Background On November 23, 2009, ROH announced that they had signed a
pay-per-view deal with Go Fight Live (GFL) to air live events over the
Internet. The first event to be aired as part of this deal was Final Battle 2009. On January 18, 2010,
Jim Cornette announced on an episode of
Ring of Honor Wrestling that ROH would make its debut in Charlotte, North Carolina with an
Internet-only
pay-per-view called "The Big Bang!", which sported the slogan, "pro wrestling explodes into the 21st century". The main feud heading into The Big Bang! was between
Tyler Black,
Austin Aries, and
Roderick Strong over Black's
ROH World Championship. At ROH's first online-pay-per-view,
Final Battle 2009 in December 2009, then-champion Aries had successfully defended the championship against Black in an hour-long
time-limit draw. As a result of Aries trying to run away and take a
countout loss, where he would have retained the championship, executive producer Jim Cornette announced that Aries and Black would have a rematch at ROH's
8th Anniversary Show in
New York City on February 13. In case of a draw in the rematch, Cornette decreed that three judges would select the winner of the match, and that both Black and Aries would choose a judge. Black elected Roderick Strong, and Aries chose his ally,
Kenny King. Cornette then announced himself as the third judge. Strong agreed to be a judge, on the condition that he receive a match for the championship if Black won. During the match at the
8th Anniversary Show, Black
superkicked both Cornette and Strong en route to defeating Aries to win his first ROH World Championship. In early March, Cornette announced that as a result of Strong being promised a championship match and Aries invoking his
rematch clause, a
three-way elimination match would occur at The Big Bang!. At Final Battle 2009, the regular
tag team of
Kevin Steen and El Generico disbanded following a loss to
The Young Bucks, when
Kevin Steen turned on
El Generico and hit him with a
steel chair.
Colt Cabana came out to the
ring to stop Steen, who then left ringside. Following this, Cabana attempted to reason with Steen, who had allied himself with
Steve Corino. During this time, Generico refused to hurt Steen, despite Cabana encouraging him to exact revenge. At Final Battle 2009,
Claudio Castagnoli and
Chris Hero, collectively known as
The Kings of Wrestling, reunited and attacked the
Briscoe Brothers moments after the Briscoes had won the
ROH World Tag Team Championship. Following this, both members of the Kings of Wrestling went on a tour of
Japan with
Pro Wrestling Noah in January, with it being worked into the
storyline between the two teams. It was later announced the Kings of Wrestling would receive a World Tag Team Championship match against the Briscoes at The Big Bang!. ==Event==