Final Battle 2011 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH). It took place on December 23, 2011 at the Manhattan Center in New York City. It was the tenth annual event in the Final Battle chronology, with the first taking place in 2002, but only the third to be broadcast live.
All three Ring of Honor (ROH) championships were contested at the event. The ROH World Championship was defended in a rubber match between champion Davey Richards and former champion Eddie Edwards; Edwards lost their previous match in June 2011 but won their first encounter in March 2010. The ROH World Tag Team Championship was defended by Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team, consisting of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, against the six-time champions The Briscoe Brothers, Jay and Mark. The final championship match saw Jay Lethal defend his ROH World Television Championship against former champion El Generico and Mike Bennett in an elimination match. Also featured on the card was the wrestling return of Kevin Steen, after a year-long absence from the promotion. Four other matches make up the undercard.
Production
Background
Final Battle was originally scheduled to take place on December 17, 2011, in the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center in New York City, and tickets went on sale on September 17. The event was later postponed to December 23 and moved to the Hammerstein Ballroom within the Manhattan Center. As with all ROH's pay-per-views since 2009, the broadcast was live and over the internet.
Storylines
Final Battle featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from existing, scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains or heroes, or more ambiguous characters in scripted contests that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match on the pay-per-view.
The main event was for the ROH World Championship and saw Davey Richards defend against his American Wolves tag team partner, Eddie Edwards in their third singles match as opponents. In March 2010, the two met in the final of tournament to crown the inaugural ROH World Television Champion. Edwards won the match, leading to them both seeking more of a singles career and Richards began competing for the World Championship. In November, Edwards won the Survival of the Fittest tournament, which gave him the right to challenge World Champion Roderick Strong, which he successfully did at Manhattan Mayhem IV in March 2011. On the back of a nine match winning streak in singles competition, Richards was announced as the challenger for Edwards' title at the Best in the World 2011 iPPV in June. Richards won the match and became ROH World Champion.
The following month Edwards saved Richards from a handicap beatdown at the hands of the House of Truth, but at the next event in a tag team match between the American Wolves and Richards' training students Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly, Edwards continually stomped on the head of O'Reilly after the match had ended because the timekeeper's bell had not been rung. Edwards went on to defeat both House of Truth members and O'Reilly in singles matches over the next few months and on the 29 October episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling was announced as the challenger for the World Championship. Edwards announced that to give him an edge, he had employed a new trainer ahead of the title opportunity. On the 12 November episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling the American Wolves wrestled the House of Truth (Strong and Michael Elgin), during which Edwards helped the team win with a dragon sleeper despite never having used the move before. This is a signature move of Dan Severn who was later revealed as Edwards' new trainer, despite Richards having previously sought his mentorship.