FINAL BATTLE 2024 is just 24 hours away and will hail from the iconic Hammerstein Ballroom in the heart of New York City! It's a venue that Ring of Honor cemented as a professional wrestling destination with 24 events inside its walls beginning with A NEW LEVEL on May 10, 2008 and culminating in MANHATTAN MAYHEM 2019 on July 20th. Tomorrow night ROH returns to those hallowed grounds for its year-end extravaganza, but there's still one more night of action before that comes to pass!
Tonight during ROH ON HONOR CLUB we will see ROH Women's World Champion Athena team up with her FB '24 opponent Billie Starkz in tag team action, plus we've got a huge 8-Man Tag Team battle lined up as Shane Taylor Promotions and Grizzled Young Veterans unite to face Dark Order and Undisputed Kingdom! Also, after falling to Gates of Agony's Toa Liona last week, LEEJ's Lee Johnson is getting right back in the fight with the other half of the Gates, Bishop Kaun, and ahead of his title defense at FB '24 ROH World TV Champion Brian Cage will team up with Lance Archer to face Iron Savages in tag action. We will also see Queen Aminata take on Lady Frost and SAP's Serpentico will be in action!
ROH ON HONOR CLUB gets underway at 7pm ET/6pm CT only on Honor Club, your home for ROH's weekly programming, FINAL BATTLE 2024, and a plethora of the best wrestling on the planet from 20+ years of archival footage as featured in the “Best of ROH” section! We've got a comprehensive collection of bouts from Chris Hero, “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels, Bryan Danielson, Matt Taven, and The Briscoes on-hand, as well as so much more! After taking in Thursday night's action, join us in NYC as ROH retakes the Hammerstein Ballroom for FINAL BATTLE 2024!
EIGHT-MAN TAG TEAM BOUT...
Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) and Shane Taylor Promotions (ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty & Shane Taylor)
vs.
Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & Evil Uno) and Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett)
Are they better than this? That is the question Evil Uno seems to want Alex Reynolds and John Silver to answer about themselves as of late. It seems Uno is sick of the shenanigans, tired of seeing Dark Order sustain far more losses than victories, and wants his two compatriots to be on the same page. The fact John and Alex have chosen to target Grizzled Young Veterans with their antics for having the audacity to be serious about their craft seems to have especially rubbed Evil Uno the wrong way. Perhaps that's why Uno is putting himself in as Alex's partner for this match, the first time they've been tag partners since an HONOR CLUB #82 World Tag Title Proving Ground match against The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara). Perhaps it's also why he is reuniting with Undisputed Kingdom for this 8-Man Tag, their first time as a foursome since HONOR CLUB #78 when they fell to The Sons of Texas and The Von Erichs (Ross & Marshall).
Standing across the ring from this motley crew will be the combination of Shane Taylor Promotions, as represented by ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty and Shane Taylor, along with Grizzled Young Veterans of Zack Gibson and James Drake! It was just one week ago that Matt Taven fell to Lee Moriarty in an ROH Pure Championship bout, and just about two months ago that UK defeated STP and Gates of Agony in a Three-Way tag on RAMPAGE. But with that loss to Moriarty hanging over Taven's head, as well as the bit of internal strife within Dark Order, is it possible for Undisputed Kingdom and Dark Order to pull off this victory? Given that Lee Moriarty is staring down an Open Challenge for his ROH Pure Title tomorrow at FINAL BATTLE 2024, he is certainly fighting this bout with a point to prove to whoever steps up to the table inside Hammerstein Ballroom!
TAG TEAM BOUT...
ROH Women's World Champion Athena & Billie Starkz in action!
What a long strange trip it has been in the relationship between ROH Women's World Champion Athena and her FINAL BATTLE 2024 challenger Billie Starkz. One year ago, on the final episode of ROH ON HONOR CLUB before FINAL BATTLE 2023 (#42 to be exact), fans watched as the two women threw down following Athena's 33-second Proving Ground victory over Roxanne, culminating in the champion's nose being gruesomely busted open and the final image we see being that of Starkz holding up the title belt.
