The Hammerstein Ballroom inside New York City's Manhattan Center is a special venue for the wrestling world. Though wrestling first emanated from the Grand Ballroom on the 8th floor in 1993, and took over the Hammerstein in 2000, it was ROH's move into that venue that made it hallowed ground. It began with the GLORY BY HONOR V, N.2 event in September 2006 that took place in the Grand Ballroom, it blossomed with A NEW LEVEL in May 2008 when ROH moved into the Hammerstein, and continued throughout ROH's existence until MANHATTAN MAYHEM 2019. 22 events in the Hammerstein alone, 19 more in the Grand Ballroom, and if not for the COVID-19 pandemic necessitating a change in planning, there would've been a 24th Hammerstein event in April 2020.
From top to bottom, the Manhattan Center hosted Bryan Danielson defending the ROH World Title against KENTA at GLORY BY HONOR V: NIGHT 2, Homicide defeating Bryan in front of the former's hometown crowd to claim the title three months later at FINAL BATTLE 2006, Jay Briscoe capturing the ROH World Title for the first time at SUPERCARD OF HONOR VII, as well as The Briscoes defeating both The Young Bucks and SoCal Uncensored in a Ladder War at FINAL BATTLE 2018 to win the ROH World Tag Titles. It's seen Nigel McGuinness versus Claudio Castagnoli for the ROH World Title at A NEW LEVEL, Hiroshi Tanahashi versus Adam Cole and Will Ospreay versus Jay White at WAR OF THE WORLDS 2017: NIGHT 3, and Takeshi Morishima versus Danielson in a Fight Without Honor at FINAL BATTLE 2008.
Suffice to say 311 W. 34th Street in New York City has held some of the greatest professional wrestling bouts of the last twenty years, had the greatest wrestlers of the century walk through its doors, and hosted a collection of the most memorable events in ROH's history.
Tonight that tradition is born anew as, for the first time since July 20, 2019, Ring of Honor returns to the Hammerstein Ballroom to present FINAL BATTLE 2024 live exclusively on Honor Club! Six championships will be on the line, including a Women's World Title bout pitting “The Fallen Goddess” Athena against former minion Billie Starkz and a Men's World Title fight between “The Nueve” Chris Jericho and “The Complete” Matt Cardona, with plenty more action on tap for the ROH faithful in New York City and watching live around the world on Honor Club! The night gets underway at 7pm ET with the ZERO HOUR on the official ROH YouTube channel, and FINAL BATTLE 2024 kicking off at 8pm ET/7pm CT. Plus, if you're fortunate enough to be one of the fans in the Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday night, then there is something special in store for you:
ROH WOMEN'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
“The Fallen Goddess” Athena(c) vs. Billie Starkz
Where to even begin with these two competitors and their topsy-turvy toxic dynamic? Is it with FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 where Billie Starkz faced ROH Women's World Champion Athena in a Quarterfinal bout of the 2023 Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament and a loss proved to be as pivotal to her career as a win? It was after that bout during HONOR CLUB #24 that Athena saved Billie from Robyn Renegade's post-match assault and forcibly pulled the young athlete into her tangled web.
Would it be when Athena slapped the Minion number 400,237 and ¾ on her and created the M.I.T with Billie and “Minion Bestie” Lexy Nair, or with the fact that none of Billie's successes during that time frame were good enough for Athena? “The Forever Champion” saved her praise for Lexy Nair and her condemnation for Billie, specifically focusing in on their tag team losses to Diamante and Mercedes Martinez on HONOR CLUB #35 and the tag loss to Marina Shafir and her surprise partner Ronda Rousey on HONOR CLUB #39. “She still sucks” were the words that echoed through Billie's mind as they were so frequently repeated by Athena while she neglected to acknowledge any good accomplished. Perhaps someone out there looked at it as tough love, but it clearly was mistreatment best highlighted by the Minion Graduation Ceremony held after Billie defeated Marina Shafir during ROH ON HONOR CLUB #40.
