It's Thursday night once again which means Ring of Honor action is coming your way with the latest edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB! We watched ROH World Champion Chris Jericho get put down by Tomohiro Ishii this past Wednesday night to close out the trios Fight Without Honor between The Conglomeration and The Learning Tree so one has to wonder how that will impact both men's futures. We also witnessed The Righteous viciously assault the ROH World Tag Team Champions Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara, The Infantry sign on with Shane Taylor Promotions, and Athena survive the Ring of Horror match with Abadon to retain her ROH Women's World Championship!
This week we've got another loaded one as “The Fallen Goddess” has called for an Emergency M.E.M, as well as Premier Athletes' Josh Woods versus AR Fox, the aforementioned Ishii facing Aaron Solo, Diamante taking on Rachael Ellering, Preston Vance facing ROH World Tag Champion Sammy Guevara, and so much more with The Infantry, The Patriarchy's Nick Wayne, Leyla Hirsch, and The Righteous!
ROH ON HONOR CLUB gets underway at 7pm ET/6pm CT exclusively on Honor Club, your home for Ring of Honor's weekly presentation every Thursday night, plus the only place to experience more than 20 years of the most influential wrestling promotion of the last two decades as demonstrated with our “Best of ROH” section! There you will find collections featuring Bryan Danielson, Nigel McGuinness, Samoa Joe, Claudio Castagnoli, and The Briscoes, with more uploaded regularly!!!
ONE-ON-ONE...
Premier Athletes' Josh Woods vs. AR Fox
AR Fox is a man with a target on his back, and it's not just because he's stepping into the ring with former ROH Pure Champion Josh Woods tonight during HONOR CLUB. It's also because this Saturday on AEW COLLISION he's got a date with The Patriarchy's Nick Wayne stemming from the assault Fox and Swerve Strickland perpetrated on Nick some 15 months ago. Fox knows that is going to be a fight, but he's got to find the ability to focus on the task at hand or this Premier Athlete is going to snap him in half!
Woods has had a rough go the last month in ROH competition; he came up short in a Proving Ground match with then-ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe as well as in battle with “The Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii just last week, but this is a huge chance to rebound for “The Technical Beast”. Josh Woods has demonstrated many times over that he's got the heart and abilities of a champion, perhaps this will be the beginning of the road back to wearing a title around his waist. On the other hand, AR Fox definitely needs this victory under his belt heading into a bout with Christian Cage's “Prodigy” on Saturday night.
So the question may be which man needs it more, and which one will dig deeper to see they get the victory on Honor Club?
SINGLES MATCH...
The Conglomeration's Tomohiro Ishii vs. Aaron Solo
Speaking of The Conglomeration's Tomohiro Ishii, just 24 hours after pinning ROH World Champion Chris Jericho in the Trios Fight Without Honor on DYNAMITE, “The Stone Pitbull” is right back in action! Last week's victory over Josh Woods may have been Ishii's first match back in ROH since Jericho's Learning Tree assaulted the man and forced him to return to Japan, but he's still won three straight singles matches in ROH during 2024 in addition to that pin on “The Nueve”.
As for Aaron Solo, he looked quite impressive in his Pure Rules bouts with Angelico and Matt Taven, as well as his singles clash with Rocky Romero, but he needs to get on the winning track if he hopes to get near a championship title anytime soon. A victory over this former ROH World TV Champion is just the kind of thing Solo needs to start building momentum in Ring of Honor, but he's going to have to take hits from some of the hardest hands in the game if he hopes to garner a victory.
Will Tomohiro Ishii tally a fourth straight ROH victory tonight during HONOR CLUB, or will we see Aaron Solo pull off an upset victory over “The Stone Pitbull”?
HEAD-TO-HEAD...
Diamante vs. Rachael Ellering
Diamante and Rachael Ellering have some history over the course of their wrestling careers. Not only did they meet in tag team competition back on HONOR CLUB #45 at the beginning of 2024, but they also faced off during the 2020 AEW Women's Tag Team Cup Tournament. Both those matches were won by Diamante's team, but their history predates either of those with several singles matches around the independent circuit. Diamante holds the edge in those bouts, 2-1 in one-on-one situations, but it's been over six years since their last meeting and each woman has grown greatly in the interim.
