There are only 8 eight days left until Ring of Honor descends upon New York City and returns to the Hammerstein Ballroom for FINAL BATTLE 2024! After last week we now know that ROH World Champion “The Nueve” Chris Jericho will defend his title against “The Complete” Matt Cardona, and that The Righteous of Dutch and Vincent will face The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara) in a Texas Bullrope Match for the ROH World Tag Team Titles! Those two bouts join the already announced ROH Women's World TV Title match between champion Red Velvet and challenger “Legit” Leyla Hirsch as part of ROH's year-end extravaganza with plenty more to unfold over the next week, especially given the championship match we've got on tap tonight!
In his bid to be the first man to claim every title in ROH history, Undisputed Kingdom's Matt Taven faces ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty for the title while in a bout whose result could have ramifications on both the ROH Women's World Title and the aforementioned Women's World TV Title bout, Athena, Red Velvet, Leyla Hirsch, and Billie Starkz collide in the ROH bracket of the WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 International Women's Cup qualifiers! Plus, The Outrunners are in action against Premier Athletes of Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari, Gates of Agony's Toa Liona enters into a rare singles match with “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson, The Sons of Texas throwdown in tag team action, and the Grizzled Young Veterans defend their NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Titles against MxM Collection!
ROH ON HONOR CLUB airs exclusively on Honor Club every Thursday night at 7pm ET/6pm CT, and is also the home for FINAL BATTLE 2024 on December 20th, live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in the heart of New York City, as well as the home for 20+ years of wrestling history perfectly illustrated by the “Best of ROH” section. There fans can watch collections showcasing the best bouts from Claudio Castagnoli, Matt Taven, Samoa Joe, the numerous guests from Japan who've graced the ROH ring, and so much more from the combatants who shaped Ring of Honor into the most influential wrestling promotion of the last 20 years!
ROH PURE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Shane Taylor Promotions' Lee Moriarty vs. Undisputed Kingdom's Matt Taven
It's been more than 15 years since Matt Taven stepped into an ROH ring for the very first time. That night it was as part of a dark match prior to the NEVER SAY DIE event highlighted by Chris Hero challenging Jerry Lynn for the ROH World Championship, but that also included Jay Briscoe, Colt Cabana, Sonjay Dutt, and Bryan Danielson to name a few of ROH's world class competitors circa May 2009. It was participating on that event, watching what those competitors were capable of doing, that made ROH a career goal for a young Taven.
Fast forward 15+ years and Matt Taven holds the distinction of being a Grand Slam winner in ROH; he claimed the ROH World TV Title from Adam Cole and held it for 287 days, he's won the World Tag Titles on three occasions with Mike Bennett and held them for a combined total of 352 days, and Taven's a 3-Time World Six-Man Champion with 304 days combined to his resume. As impressive as all those accolades are, it's perhaps most important to note that Matt Taven is also a former ROH World Champion, winning the title in a Three-Way Ladder Match at the historic G1 SUPERCARD event inside Madison Square Garden, and holding it for 174 days before RUSH ended the reign.
That leaves the ROH Pure Championship as the only title in the history of the company that Matt Taven has not held, hence why he's zeroed in on it recently and thus zeroed in on Shane Taylor Promotions' Lee Moriarty. Lee has been the champion since DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 when he ended Wheeler Yuta's third reign, and has defended the title twice in the 140 days since capturing the Pure crown.
It is TaigaStyle's mission to become the greatest Pure Champion of all-time, and though he's got a long haul to reach the heights set by Nigel McGuinness' 350 day reign from August 27, 2005 to August 12, 2006, Moriarty is set on taking up every challenge that comes his way. Tonight that means stepping in the ring with Matt Taven and giving it his all to insure Taven's own record-setting aspirations are dead in the water!
Will we see Matt Taven make history tonight by claiming the Pure Title for himself and Undisputed Kingdom, or will Lee Moriarty retain the title as he pursues his own championship goals?
WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S CUP QUALIFIER...
ROH Women's World Champion Athena vs. ROH Women's World TV Champion Red Velvet vs. “Legit” Leyla Hirsch vs. Billie Starkz
This Saturday on COLLISION fans will witness former AEW Women's World Champion Jamie Hayter and former TBS Champion Willow Nightingale battle it out to see who advances from the AEW bracket to WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 on January 5th. Meanwhile down in Mexico, Zeuxis, Reyna Isis, Sanely, and Persephone will battle over the CMLL-designated spot on Friday the 13th at Arena Mexico while Stardom has yet to announce how their position in the International Women's Cup will be filled. As for Ring of Honor, that position will be determined tonight during ROH ON HONOR CLUB when four of ROH's best clash in a Four Corner Survival to determine who heads to the Tokyo Dome in just a few weeks time!