That night “The Fallen Goddess” declared Lexy Nair the Valedictorian of the MIT Class of 2023, and wrapped the ceremony without a single acknowledgment of Billie's accomplishments since FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023. After enduring months of abusive treatment from Athena, that proved to be the final straw for Starkz as she tossed the champion headfirst into the steel guardrails surrounding the ring, and it all led to their match at championship match at FINAL BATTLE 2023. Despite the fact that 24 hours before their battle Billie broke Athena's nose, when the final bell rang and Athena remained the Women's World Champion, she finally embraced Billie with seeming love and respect! Athena even turned into Billie's biggest cheerleader as she entered the ROH Women's World TV Title Tournament:
When Billie won the tournament at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024, defeating Robyn Renegade, Diamante, former ROH Women's World Champion Mercedes Martinez, and Queen Aminata along the way, it was Athena who she turned to for praise and acknowledgment rather than her own parents who were in attendance as they were more disgusted with her actions in getting there than proud that she accomplished her first ROH championship. Yet that support from Athena fell apart just a few months later when Starkz lost the Women's World TV Title to Red Velvet at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 in her very first defense.
Athena referring to the Women's World TV Title as “hers” and demoting Billie Starkz to Minion-in-Training should've been all the indicator that Billie needed that she needed to get away, but it's not always that easy nor that obvious when you're right in the middle of the toxicity, and it just got worse as the last few months wore on. Starkz did everything she could to try and make it right with Athena, but instead “The Fallen Goddess” focused her energies fully on Lexy as, over the duration of that relationship, the dynamic had morphed from Nair being a reluctant part of the Athena show to throwing herself fully into the camp of the ROH Women's World Champion. She's perfectly capable of being a professional the rest of the time, but when Athena is in the room, Lexy abandons all pretense of neutrality and shows herself to truly be Athena's bestie! Never was this more obvious than when Athena became the longest-reigning champion in the history of ROH by breaking Samoa Joe's 21-year old record of 645 days as ROH World Champion:
Billie seemingly reached her breaking point with all these shenanigans and the return to mistreatment, but was still willing to do what was “necessary” to make things right in the M.I.T “Family”, even if that meant apologies. Yet even when she tried to make a sincere effort to appease her “Minion Overlord”, Athena couldn't help but throw more insults Billie's way:
The second breaking point finally came at HONOR CLUB #94 when the two women were involved in the Four-Way WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 International Women's Cup Qualifier and Athena stole the winning pinfall from Billie, albeit one she herself attempted to steal from Leyla Hirsch. Given everything that's happened over the last year, the confrontation that followed was bizarre to say the least:
Watching it back after what happened last night during HONOR CLUB #95, perhaps Athena was just leaning into the ridiculousness to throw Starkz off her game before forcing her to be part of their tag team affair. That's the only logical reason for Athena responding to Billie's challenge as if it was a joke or a way to apologize for her perceived slights. Billie was certainly befuddled by Athena's response, but there was no question about what to expect tonight at FINAL BATTLE 2024 by the end of Thursday's scenario.
Here we sit, one year removed from the last championship fight between Billie Starkz and Athena, and so much has changed, but so much remains the same. Athena has now reigned for 741 days, successfully defended her title 24 times, and is unbeaten in ROH-related singles competition since FINAL BATTLE 2022 with 59 victories. In fact across 66 matches, Athena has only lost twice and those were in the aforementioned tags alongside Starkz last year. She's certainly the most dominant champion to ever set foot in an ROH ring, the only thing that outstrips Athena's single run as champion is The Briscoes combined 1,486 days spent across 13-Time World Tag Title reigns, and that has certainly bred an ego possibly unmatched by anyone else in ROH history either.
