As All Elite Wrestling heads towards FULL GEAR 2024 this Saturday night live from the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, Ring of Honor brings to you the latest edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB exclusively on Honor Club! Headlined by an ROH World TV Championship match between champion “The Machine” Brian Cage and challenger AR Fox, we will also see ROH Women's World Champion Athena take on Top Flight's Leila Grey in a Proving Ground Match! Plus THREE different New Japan Pro Wrestling champions will be in singles competition as NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi, NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd, and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Kevin Knight all join the fight!
ROH ON HONOR CLUB starts at 7pm ET/6pm CT exclusively on Honor Club, the home for all things Ring of Honor including the weekly Thursday night event, as well as 20+ years of the greatest pro wrestling on the planet! Since 2002, Ring of Honor has been home to the greatest wrestlers of this century, and nowhere is that more clear than in the “Best of ROH” collections where you can experience classic matches and interviews from Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, The Briscoes, Claudio Castagnoli, and more!
ROH WORLD TELEVISION CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
The Don Callis Family's Brian Cage(c) vs. AR Fox
“The Machine” Brian Cage was already quite the imposing force, be it standing by himself as a solo competitor where he recently claimed the ROH World TV Title from Atlantis Jr. or uniting with Gates of Agony to become 2-Time ROH World Six-Man Champions. Yet he somehow found a way to become an even bigger threat by signing on with The Don Callis Family and garnering support of that...gentleman...as well as “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer, AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita, and “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher.
Last night on DYNAMITE The DCF went to war against a quartet consisting of Will Ospreay, Mark Davis, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Ricochet in a little preview of what's to come at FULL GEAR 2024, but tonight “The Machine” goes it solo in his second ROH World TV Title defense! After defeating Komander last month on HONOR CLUB 87, Cage now faces a familiar foe as AR Fox steps up to challenge for the championship!
Fox and Cage are no strangers to one another, not only have they battled twice with the Ring of Honor World Six-Man Titles at stake, but they've also been foes in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, AAW, and assorted other independents over the last decade. Of the singles matches on record, Cage is in the lead 2-1, factor in a Triple Threat match from 2016 and their head-to-head encounters turn to a 2-2 tie, but all that is ancient history. This is Ring of Honor, and here these two competitors have never met one-on-one before tonight's edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB, much less with a championship as storied as the ROH World TV Title at stake.
Can AR Fox rise to the occasion and score his first Ring of Honor championship or will “The Machine” smash his way through another opponent trying to take his first ROH singles title away?
ONE-ON-ONE...
The Conglomeration's Tomohiro Ishii vs. Undisputed Kingdom's Mike Bennett
With less than a week until his ROH World Championship clash with “The Nueva” Chris Jericho on DYNAMITE, and ahead of his Trios bout on RAMPAGE tomorrow, “The Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii will be in action tonight against Undisputed Kingdom's Mike Bennett!
Most recently these two men clashed during DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 when UK defended the ROH World Tag Titles against Ishii and Kyle O'Reilly, but they've fought several times, including during the 2014 WORLD TAG LEAGUE for New Japan Pro Wrestling, yet never once in a singles match. Tonight on HONOR CLUB that changes as Ishii prepares for his ROH World Championship battle, while the fights between The Conglomeration and The Undisputed Kingdom continue! Kyle O'Reilly has long been at the center of this struggle between the two sides given his relationship with the men involved, but this one is all about Bennett and Ishii going head-to-head for the first time!
PROVING GROUND MATCH...
ROH Women's World Champion Athena vs. Top Flight's Leila Grey
While the tensions between ROH Women's World Champion Athena, Minion Bestie Lexy Nair, and former ROH Women's World TV Champion Billie Starkz continue to thicken, there are still plenty of women out there who haven't gone toe-to-toe with “The Forever Champion”. She may be the longest reigning champion in the history of ROH at 713 days, her single reign having eclipsed Jay Lethal's combined 707 days across two World Title runs, with 24 successful title defenses to go along with her 28 Proving Ground and four Eliminator Match victories but there's a wealth of talented professional wrestlers out there who haven't had their opportunity to be the one to end this run.
One such competitor is Top Flight's Leila Grey; despite Leila Grey being a part of the ROH roster since June 2023 and both being part of AEW since May 2022, these two women have never faced one another in any match, not even so much as shared participation in a Battle Royale, but that changes tonight! Leila Grey is stepping onto the Proving Ground in hopes of earning a Women's World Title fight with Athena, a situation where all she has to do is last 10 minutes with the champ, but a feat that 26 other women have failed to accomplish. As a matter of fact only one of those women, Lady Frost during HONOR CLUB #86, was even able to push the match past the eight-minute mark, lasting 8:34 before “The Fallen Goddess” put Frost away in her second Proving Ground attempt.
Can Leila Grey be the first woman to hit that 10-minute time limit and earn a title match? If so, she will be the first woman across Athena's 57 ROH singles matches since FINAL BATTLE 2022 to not lose to “The Fallen Goddess”! It may not be the same as a pinfall or submission victory, certainly not the same ballpark as a title win, but it would be a historic occasion nonetheless for Leila Grey to go the distance with Athena!
ONE-ON-ONE...
NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd vs. SAP's Angelico
The first time Gabe Kidd ever entered into the Ring of Honor sphere was on December 28, 2018 when he challenged Jay Lethal for the ROH World Title at an independent event in London England. At that point Kidd was just past his seventh anniversary as a wrestler, but he was far from the brash man who has held the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship since May 11th when he put Eddie Kingston on the shelf as a result of their No Rope Last Man Standing match at NJPW STRONG RESURGENCE 2024. That came on the heels of the two men going to a double count out in their Continental Crown fight at NJPW BATTLE IN THE VALLEY 2024 two months prior, meaning another challenge towards the ROH World Championship on Kidd's resume as it, along with the AEW Continental Championship and NJPW STRONG Openweight Title, comprised the Continental Crown.
However it wasn't until October 10th and HONOR CLUB 85 that this BULLET CLUB War Dog made his debut for ROH proper in a successful Openweight Title defense against Anthony Henry. That evening Kidd looked as impressive as ever, showing the ROH faithful why he's such a force to be reckoned with, and though he recently made headlines getting into a scuffle with Kenny Omega at NJPW's POWER STRUGGLE 2024 event, Kidd's back in ROH tonight during HONOR CLUB to take on Angelico!
It's “The Mad Man” versus one of the most laid back individuals to ever lace up a pair of wrestling boots, a wrecking ball of a competitor versus a master of the llave style; will Angelico use his imperturbable nature to upset the NJPW STRONG Openweight champ?
SINGLES MATCH...
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Kevin Knight vs. SAP's Serpentico
Speaking of NJPW, in the second match featuring a New Japan champion versus a Spanish Announce Project member, Serpentico is set to face IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Champion Kevin Knight! Though we've seen Knight compete in a handful of AEW matches, the last during the FORBIDDEN DOOR 2022: BUY-IN, this is his first time in ROH competition and Knight has come so far since that last AEW outing! Not only did he enter into BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS 31 tournament this year, scoring eight points with victories over TJP, Kosei Fujita, Clark Connors, and El Desperado, he also united with KUSHIDA to defeat BULLET CLUB War Dogs of Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney and claim the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles for the second time at KING OF PRO-WRESTLING 2024 just over a month ago!
Now Knight comes to ROH for the very first time to take on the lucha-influenced stylings of SAP's Serpentico, a rare singles match for both individuals as Serpentico's last was a July victory over Griff Garrison. As for Knight, prior to his November 8th fight with David Finlay for NJPW FIGHTING SPIRIT UNLEASHED 2024, he hadn't fought one-on-one since battling Shelton Benjamin for DEFY back in September.
Though Serpentico's track record isn't the best, he always fights with heart, and perhaps that tag team victory two weeks ago during HONOR CLUB 89 will propel him towards victory in this bout tonight!
ONE-ON-ONE...
NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi vs. Premier Athletes' Ariya Daivari
In the third contest on tonight's edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB featuring a NJPW champion we will see Premier Athletes' Ariya Daivari take on current NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi! Now Takagi is no stranger to ROH action, in fact he reigned as one-half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions from March 3rd to March 30th of 2007, defeating The Briscoes at FIFTH YEAR FESTIVAL: LIVERPOOL before losing them back to Jay and Mark at ALL STAR EXTRAVAGANZA III. Not only that but from June 3, 2006 until April 28, 2007, Shingo competed on more than 20 ROH events, even challenging Takeshi Morishima for the ROH World Title at GOOD TIMES, GREAT MEMORIES on the final night of his 10-month run.
Shingo appeared a handful more times over the subsequent decade, even participating in the historic G1 SUPERCARD event at Madison Square Garden on April 6, 2019, but it wasn't until HONOR CLUB 18 that he arrived in the new era of honor! That night he and fellow LIJ members BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi unsuccessfully challenged Brian Cage, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun for the ROH World Six-Man Titles. That was certainly disappointing for Shingo, but for the long-time ROH faithful it was a treat to see the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion back in Ring of Honor even if for only one night.
Thankfully the bond between AEW/ROH/NJPW runs strong and tonight Shingo returns to the fold to face one of the most insufferable, obnoxious, yet supremely talented, individuals in ROH today: Ariya Daivari! No doubt he will have “Smart” Mark Sterling at his side for this one, so maybe we will be lucky enough to watch the ambulance chaser get dropped again this week...
TAG TEAM ACTION...
Shane Taylor Promotions (ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty & Shane Taylor) vs.
BEEF & JD Drake
Shane Taylor Promotions added some additional firepower to their arsenal with the recent addition of The Infantry to their rankings, and that alliance immediately paid dividends for Capt. Shawn Dean and Carlie Bravo in the form of two consecutive tag team victories, including one over Spanish Announce Project.
Tonight however, it's not about the newest members to the STP fold but rather the original members of this iteration, ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty and Shane Taylor! We know Undisputed Kingdom's Matt Taven is in hot pursuit of the title around Moriarty's waist, but that's something Lee is going to have to set aside so he and Shane Taylor can focus on the tag team fight at hand. BEEF and JD Drake were victorious in their first ROH outing as a team three weeks ago, beating Preston Vance and Peter Avalon, but came up short in their RAMPAGE tussle with Top Flight on November 8th. Still the brawny brawlers demonstrated some serious aptitude as a team, and their chemistry could bloom into something to be reckoned with down the line.
Unfortunately they don't have that kind of time to find their groove, not when they've got to step into the fight with competitors like Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty. This is an education under fire for BEEF and JD, on-the-job training as a tag team against two men who cover a wild breadth stylistically. Shane T hits hard and moves fast, Lee Moriarty is a surgeon in that ring with some nasty strikes of his own to compliment that ground game; together they're a tough act to game plan for even the most seasoned team, and that is not what we've got with BEEF and JD Drake.
Those two are going to have to gel together fast to get ready for this fight, or they'll be the ones looking up at the lights as the referee counts three!