege of kicking this one off. When Michael Elgin tagged in following the former World champions’ stalemate, Roderick Strong hit the floor. Mike Mondo decided to take Strong’s place. Mondo became the irresistible force to Elgin’s immovable object until he was power slammed. Elgin tagged out, causing a confrontation between Richards and Mondo. Richards was dropkicking his opponents until Strong caught him on the apron with that apron backbreaker. Everyone was taking it to the floor as topes and moonsaults had crowd going crazy in the crowd. Mondo was the first to get up, rolling in Richards for a two count. Strong eventually blind tagged himself in, catching Mondo with the Sick Kick to pin and eliminate “No Fear”.
Adam Cole confronted the man he defeated to become the ROH TV champion – Strong – only to take an enzuguri that dropped him. Strong started egging Elgin on, actually spitting at the big man before kicking Davey Richards in the face for good measure. Double knee gut-buster didn’t put Cole away. Elgin entered the ring after Strong rocked Cole, using that spinning back fist to knock Strong into Adam’s super kick … for another pin fall elimination!
Before Cole could get off of the mat, Richards hooked him in the Ankle Lock. Cole was aware enough to get free and hit that over the knee neck breaker. Elgin tagged himself in via Davey, going for the Chaos Theory on the TV champion. Cole used Elgin’s maneuver to nearly pin “Unbreakable” instead of meeting the canvas. Super kick by Cole ended with him taking Elgin’s turnbuckle bomb-Spiral Bomb combination for another pin fall elimination.
We headed to another commercial as Jay Lethal finally entered the ring. Coming back to the show, we found Elgin fall away slamming Lethal while Samoan dropping Richards in an impressive show of strength. Before Elgin could dive on the floored Lethal and Richards, Roderick Strong snuck out and shoved Elgin off of the top rope. Elgin rolled to the floor as Lethal and Richards slowly slugged it out. For some reason, Lethal looked exhausted. Richards dropped Lethal before going after Elgin. Richards used an exploder suplex to slam Elgin into the timekeeper’s plastic table. Richards and Lethal were slugging it out again as Elgin crawled back in. Richards and Lethal seemed to be contemplating teaming up. Using a series of kicks together, Richards double stomped Elgin in position for Hail to the King … for a two count!
Elgin was hurt, but standing. “Unbreakable” refused to be dropped by Davey, but the stereo kicks and double pin from Richards and Lethal were too much for last year’s winner; ending his night as we headed to the final commercial break. Coming back, Richards and Lethal were at a standoff. The ROH locker room somewhat emptied as Lethal offered to shake hands before yanking Richards into an ace crusher. Lethal scaled the ropes, hitting Hail to the King … for a two count!
Alarm Clock by Richards when Lethal lifted him up, but Richards ended up taking two Lethal Combinations seconds later. When Richards kicked out of Lethal’s follow up pin, the former ROH World champion got caught in the Koji clutch. Showing great tenacity, Richards countered with the Ankle Lock. Before Jay could tap, he countered with the Lethal Deathlock until Richards clawed his way to the ropes. The action spilled onto the apron where Richards used an exploder suplex on the apron. Richards immediately rolled Jay into the ring for a double stomp off the top rope … for a one count!
Series of buzz saw kicks from Davey somehow didn’t put Lethal away. They were trading super kicks until Lethal went for the Lethal Injection. Richards stopped the attack with a failed Ankle Lock, but was still in control thanks to some flying forearms. Superplex by Richards was converted into a brain buster to gain another two count. Richards went back to the Ankle Lock. Lethal worked his way out of the hold, German and dragon suplexing Richards … for another two count!
Lethal waited for Richards to get up, only to be spit in the face. Lethal Injection connected to give Jay the final pin fall.
Winner: Jay Lethal (35:59 shown)
Is It A Classic: I was understandably worried about this match happening on television with the fear of commercial breaks and TV time constraints hurting the match’s overall flow, but the 2012 version of the “SotF’s” finals will go down as one of the better ones. Maybe not a classic like the original, but close to it.