Ultimately, isn't that what tonight is about? Making history? It's history in it being ROH's return to the Hammerstein Ballroom, and history in the possibility that Athena could complete two calendar years as the reigning ROH Women's World Champion. However, history could also be made by Billie Starkz ending this streak tonight inside the Hammerstein Ballroom, it would be historical if Billie becomes the first woman to have held both the ROH Women's World and World Television titles, and it will unquestionably be history as these two warriors become the first women to main event a Hammerstein Ballroom show for Ring of Honor. Is this the end of the Minion Overlord, The Forever Champion, the American Joshi, The Fallen Goddess, etc.? Will this be the liberation of Billie Starkz? Or, regardless of the outcome, will Starkz still count herself as a minion under Athena's thumb? This toxic dynamic endured through last year's FINAL BATTLE and the bloodshed that preceded it, will Starkz remain trapped in it heading into 2025 as well?
ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
“The Nueve” Chris Jericho(c) vs. “The Complete” Matt Cardona
“The Nueve” Chris Jericho claimed the ROH World Championship for a second time on the October 23rd edition of DYNAMITE when he defeated Mark Briscoe in a Ladder War largely thanks to the involvement of his Learning Tree branches “Bad Apple” Bryan Keith and “The Redwood” Big Bill, especially Bill as the 7-footer literally carried Jericho to the top of the ladder to claim the title belt.
Dubbing himself “The Nueve” as a result of that win, Jericho successfully defended the title against Tomohiro Ishii during DYNAMITE: THANKSGIVING EVE 2024, nearly two years removed from their title fight during Chris' first ROH championship reign, and since then he's walked around as if he's once again the greatest thing to ever happen to Ring of Honor. He even brought “TV Time” to ROH ON HONOR CLUB #93 to make a big deal about his plans for FINAL BATTLE 2024 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, but got quite the unexpected challenge:
“The Complete” Matt Cardona lived up to his other moniker of “Alwayz Ready” when he stepped onto the ROH stage for the very first time to answer Jericho's call for an opponent on ROH's year-end extravaganza. It wasn't the first time Cardona arrived at an ROH event, but it was the first time he did so since beginning his wrestling career in 2004; any other time he set foot into an arena where ROH held a show it was as a fan in those formative years that led to choosing professional wrestling as his path. Cardona is of the generation of wrestlers who were born into a landscape where Ring of Honor already existed, and watched as it grew into the most influential force in professional wrestling over the course of its near twenty-three year existence. He watched some of the greatest competitors of the last two decades, if not the whole of wrestling history, step into the ROH ring to make their name and emerge as world-class athletes respected the world over.
As a result of what, and who, he witnessed in those first few years of his career, entering into an ROH ring as a competitor has long been a goal of Cardona's, and considering how many of those he's managed to accomplish in his career, specifically over the last five years, it should come as no surprise to those who've followed his independent career that he found a way to make that dream come true.
But competing in a Ring of Honor match is only part of the dream; the other part of it involves leaving FINAL BATTLE 2024 as the 42nd ROH World Champion at the expense of Chris Jericho, but Jericho and Bryan Keith did their level best to send the message to Cardona the following night on RAMPAGE about what he had coming:
Cardona got his own shots in on The Learning Tree a week later and after their contract signing during HONOR CLUB #94 it rather felt like Cardona had the edge heading into December 20th:
Cardona reinforced that edge just 24 hours later on RAMPAGE when he defeated Bryan Keith in singles competition as “The Nueve” sat ringside doing commentary, but it was an edge quickly dulled one day after that AEW battle, Chris Jericho shocked the wrestling world by showing up at Game Changer Wrestling's HIGHEST IN THE ROOM 3 event in Los Angeles to assault Matt Cardona on his own turf:
This past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE we watched the ROH World Champion cavort around New York City and proclaim himself its king, on Thursday night's edition of HONOR CLUB we heard from Jericho from the safety of his limo following that assault on Cardona:
Now that FINAL BATTLE 2024 is upon us, the time for running off at the mouth and sneak attacks is over. Now it is time for Chris Jericho to lace up his wrestling boots and get in the ring with “The Complete” Matt Cardona, a man who actually holds a victory over “The Nueve” in their only singles meeting way back on March 28, 2016, a match that coincidentally took place just a few miles away from the Hammerstein Ballroom at Barclays Center. Regardless of how that win came about, Jericho's own record book The Complete List of Jericho... marks it as a victory for Cardona, and that was a very different, far less experienced man than he will be facing tonight at FINAL BATTLE 2024.
