Original ROH Storyline And Final Battle Plans For Jay Lethal Revealed
Original plans for the ROH Final Battle pay-per-view had Jay Lethal going one-on-one with Vincent. There were also plans for Lethal to join The Righteous.
Lethal had been feuding with The Righteous (Vincent, Bateman, Dutch, Vita VonStarr) on ROH TV and the next chapter in that feud was going to be Lethal vs. Vincent in a singles match at Final Battle, according to Vincent. However, ROH announced in late October that they were going on hiatus until April 2022, and Lethal ended up signing with AEW in mid-November, making his debut at the Full Gear pay-per-view on November 13.
Lethal ended up wrestling Jonathan Gresham for the vacant ROH World Title at Final Battle, in a match that saw Gresham capture the title to carry it through the hiatus. AEW allowed Lethal to work Final Battle after previous ROH World Champion Bandido was pulled from the match with Gresham due to a positive COVID-19 test.
Vincent appeared on The Shining Wizards podcast this week and revealed plans for the singles match at Final Battle.
"As it got close to the show [ROH Final Battle], I was kind of like, you know, like, 'Wow. This could be potentially it right here,' as far as Final Battle goes and this era, this is it. You know, once my music comes on, this is it so, 'I think I'm gonna really enjoy this one and dance on the barricade and stuff' and I did," Vincent said. "But it was, you know — it was bittersweet man and the first-ever Ring of Honor Six-Man Tag Team Champion and then the last ever for this era is just kind of a cool thing and I'm really — and I'll kind of let this cat out of the bag. It doesn't really matter now but it was supposed to be me versus Jay Lethal at Final Battle and that's kind of where that was headed.
"You know, unfortunately with everything happening, you know, it didn't really go that way which is, you know, I think Lethal and [Jonathan] Gresham for the world title was very — made the most sense and I thought that was a good move as far as I'm concerned but, doing the six-man thing with — I really liked it because now it's almost like when I did it with The Kingdom, it was like [Matt] Taven at the forefront and then me and TK [O'Ryan] and this time it was me with my crew now winning the Six-Man Tag Titles. It was just kind of like a cool full-circle kind of thing but like, now, Dutch and Bateman being able to hold these things for the first time ever for those guys, it was kind of a cool thing for me, you know what I mean? Because they're my buddies and you know, it was cool, it was great."
Vince also confirmed that there was a plan for Lethal to join The Righteous during the program. Lethal had several exchanges with the group on ROH TV, and on one occassion they came to the ring to applaud him. Vincent revealed that a promo was shot to lead to the angle, but it never aired.
"Yeah [story with Jay Lethal was leading to him joining The Righteous] and it's a bummer man because I really — I put some thought into that and we did the purity, the white [clothing] and stuff and it was kind of — it was gonna be really fun," Vincent said. "There was actually a promo that we did that actually never saw the light of day that's still out there. Maybe I could eventually get it and just put it up there for fun or something as a memory.
"But, it was good man and that was the promo that I felt like, 'Oh, this is gonna be fun. This has something to it. This is different,' you know what I mean? It was just different and I was looking forward to it but you know, who knows? You know what I mean? Maybe eventually down the road, you never know. Like I said, wrestling's crazy like that."
Final Battle saw The Righteous capture the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles from Shane Taylor Promotions. Vincent became the first wrestler to hold the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles on four occasions.
(H/T to POST Wrestling for the quotes)