Official Survival of the Fittest 2015 Thread

[Burnside]

It seems to me like ROH missed a big opportunity by not doing SOTF as an iPPV. It's like ROH's version of the Royal Rumble in that it's the one show a year that can easily stand alone with almost no build and will always have people's interest. Why not book it the old way as a one-night thing (which would also cut down on costs because you could bring in fewer wrestlers) and do it on iPPV. It would draw a lot more interest than the show would on regular VOD because people would be able to avoid spoilers.

It definitely seems like there should be an iPPV in either October or November; either Survival of the FIttest or Glory By Honor. Feels like a big gap between ASE and Final Battle.

Next year, I'd like to see:

Anniversary Show (TV PPV) - February
Supercard of Honor (Mania weekend iPPV) - April
Global Wars and/or War of the Worlds (iPPV) - May
Best in the World (TV PPV) - June
Death Before Dishonor (iPPV) - July
All Star Extravaganza (TV PPV) - September
Glory by Honor or Survival of the Fittest (iPPV) - Oct/Nov
Final Battle (TV PPV) - Dec

The only thing is, if Survival of the Fittest becomes an iPPV, it should probably have a fairly big world title match on it to anchor the card. Historically in wrestling, PPVs with an unknown main event (the SOTF finals) do not do very well.

[jordidebaas]

I think if they'd build up the importance of SOTF enough, they could sell it without a big title match. People would still watch the Royal Rumble or MITB if they didn't know who was going to be in it, because you know there's going to be a lot of big names, and there's a lot at stake in the match. Besides, you can at least be about 50% sure of who are going to be in the finals. If the first round is stacked enough, then you can tell the finals will feature some great wrestlers.
Of course, they could also bring in a big outside name for a title shot, I wouldn't be against that. Still waiting on a Paul London return for example.

[Northwoods_Nightmare]

I think one match like SOTF you could get by with not knowing the participants but they would definitely need to go back to one night. No way you could do well on a ppv where virtually the whole card is unknown. With one night the attraction is the tournament itself just like BOLA, G1, etc

[DXvsNWO1994]

If anyone is looking for results, you can follow Count Counterpoint on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TGD287

[DXvsNWO1994]

So Kevin Kelly had a "special guest" with him on commentary tonight, in the form of Mr. Wrestling III:



Of course, Mr. Wrestling III is none other than...

Spoiler: show

Steve Corino

[DXvsNWO1994]

Also, the Survival of the Fittest 2015 Finals have been set. It will be...

Christopher Daniels vs. Roderick Strong vs. Silas Young vs. Jay Briscoe vs. "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin vs. ACH

Additionally, this means that AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal is officially for Hopkins. That should be a barn burner!

[trufreedom]

So... this is a lay up for Roderick Strong at this point, right?

[Robareid]

Well the winner is probably going to be one of the first challengers for Styles, so I think it's wide open. I could easily see a Briscoe win, an Elgin victory doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility and with ACH now signed then who knows.

[Burnside]

It'll come down to Roddy vs Jay, and Roddy will win.

[DXvsNWO1994]

So... this is a lay up for Roderick Strong at this point, right?

I was going to say that Burnside would probably agree with you but he already responded lol.

This year's finals is a real tossup. Obviously Christopher Daniels & Silas Young aren't winning, but it could be any one of the remaining four. I don't think Strong is winning, though Burnside thinks otherwise. There's always the chance that Jay Briscoe wins it (though he never cashed in his rematch). I would go with either Michael Elgin or ACH. With Elgin, if the rumors of a ROH World Title Match at the Tokyo Dome are true, then I could see Elgin winning to set that up. It would be a big moment for ACH to win. He could be one the first challengers for Styles or Lethal in the new year. Personally, I'd actually save his title shot until Supercard of Honor X in Dallas (given his Texas connections). Of course, that'd depend on if there's a New Japan tour going on, specifically with regards to AJ Styles (though I heard somewhere that New Japan talent is available 'Mania Weekend).

[Thelone]

Young is the only one I can't see win so at least the match is open. I think the winner depends on when they have him challenge for the world title :

• If it's at FB to make Lethal vs. Styles vs. SOTF winner : anyone really, but most likely Daniels or ACH
• If it's at one of the Japan shows next year : Elgin
• If it's at another show next year (TV or 14A) : Jay or Elgin

[Burnside]

Christopher Daniels is not winning this match, and is absolutely not getting added to the FB main event.