Statistically speaking, in the 22 previous editions of FINAL BATTLE dating back to December 28, 2022, the defending ROH World Champion has retained their title 13 times, lost seven times, and on two occasions the title was not defended. One of those losses, FINAL BATTLE 2022 to be exact, was the night Jericho's first reign with the ROH World Title ended at the hands of Claudio Castagnoli so suffice to say history is not the side of “The Nueve” but the statistics of the event are in his corner as 65% of FINAL BATTLE World Title defenses went in favor of the champion. Yet if there's a man capable of defying those odds, it would be “The Complete” Matt Cardona as he's specialized in doing just that for the last half-decade!
Is the era of Cardona on the horizon for Ring of Honor, or will the roots of The Learning Tree continue to dig deeper into the soil of ROH? We'll find out tonight when ROH returns to the Hammerstein Ballroom for FINAL BATTLE 2024!
ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP DOUBLE BULL ROPE MATCH...
The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara)(c) vs. The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent)
It's been almost two months since The Righteous of Dutch and Vincent made the ROH World Tag Team Titles their goals, and thereby Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara their targets. It began as a war of words but it escalated in rapid fashion to violence and blood:
That didn't stop the words from spewing forth out of the poisoned lips and forked tongues belonging to Dutch and Vincent though. In fact the violence only served to escalate the psychological warfare which meant like so many before them, evoking the name of Dustin's legendary father Dusty Rhodes in order to provoke a reaction. However, unlike many men who do so having never sat at the late Rhodes' side learning from his decades of experience, Dutch actually spent a great deal of time being educated by “The American Dream”:
The buttons had been pushed, the bear had been poked and prodded to the point of rage as indicated with Dustin's words at the top of the section, and The Sons of Texas wanted the fight last Thursday night during HONOR CLUB #94 after their rapid tag team victory over Josh Crane and Eric Dillinger. However The Righteous elected to stick their fingers into the wound one more time rather than acquiesce to the demands of the World Tag Champions:
Then there were the actions taken by The Righteous at the Rhodes Wrestling Academy that we witnessed unfold just last night during HONOR CLUB. Suffice to say they were reprehensible, and would never have gotten as far as they did had Dutch and Vincent not made sure they got Dustin all by himself:
That brings us to tonight where FINAL BATTLE 2024 will host ROH's first Double Texas Bull rope match, and just the second-ever in ROH history after Jay Lethal's SUPERCARD OF HONOR XI victory over Cody back on 4/1/17. The Righteous have played their game perfectly, primarily engaging in verbal and psychological warfare, while not falling victim to any reprisal from The Sons of Texas. Dutch and Vincent have played every card with the purpose of infuriating the champions to the point their fury may impair their ability to fight, but that is quite the deadly game to play when one of those men is “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes. His is a career built on psychological warfare, on using his emotions as fuel for the fire rather than being consumed by their heat. Guevara may be a notorious hothead known to fly off the handle into the fight, but perhaps he's been tempered by Dustin's influence, and together the two will be more than The Righteous anticipate.
There's no doubt the Double Bull rope will bring unadulterated violence to FINAL BATTLE 2024, but will it also bring new champions to the fold?
ROH WORLD WOMEN'S TV CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Red Velvet(c) vs. “Legit” Leyla Hirsch
November 3, 2020; that was the first night Leyla Hirsch and Red Velvet shared a ring as part of DARK #59 and extremely early in each woman's AEW career. It was Velvet's 10th match, Leyla's third, and ended with the former's team on the winning side of the bout. Little could either have guessed it would be the beginning of a rivalry that has ebbed and flowed for the last four years, but really kicked into high gear when both entered into the Ring of Honor landscape.
