Coming off an epic SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023, Ring of Honor gets right back to the action this Thursday night on Honor Club! Last Friday the ROH faithful witnessed the crowning of a new Pure Champion in Katsuyori Shibata, as well as new ROH World Tag Team Champions in The Lucha Brothers, but no one else was able to dethrone the defending champions in Los Angeles.
So with Claudio Castagnoli still reigning over the land of honor as ROH World Champion, The Embassy still standing as ROH World Six Man Champions, Samoa Joe dominating as ROH World Television Champion, and Athena running the table as ROH Women's World Champion, the new era of honor rolls on this Thursday night at 7pm ET/6pm CT exclusively on Honor Club! With the best professional wrestling on the planet, ROH is red hot coming out of SoH 2023 so do not miss out on the next edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB featuring Athena defending her ROH Women's World Championship against Miyu Yamashita and Shibata defending his newly won crown against “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels!
ROH WOMEN'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
“The Fallen Goddess” Athena(c) vs. Miyu Yamashita
This isn't the first clash between Athena and Miyu Yamashita, that took place on January 21st in Pomona, CA for Prestige Wrestling, and is currently available on IndependentWrestling.TV(https://iwtv.live/promotion/PRESTIGE#oD7d6Jn4E6). But “The Fallen Goddess” may not want fans to go back and watch it, because if they did, they'd see a moment where Yamashita actually dethroned Athena as the ROH Women's World Champion, if only for a few seconds, and not officially.
Miyu, she of the most devastating head kicks in professional wrestling, caught Athena with one of those kicks and it was only the fact that the defending champion's foot fell under the bottom rope that saved the title. It took a few moments for referee Scarlette Donovan to communicate the message, long enough for the Prestige Wrestling locker room to actually come out to celebrate with Miyu, and long enough for “The Fallen Goddess” to recover and strike her challenger with the championship belt when Donovan had her back turned.
Not the cleanest way to retain the championship, but retain the championship Athena did, and which she would do again this past Friday night at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 when she faced “The Magical Girl” Yuka Sakazaki. That victory in LA marked Athena's seventh title defense, just two shy of the record set by Rok-C, a record made more impressive given that Rok-C did it in just 119 days. Now Athena won't be able to match that statistic, but she can still surpass the number of defenses Rok-C netted to become the most successful ROH Women's World Champion to date.
Athena just has to make it past Miyu Yamashita once again, this time by her own request, and inside a Ring of Honor ring as well. The defending champion just has to avoid eating a Skull Kick, and suffering the same fate Shazza McKenzie did on the last episode of ROH ON HONOR CLUB. If Yamashita connects, the current Pro Wrestling EVE champion will add the ROH Women's World Championship to her trophy case.
ROH PURE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Katsuyori Shibata(c) vs. “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels
Last Friday night at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023, Katsuyori Shibata ended the second Pure Championship reign of The Blackpool Combat Club's Wheeler Yuta, and then put himself right alongside Eddie Kingston in opposition to The BCC. It was a tremendous return to Ring of Honor for “The Wrestler”, his first ROH match since February 2, 2017, and just his 5th time in the ring since his shocking return during NJPW's G1 CLIMAX on October 21, 2021. Since that return Shibata has looked superb, back in action like he never missed a beat, and Wheeler Yuta learned that the hard way when he called out Shibata for that fight last Friday night. So now that “The Wrestler” is champion, the real work begins in trying to maintain hold of the title as challengers line-up to dethrone him.
One of those challengers is rather familiar with the Pure Rules, having challenged for the title in the past against both Samoa Joe and the greatest Pure Champion in history, Nigel McGuinness. The last of those challenges took place at WEEKEND OF CHAMPIONS, NIGHT 1 on April 28, 2006, an event available with your Honor Club subscription, and ended when McGuinness used the rules of the match to get Daniels counted out.
Many years have passed since that Pure Championship challenge, and in the intervening years, “The Fallen Angel” has managed to capture every championship he possibly could in Ring of Honor save the Pure Championship. During his time in ROH, the belt was unified with the ROH World Championship when Bryan Danielson defeated Nigel McGuinness at UNIFIED, and did not return to active status until 2020 when Jonathan Gresham won a tournament to crown a new Pure Champion. Thus the window for “The Fallen Angel” to make it a clean sweep of all the ROH championship titles was never open, not until now in this new era of honor!
This Thursday night during ROH ON HONOR CLUB, “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels will challenge Katsuyori Shibata for the ROH Pure Championship and try to make that goal a reality! There are few men with more experience inside that squared circle than Christopher Daniels, so perhaps that will give him an edge of over the red-hot Shibata. Daniels is certainly in for a hard-hitting war when he steps into the squared circle for this fight, just as Shibata best be prepared for someone who knows all the tricks of the trade!
ALSO FEATURING:
ROH World Tag Team Champions The Lucha Bros (Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix) & Mark Briscoe vs. The Workhorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake) & Shane Taylor
Brian Cage vs. Ortiz
Jay Lethal vs. Darius Martin
LFI(Dralistico & Rush) vs. The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Capt. Shawn Dean)
Daniel Garcia vs. Tracy Williams
Willow Nightingale vs. Notorious Mimi
The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) in action!
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Tony Nese
ROH ON HONOR CLUB comes your way this Thursday night at 7pm ET/6pm CT featuring ROH Women's World Champion Athena defending her title against Miyu Yamashita! Plus, all the fallout from SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 will begin to unfold with new Pure Champion Shibata, new World Tag Team Champions in Penta & Fenix, and so much more! And it's only available on HONOR CLUB, which not only features new episodes every Thursday night, but also events like the 14TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW with Jay Lethal defending the ROH World Championship against Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly, and the KEVIN STEEN: ASCENSION TO THE TOP collection that highlights his rise up the ranks of ROH!