Diamante comes to this fight off a 90-second win on last week's HONOR CLUB, and that was on the heels of a ROH Women's World TV Title bout with Red Velvet that ended when Diamante cracked Red across the skull with the title belt. There's no question she wants another shot at the title, but she's going to have to go through Rachael Ellering to get there and Rachael has won three of her last four ROH matches.
This is a tough one to call between two of the toughest women in Ring of Honor; who will move forward towards their shared goals of championship success in ROH?
ONE-ON-ONE...
ROH World Tag Team Champion Sammy Guevara vs. Preston Vance
As one-half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions, Sammy Guevara always has a target on his back from teams looking to take what he and Dustin Rhodes have earned. The Righteous certainly put the champions on notice with the assault they perpetrated last week, but Guevara has to lace up his boots and move on because he's got a tremendous fight on his hands tonight on HONOR CLUB!
Tonight, for the first time ever, Sammy Guevara will go one-on-one with Preston Vance as the former anticipates a clash with The Righteous while the latter searches for a new direction in his wrestling career. Vance stepped into tag team competition last week with Peter Avalon as his partner, he challenged Lee Moriarty for the ROH Pure Title during HONOR CLUB #83, and neither of those endeavors went in his favor. Perhaps a victory over one-half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions will lead Vance towards the direction he needs to go, or perhaps Sammy Guevara will look to this a way to send Dutch and Vincent a message about what's in store for them!
AN EMERGENCY M.E.M!!
“The Fallen Goddess” Athena may have survived her Ring of Horror fight with Abadon to retain the ROH Women's World Championship, and extend her record-shattering reign to nearly 700 days, but what about the state of the minions? “Minion Bestie” Lexy Nair may still be standing strong in support of Athena, but it's been clear for weeks that Billie Starkz is not even reading the same book as those two, much less the same page.
That's pretty much been the case since Billie lost the ROH Women's World TV Title to Red Velvet at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024, and Starkz actually took the abuse for far longer than any rational person before finally telling Athena and Lexy she was done. Even after that, following Billie's victory over Blair Onyx, Lexy still tried to recruit Starkz into being there for Athena in the Ring of Horror bout but Billie was having none of it. Not only did she walk away from Lexy, but after Athena's victory Nair was the only one there to help the Women's World Champion walk out of the arena.
Perhaps it is all that that's led Athena to calling this Emergency Minion Empowerment Meeting tonight during HONOR CLUB, perhaps her and Billie Starkz are finally going to have it out about all that's gone on the last four months, but the question is where will they go from there if that is the case? Can these three women find their way back to where they used to be before DBD 2024, or is this the end of the M.I.T?
SINGLES MATCH...
“The Wrestler” Katsuyori Shibata vs. The Butcher
He may be standing on his own in the professional wrestling world while The Blade heals from surgery, but that hasn't stopped The Butcher from continually testing himself against the best of opponents! From The Beast Mortos to Mark Briscoe to LFI, The Butcher has put himself in one hard-fought battle after another in an effort to improve his game, and tonight that continues when he steps into the ring with “The Wrestler” Katsuyori Shibata!
Shibata, a former ROH Pure Champion, is 14-2 in ROH competition with his only losses actually taking place on AEW programming when Eddie Kingston topped him in their ROH World Title fight at WRESTLEDREAM 2023 and when Wheeler Yuta defeated him on the 11/25/23 RAMPAGE in a ROH Pure Championship bout. Can The Butcher become the first man to hand Shibata a loss on ROH programming?
ALSO IN ACTION:
-The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent)!
-Shane Taylor Promotions' own The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Capt. Shawn Dean)!
-Spanish Announce Project (Angelico & Serpentico)!
-EJ Nduka & Lee Johnson!
-“Legit” Leyla Hirsch Returns!
-The Patriarchy's Nick Wayne!