Prior to ROH, Leyla held a 2-1 advantage over Red Velvet in head-to-head matches and nearly two years passed between their last meeting for All Elite Wrestling and their first for Ring of Honor. On one hand, the match provided Red Velvet an opportunity to even the overall score with “Legit” Leyla Hirsch, but on the other the bout was taking place as part of the ROH Women's World Television Title Tournament, meaning the stakes were higher than any of their previous engagements.
That night Red Velvet defeated Leyla to advance out of the Quarterfinals, but her chase for the championship was ended by Queen Aminata in the Semi's. Undeterred by that loss, when the opportunity to fight Athena for the ROH Women's World Title opened up at AEW's BATTLE OF THE BELTS X Red Velvet jumped at the opportunity, and although it didn't go her way, it put Red in the sphere of The M.I.T. Coincidentally, one day before Red took her stab at championship gold in AEW, Leyla Hirsch took one of her own when she answered Julia Hart's TBS Championship Open Challenge on RAMPAGE but was also unsuccessful in her endeavor.
As both women continued to battle on under the ROH banner in pursuit of championship titles, Red Velvet got the opportunity first when she met ROH Women's World TV Champion Billie Starkz at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 and defeated her in Billie's first title defense. That same night, in another moment of their careers running parallel, Leyla Hirsch defeated Diamante in the first-ever Women's Texas Death Match and it felt as if that was the moment that would propel “Legit” into her own championship chase, perhaps even at the Women's World TV Title.
Instead what Hirsch got was three months on the shelf recovering from an injury sustained in that awesome fight while Diamante, the woman she beat at DBD '24, got two shots at Red Velvet and her title. What Leyla got was the opportunity to sit back and watch Red travel to Mexico for CMLL competition in October while she worked herself to the bone to get back into ROH competition. Thankfully that clearance came on HONOR CLUB #89, allowing Leyla Hirsch an opportunity to challenge Red Velvet to this fight tonight at FINAL BATTLE 2024, and got her back into the ring in time to take part in the WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 International Women's Cup Qualifiers alongside Billie Starkz, ROH Women's World Champion Athena, and ROH Women's World TV Champion Red Velvet:
Clearly Leyla Hirsch had Red Velvet dead to rights in that match before Billie Starkz tried to steal the pin, but if there's any solace for Leyla there, at least she also prevented Starkz from getting back into the ring to pin Red herself.
Tonight during FINAL BATTLE 2024 these two competitors will collide once more, their second ROH singles match and fifth overall, yet the stakes keep getting higher as this time it's not a spot in the title tournament on the line but rather the Women's World Championship itself! Can “Legit” Leyla Hirsch earn the very first title of her wrestling career tonight in New York City?
ROH WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST...
“The Machine” Brian Cage(c) vs. AR Fox vs. Blake Christian vs. Komander vs. Mark Davis vs. Willie Mack
“The Machine” Brian Cage ended the World TV Title reign of Atlantis Jr. during AEW's WRESTLEDREAM 2024: ZERO HOUR on October 12th, a bit of redemption for himself as Atlantis Jr. successfully defended title at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 by last eliminating Cage in that night's Survival of the Fittest bout.
Tonight at FINAL BATTLE 2024 history repeats itself, albeit with a twist, as this time it is Brian Cage defending the title in the Six-Way Elimination match known as Survival of the Fittest! This bout marks Cage's third title defense in 69 days, his first two being wins over Komander and AR Fox who are also involved in this bout. As for the other three men involved, they are also no stranger to “The Machine”:
Blake Christian first tangled with Cage at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2022: ZERO HOUR in trios action and again at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023, only that time with the ROH World Six-Man Titles on the line and, coincidentally, AR Fox operating as one of his partners.
Willie Mack and Brian Cage have been fighting each other for 15 years all round the United States, in Mexico, for All Elite Wrestling, and in ROH where their first fight took place during HONOR CLUB #14.