ROH Women's World Champion Athena, her minion-in-training Billie Starkz, ROH Women's World TV Champion Red Velvet, and her FINAL BATTLE 2024 opponent Leyla Hirsch will clash inside that squared circle to determine the ROH representative, but it may also mean so much more than that. Athena hasn't tasted defeat in a singles match since she entered this era of honor at FINAL BATTLE 2022 and has beaten all three of her opponents in World Title bouts over the course of those two years. Red Velvet is the woman who dethroned Billie Starkz as ROH Women's World TV Champion at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 in her very first title defense, and she's also the one who eliminated Leyla Hirsch from the TV Title Tournament during HONOR CLUB #54 back in March.
There's the fact that Hirsch and Red Velvet are scheduled to face off in just eight days at FINAL BATTLE 2024, not to mention theirs is a rivalry dating back to 2020 and the Jacksonville days for All Elite Wrestling, and of course there is the very tense situation between Athena and Billie Starkz that's been building since Billie lost the title to Red back in July.
Suffice to say a lot of threads are being pulled at with this Four Corner Survival beyond the desire to fight at WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025, but how will they affect the ROH scene moving forward? What if Athena gets pinned for the first time in two years? What if Leyla scores the fall on Red Velvet eight days before their title fight? What if it's Billie who pins Athena? What if Athena pins Leyla or vice versa? How will the outcome here affect the two title pictures after FINAL BATTLE 2024? So much intrigue in addition to the honor of being the Ring of Honor representative at WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 come January 5th!
CONTRACT SIGNING...
The challenge for FINAL BATTLE 2024 was laid out by ROH World Champion Chris Jericho and shockingly answered by “The Complete” Matt Cardona, but it's not official until pen gets put to paper regardless of the heinous assault Jericho perpetrated on Cardona last Friday night on RAMPAGE.
That's why tonight, ahead of Cardona fighting “Bad Apple” Bryan Keith on this week's RAMPAGE, the ROH World Champion and his FINAL BATTLE 2024 challenger will sign their names on the dotted line tonight during ROH ON HONOR CLUB!
Contract signings in pro wrestling are notoriously explosive, but will that be the case tonight when these two combatants stand face-to-face and sign their John Hancocks to make December 20th's championship match official?
NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) vs.
MxM COLLECTION (Mansoor & Mason Madden)
On November 8th at NJPW's FIGHTING SPIRIT UNLEASHED 2024 event, Grizzled Young Veterans of James Drake and Zack Gibson defeated TMDK of Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste to claim the NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Titles as their own, ending the TMDK run at 152 days. Now the hardest part of being champion begins, retaining the titles in the face of tremendous adversity, and the first adversaries GYV face will be MxM Collection of Mansoor and Mason Madden tonight on Honor Club!
Not only is it the first defense of these titles for Drake and Gibson, but it's also their first traditional tag bout in Ring of Honor as well as their first meeting with MxM Collection! That makes this quite the high-pressure situation, especially with FINAL BATTLE 2024 just eight days away and GYV set to defend the titles at NJPW STRONG STYLE EVOLVED 2024 this Sunday night in Long Beach, CA against West Coast Wrecking Crew of Royce Isaacs and Jorel Nelson!
Can Mansoor and Mason Madden slide in to these dm's and steal the titles away from Zack Gibson and James Drake before they get to California? It's a huge opportunity for MxM Collection to sneak their way into New Japan competition for the very first time; can they pull it off tonight on Honor Club?
TAG TEAM BOUT...
The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd) vs.
Premier Athletes (Ariya Daviari & Tony Nese)
The Outrunners of Turbo Floyd and Truth Magnum are running hot, coming into tonight's edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB with three consecutive tag team victories, most recently defeating The Infantry on HONOR CLUB #84 several weeks ago. Tonight, for the very first time, the youngest men alive head into tag team battle against Premier Athletes as represented by Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese! During AEW's WRESTLEDREAM 2024: ZERO HOUR, Turbo and Truth united with The Conglomeration's Kyle O'Reilly and Orange Cassidy to defeat the quartet of Daivari, Nese, and the Dark Order's Alex Reynolds & John Silver, but tonight will be their first traditional tag team encounter!
Will The Outrunners keep the momentum going here in Ring of Honor, or will “Smart” Mark Sterling's clients live up to their tag team name?
ONE-ON-ONE...
Gates of Agony's Toa Liona vs. LEEJ's Lee Johnson
For just the second time in his ROH career, Gates of Agony member Toa Liona will be in singles competition tonight on Honor Club! The competitor tasked with stepping up to this monster is none other than “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson, a man who has won five of his last six bouts, including three straight tag team victories with the impressive EJ Nduka at his side! Together as LEEJ, those two competitors have vibed exceptionally well, but will that tag team success rub off onto Lee's solo outing against the Gates of Agony's monster?
ALSO FEATURING:
-ROH World Tag Team Champions Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara in action!
-Madison Rayne in singles competition!
-And More!