Fast forward one year and Athena remains the ROH Women's World Champion, Starkz having failed in her FB '23 challenge, and “The Fallen Goddess” going on to shatter Samoa Joe's 21-year record as the longest reigning champion in the history of Ring of Honor. Heading into tonight's edition of HONOR CLUB, Athena has 740 days as champion under her belt with the potential to complete two calendar years as champion should she leave tomorrow night's FINAL BATTLE 2024 event still the champion.
During that time frame Starkz fought proudly as a Minion, even won the ROH Women's World TV Title at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 in Philadelphia in a manner that, while not appropriate in the eyes of her parents at ringside, certainly suited the ideals of “The Fallen Goddess”. Billie was all in on Athena even after Athena stopped being all in on her after Starkz lost the title to Red Velvet in her first defense at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024.
Tensions have been building ever since that night five months ago, and it finally came to a head last week when Athena stole the win from Billie (who was stealing it from Leyla Hirsch to be honest) in the WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 International Women's Cup Qualifier. Billie issued the challenge for the fight at FINAL BATTLE 2024 tomorrow night, but given that she's still a contractually obligated minion there are certain duties that must be fulfilled, and that includes teaming up with Athena tonight during HONOR CLUB in tag team action!
How will these two women co-exist tonight given their impending fight tomorrow and all the tension that's been building up since July? We'll find out tonight on WatchROH.com when HONOR CLUB goes live at 7pm ET!
ONE-ON-ONE...
LEEJ's Lee Johnson vs. Gates of Agony's Bishop Kaun
Last week on HONOR CLUB #94, “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson stepped up to Gates of Agony's Toa Liona in singles competition and though Lee gave it everything he could, the monstrous Toa demolished Johnson. Unfortunately Toa showed himself to be quite the dishonorable athlete after the bout as, when Lee called for the Code of Honor handshake, Toa attacked the man rather than shake his hand. That brought out one of the few men in ROH who dwarfs Toa Liona, Lee Johnson's tag team partner EJ Nduka! The face-to-face between those two behemoths was something to behold, perhaps a sign of things to come, but tonight it's Lee Johnson stepping into competition against GOA once again, this time opposite Bishop Kaun in his first-ever ROH singles match! It's quite wild to think that a man who first debuted for Ring of Honor the day after FINAL BATTLE 2018, and is a 3-Time World Six-Man Champion, is only now having his first singles match.
Will he fare as well as his partner did against “Big Shotty” or will Lee Johnson hand the Cameroonian Prince an “L” in his first singles outing?
TAG TEAM ACTION...
Murder Machines (ROH World TV Champion Brian Cage & Lance Archer) vs.
Iron Savages (Bronson & Boulder)
With a Survival of the Fittest Six-Man Elimination championship defense scheduled for tomorrow night, ROH World TV Champion “The Machine” Brian Cage enters into tag team action alongside his Don Callis Family partner “The Murderhawk Monster” Lance Archer! In AEW competition this team dubbed Murder Machines are 3-0 in tag team action, but this is their first foray into ROH action after their dominating performance in the Dynamite Dozen Battle Royale two weeks ago on DYNAMITE. The unlucky recipients of their violence will be the Iron Savages of Bronson and Boulder, a duo who may be powerful in their own right, but are going to need to find a whole new level of sauce to sip if they want to match what Murder Machines brings to the fight.
It's going to be one of the toughest tests Iron Savages have ever faced; can they shock the world with the upset victory or will this serve as a warning to both the tag team division and the other five men in the World TV Title match at FINAL BATTLE 2024?
CARDONA/JERICHO UPDATE...
“The Nueve” Chris Jericho shockingly appeared at Game Changer Wrestling's HIGHEST IN THE ROOM 3 event in Los Angeles this past Saturday to attack “The Complete” Matt Cardona and give himself any kind of advantage he could ahead of their FINAL BATTLE 2024 ROH World Championship fight tomorrow inside the Hammerstein Ballroom. Tonight we expect to hear an update on the situation as the two men prepare to fight one-on-one for the first time since young Cardona scored a pinfall over Jericho in March 2016 at the Barclays Center just a few miles away from Hammerstein Ballroom. Hopefully Cardona is still in fighting shape and Jericho's attempt to garner an advantage didn't rob the fans of seeing this high stakes ROH World Championship battle!
ALSO FEATURING:
-Serpentico vs. Sidney Akeem!
-Queen Aminata vs. Lady Frost!!
-And More!