Mark Davis is one of the newest enemies Brian Cage has acquired, in this case a direct result of The Machine's affiliation with Kyle Fletcher by way of The Don Callis Family. Davis, with Powerhouse Hobbs as his partner, recently scored a tag team victory over Cage's DCF allies Lance Archer and AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita on RAMPAGE, but there's also the matter of their own tag team clash airing tonight RAMPAGE. Suffice to say that while the defending ROH World TV Champion has history with all the men involved in this fight, his issues with Mark Davis are certainly at the forefront and could be the most heated of potential confrontations seeded with this SOTF battle!
This will mark the third Survival of the Fittest bout in the history of the ROH World Television Title; the first took place at FINAL BATTLE 2023 and saw Kyle Fletcher win the vacant crown while the second was the aforementioned DBD '24 defense by Atlantis Jr. So will Cage follow in the footsteps of the man he beat for the World TV Title and retain under these circumstances, or will one of the other five men score their first ROH championship title?
ROH PURE CHAMPIONSHIP OPEN CHALLENGE....
TaigaStyle Lee Moriarty(c) vs. ????
Coming off his successful title defense against Matt Taven during HONOR CLUB #94, the third since defeating Wheeler Yuta at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024, Lee Moriarty laid out an Open Challenge for anyone to come meet him at the Hammerstein Ballroom for a title fight during FINAL BATTLE 2024! Speculation has already run rampant about who might be the man to answer the battle cry, with speculation ranging from former Pure Champions to ROH competitors past and present who never held the title to individuals who've never fought inside an ROH ring, but we will all have to wait to find out until this person enters the ring in the center of Hammerstein Ballroom and looks Lee Moriarty in the eyes!
Hopefully this bold move by the Shane Taylor Promotions' member does not end up being one he regrets in hindsight...
ONE-ON-ONE...
“The Franchise of ROH” Jay Lethal vs. QT Marshall
ROH WRESTLING #56 aired on October 13, 2012 and featured Jay Lethal taking on QT Marshall in a First Round Survival of the Fittest tournament match. That night in Baltimore it was Lethal who took home the victory to advance to, and win, the Six-Man Elimination Finals for a future ROH World Championship match. 18 months later the two men would meet again on an independent event in Florida, and that evening it was Lethal who once again picked up the victory.
Fast forward to 2024 and these Ring of Honor alumni are both hungry to take part in the return to Hammerstein Ballroom, so much so that Jay Lethal is reluctantly willing to take on this match against QT Marshall as part of the year-end extravaganza. For Lethal the Hammerstein Ballroom is a very special place, it's where he returned to the fold at BEST IN THE WORLD 2011 after five years away and defeated Mike Bennett. It's where he successfully defended the World TV Title in a Three-Way at FINAL BATTLE 2011, and defeated Rhino at FB '12. It's where he beat KUSHIDA in their World TV Title clash at WAR OF THE WORLDS 2014 and successfully retained the ROH World Title at FINAL BATTLE 2018. It's also a venue where Lethal has taken his losses, but the positives and the memories created at 311 W. 34th Street far outweigh the negatives.
As for QT Marshall, he had a few Hammerstein experiences in 2012 and 2013, but none of it was really positive, especially that last go around where he was victimized by Eddie Kingston and “The Notorious 187” Homicide. In truth, wanting this match with Lethal at FINAL BATTLE 2024 has nothing to do with the Hammerstein, any sense of nostalgia, or even Ring of Honor. It's just about QT Marshall looking for every opportunity to get eyes on himself, just like he did at AEW's FULL GEAR 2024 when he picked a fight with Big Boom! AJ.
