It's a new year for Ring of Honor as we enter ROH's 23rd year of presenting some of the best professional wrestling on the planet! Between FINAL BATTLE 2024 and WORLDS END 2024, we closed out the year in huge fashion, and we aim to keep that exciting roll going into 2025! We begin the year with two huge matches involve ROH championships, an ROH Legend in action once again, and a huge 8-Man tag!
It would also be neglectful to not mention that both ROH Women's World Champion Athena and ROH World Tag Team Champions The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara) will be in action at WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 this Sunday night at the Tokyo Dome! The former will take part in the International Women's Cup 4-Way with Willow Nightingale, Stardom's Momo Watanabe, & CMLL's Persphone while the latter defend their titles against House of Torture's SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru!
ROH ON HONOR CLUB gets underway tonight at 7pm ET/6pm CT when all that action, and more, drops exclusively on Honor Club! Not only is it the home for Ring of Honor's weekly programming every Thursday, but also pay-per-view events, as well as the destination for 20+ years of top-tier wrestling history as showcased in the “Best of...” section with collections from The Briscoes, Nigel McGuinness, Samoa Joe, Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, and in celebration of his return to the AEW stage, the Kenny Omega: One Winged Angel collection!!
ROH WOMEN'S WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Red Velvet(c) vs. HANAKO
At FINAL BATTLE 2024 Red Velvet successfully turned away the championship challenge of “Legit” Leyla Hirsch but hers wasn't the only triumph that night. Stardom's HANAKO made her ROH debut during the ZERO HOUR with a victory over Harley Cameron! Just 24 years old, HANAKO made her pro wrestling debut in the fall of 2022 before arriving in Stardom at their March 2023 pay-per-view entitled NEW BLOOD PREMIUM. It wasn't long before HANAKO crossed the paths of Mina Shirakawa and Mariah May in tag team action, and though she fought her heart out every single event, it took four months for HANAKO to score her first victory in STARDOM, a trios bout at the MIDSUMMER CHAMPIONS 2023 PPV. A few weeks later she had the opportunity to team with Mina and Mariah for trios action, and slowly began to build herself up within the promotion. Several one-on-one bouts with Mina showed the Stardom faithful what HANAKO brought to the table, and in January 2024 she actually joined Mina's unit that became known as Empress Nexus Venus and that proved the catalyst for her career moving forward, best illustrated by she and Maika making it to the finals of Stardom's GODDESS OF STARDOM Tag League finals on December 8th, and HANAKO winning the New Blood Tag Titles with Waka Tsukiyama on December 26th!
So with that momentum HANAKO heads into this huge championship opportunity tonight during ROH ON HONOR CLUB against the equally red-hot Red Velvet! Red hasn't lost a one-on-one match since an April 13th title fight with ROH Women's World Champion Athena at BATTLE OF THE BELTS X, going 9-0 in that time frame, and she also added several trips to Mexico for CMLL to her resume during 2024. Red's already had three hard-fought title defenses during her reign thus far, and she's about to add another one to the list; the only question is if she'll leave Hammerstein Ballroom with the title tonight as she did at FINAL BATTLE 2024?
PROVING GROUND MATCH...
ROH World TV Champion Komander vs. QT Marshall
Last week during ROH ON HONOR CLUB, newly crowned ROH World TV Champion Komander put his title on the line against a very game Johnny TV. The high-flying luchador was able to retain his hold on the championship despite the fight Mr. TV Ready gave him, but Komander is not resting on the laurels of that victory!
Tonight he gets right back into the fight, this time with Proving Ground action as he welcomes the challenge QT Marshall! Now Komander has been on the Proving Grounds a few times trying to earn ROH World Tag Title shots, but this will be his first as the champion trying to rebuke a potential challenge. It's also the first time QT has ever set foot on the Proving Ground, as well as the first dance between he and Komander, so this is going to be quite the interesting test for both champion and challenger. All QT Marshall has to do is last the ten minute time limit or beat Komander in order to earn a future World TV Title match; can he pull it off when honor takes Manhattan?
TAG TEAM BOUT...
“The Notorious 187” Homicide & Rocky Romero vs. Action Andretti & Lio Rush
Last week former ROH World Champion Homicide returned home to Ring of Honor, marking his first bout in four years for the promotion he helped build from the ground up, and he did so in support of one of his oldest allies: Rocky “Azucar” Romero! There's is a history dating back to 2004 when Romero, along with tag partner Ricky Reyes, made a huge impact in their debut versus The Briscoes at REBORN: STAGE ONE and then went on to join Homicide's Rottweilers unit. Though the opportunities for the two of them to compete strictly as a tag team were rare, they didn't prevent them from looking like a well-oiled machine last week in their victory over QT Marshall and Aaron Solo.
Tonight they are right back in action, this time against AEW's top contenders to the World Tag Titles held by Private Party, Action Andretti and Lio Rush! This Saturday on COLLISON Lio and Andretti will get their shot at the gold, but first they've got to survive a run against the reunited Rottweilers! Will Homicide's homecoming continue to be a successful one, or will AEW's #1 Contenders add some more momentum to their impending championship opportunity?
8-MAN TAG BOUT...
Shane Taylor Promotions (ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty, Capt. Shawn Dean, Carlie Bravo, & Shane Taylor) vs. Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & Evil Uno) and Iron Savages (Boulder & Bronson)
Shane Taylor Promotions already has one title under their umbrella with ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty, but they aim to make 2025 the year where they take over all the titles in Ring of Honor. More than that, the members of STP want to impress upon the wrestling world that they are a dominant force in the game and that begins tonight as they compete as a 4-Man unit for the first time since The Infantry signed on for duty!
Though they are also facing a foursome in Dark Order and Iron Savages who've never united before tonight, at least STP are all on the same page and operating with the same mission. Alex Reynolds, Evil Uno, Bronson, and Boulder could not be more different and in fact every time they've shared the ring prior to tonight it has been as opponents. Their only unifying factor is the desire to earn victory to kick off the new year on the right foot, but will that be enough to overcome the unified force of Shane Taylor Promotions?
ALSO FEATURING:
Harley Cameron in action!
A Throwback ROH bout!
AND MORE!!