[WHG]

Burnside's instincts for this are usually pretty good (see the time he essentially pre-booked Lethal beating Moose due to an injury from an altercation with Cedric a couple months ago). That said, I'm keeping the faith that Delirious wouldn't have booked and announced the singles match that EVERYONE wants, only to change it. I think Styles pinning Lethal sets up Lethal beating AJ at Final Battle...probably not 100% clean, but enough that people will be surprised that AJ lost.

For tonight, I'm shocked that Briscoe is in the Finals. I don't see him winning...so I figured they'd avoid beating him. My pick is Elgin with the intent (as DXvsNWO pointed out) being to build to a title shot at WK10.

If ACH wins, I could see a scenario where Elgin & Briscoe eliminate each other and ACH beats Roddy to win SOTF & sets up a TV title match at Final Battle.

All of that said, I wouldn't be shocked to see Burnside's scenario play out. The Final Battle main event usually has a long story arc element to it that Lethal/AJ doesn't have yet...and Roddy/Lethal has that.

[Burnside]

Because of the Tokyo Dome thing, Elgin is the number 2 pick for this yeah.

I just can't quite see a guy whose contract just expired being put over Adam Cole, Jay Briscoe, and Roderick Strong in one weekend, but weirder things have happened.

[Thelone]

I wouldn't put too much faith into a world title match at the Dome. Like I said in the NJPW thread, I think Elgin vs. Ishii for the NEVER title is a more likely scenario.

[187_Joeism]

Elgin vs Ishii is a match that fans would like to happen but New Japan did nothing to set that up, is more likely to have Lethal vs Elgin, i mean is more likely that Elgin is not booked for the Dome than him challenge for the NEVER at this point.

With the SOTF they can go in different ways, i still think there is no chance of someone getting added to Styles vs Lethal so i think Elgin can win it and challenge in the Dome or in the Japan tour or ACH now that he is a exclusive talent.

[Northwoods_Nightmare]

Great show at night 1! Lots of great matches and some really solid feud progression. I'll post more details when I get home to an actual keyboard.

[Thelone]

Elgin vs Ishii is a match that fans would like to happen but New Japan did nothing to set that up, is more likely to have Lethal vs Elgin, i mean is more likely that Elgin is not booked for the Dome than him challenge for the NEVER at this point.

Why do you think Elgin is in the tag league ? While they're not on the same block, Elgin and Ishii will be opponents on almost every non-tournament show during the tour (night 2, 4, 6 and 10) + Elgin has a completely random singles match on night 8 against Jay White.

[TYFDK]

Matches for tonight:

Survival of the Fittest 2015 Finals
Christopher Daniels vs. Roderick Strong vs. Silas Young vs. Jay Briscoe vs. Michael Elgin vs. ACH

Jay Lethal & Donovan Dijak vs. reDragon

AJ Styles vs. Matt Sydal

All Night Express vs. The Young Bucks

Adam Page vs. Dalton Castle

Frankie Kazarian vs. Mark Briscoe

Plus: The Kingdom, War Machine, Adam Cole, Cedric Alexander, Moose, Joey Daddiego.

(I could see Moose & War Machine vs. The Kingdom happening here tonight)

[Mike Adamle]

The way I see survival of the fittest going is like this: about 15-20 minutes into the match they're going to have Silas Young eliminate Christopher Daniels in a cheap way similar to what Chris Hero did in 2007 stealing pins from everyone.

I see him doing it again to ACH a few minutes later.

At this point it's down to Roddy, Silas, Jay, and #BigMike. I see Roddy, Jay, and #BigMike getting fed up with Silas' antics and ganging up on him, giving him all the finishers, before getting pinned by all three of them.

This is about 25-27 minutes in. For about ten minutes you get some awesome action between these three before Jay hit's #BigMike with 2 Jay Drillers similar to how he won the title and sends him packing.

Then we get another 10 minutes of awesomeness before Silas Young comes down and (without Roddy seeing) hits Jay Briscoe with a chair or something and Roddy pins Jay. (Possibly urinating on him after the match.)

Then I think Roddy will cash in at Final Battle and we'll get the three way match Burnside keeps talking about so that AJ doesn't get pinned. I also think Roddy might win that tbh. No way AJ loses clean going into WK10. And Roddy has been on such a tear this year I think it'd be stupid not to give him the belt. But either way you look at it a three way is happening. Look at Final Battle 2013 where you had Briscoe-Cole-Elgin. Or ROH's first iPPV on WrestleMania weekend with Aries-Black-Strong. Or when Black won the belt with Aries-Black-Lynn. Or the 1st Anniversary Show where you had Ki-London-Styles. Or the first show ever with Daniels-Danielson-Ki. ROH was built on 3-Way matches and we're gonna get another classic.