For QT it's about craving exposure and recognition by any means necessary and anywhere he can find it, but for Jay Lethal it's about a love for ROH that began at NIGHT OF THE BUTCHER in December 2002 when he first debuted at the Murphy Rec Center in South Philadelphia. It's about living up to the billing of “Franchise” that he earned as a former Pure Champion, a 2-Time World TV Champion, a 2-Time World Champion, 2012 Survival of the Fittest winner, and one-half of the longest reigning World Tag Team Champions in ROH history. A return to ROH competition is an emotional affair for Jay Lethal, and he's not about to let QT Marshall ruin that tonight at FINAL BATTLE 2024!
ONE-ON-ONE...
MxM Collection's Mansoor vs. Atlantis Jr.
It feels appropriate that MxM Collection will be represented at FINAL BATTLE 2024 tonight given that the Hammerstein Ballroom is located less than a mile away from NYC's Garment District and has hosted its fair share of fashion shows over the course of its 118-year existence. What's rather unique about this catwalk for Mansoor and Mason Madden is that the former will be flying solo rather than engaging in a tag team tussle with the latter at his side. It's a first time solo act for Mansoor in ROH competition, and really unusual for 2024 as a whole given he's had just seven one-on-one bouts the whole year, but at least Mason will be in his corner as support against former ROH World TV Champion Atlantis Jr.
This match is quite the unique clash of styles, but as the saying goes, those are what makes fights and the eccentric stylings of MxM Collection may just be the thing to throw Atlantis Jr. off his high-flying game and secure Mansoor the win in his first FINAL BATTLE!
AN ROH DEBUT...
“The Wrestler” Katsuyori Shibata vs. “The Dynamite Kid” Tommy Billington
We haven't seen Tommy Billington in All Elite Wrestling since ALL IN: LONDON 2024's wild 16-Man Tag battle during the ZERO HOUR, and AEW fans have certainly never witnessed the young man compete on American soil. In fact, he hasn't stepped into a ring in the United States since July 2023, and he's absolutely never done so under the Ring of Honor banner, but that all changes tonight in New York City! Tonight during FINAL BATTLE 2024, “The Dynamite Kid” Tommy Billington makes his Ring of Honor debut at the historic Hammerstein Ballroom but he's tackling one of the toughest tasks imaginable by facing former ROH Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata!
Since returning to ROH competition at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023, Shibata is 17-2 overall with both losses coming in title bouts; the first a dual ROH World/NJPW STRONG Openweight Title fight with Eddie Kingston and the second a Pure Title defense against Wheeler Yuta. He's currently on a seven match win streak in Ring of Honor, most recently defeating Alex Reynolds on HONOR CLUB #93, and now Shibata is ready to show “The Dynamite Kid” why he's simply known as “The Wrestler”! Welcome to ROH Tommy Billington, hope you survive the experience...
ZERO HOUR...
-LEEJ (Lee Johnson & EJ Nduka) vs. Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona)
-Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake)
-Harley Cameron vs. Hanako
-STP's The Infantry (Capt. Shawn Dean & Carlie Bravo) vs. Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett
Ring of Honor returns to the Hammerstein Ballroom for FINAL BATTLE 2024, airing exclusively on Honor Club beginning at 8pm ET/7pm CT, with the ZERO HOUR kicking off on the official ROH YouTube channel at 7pm ET! Women's World Champion “The Fallen Goddess” Athena will defend her title against Billie Starkz, “The Nueve” Chris Jericho puts his ROH World Title on the line against “The Complete” Matt Cardona, and The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara) face The Righteous in a Double Texas Bull rope Match with the ROH World Tag Titles on the line! In addition, ROH Women's World TV Champion Red Velvet puts her title up against “Legit” Leyla Hirsch, ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty has issued an Open Challenge, ROH World TV Champion Brian Cage defends against five challengers in Survival of the Fittest, and “The Franchise” Jay Lethal returns to ROH to face QT Marshall! All this, and more, comes to you from the Hammerstein Ballroom in the heart of New York City, and if you're one of the ROH faithful in attendance tonight, you'll be treated to a special screening of Nigel McGuinness: The Road Less Traveled prior to showtime!