We learned last week that the ROH World Television Championship recently vacated by Samoa Joe will find a new home at FINAL BATTLE 2023 in a Survival of the Fittest 6-Way Elimination bout! For more on the history of this Ring of Honor staple that dates back to 2004 check out this article, and stay tuned in the coming weeks as the competitors are determined for this championship bout!
In addition, this past Saturday night during AEW's FULL GEAR 2023 event, Eddie Kingston successfully defended the ROH World Championship against Jay Lethal and MJF, with Samoa Joe subbing for Adam Cole, maintained possession of the ROH World Tag Team Championship as well. We also learned that Eddie Kingston raised the stakes of the Continental Classic Tournament by putting both the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship and ROH World Championship into the mix to, along with the Continental Championship, create a North American Triple Crown championship! This week, with FINAL BATTLE 2023 in their minds, the athletes of ROH are back in action exclusively on Honor Club starting at 7pm ET/6pm CT! In addition, Honor Club is the home for ROH's 20+ years of professional wrestling history, featuring some of the greatest athletes that have defined the sport this century!
TAG TEAM BATTLE...
AEW Women's World Champion Athena & “Minion In Training” Billie Starkz
vs.
Marina Shafir & Ronda Rousey
Yes, this is real; one of the greatest fighters in the history of mixed martial arts, who crossed over into professional wrestling with spectacular results, is making her debut in Ring of Honor this Thursday night on Honor Club! Ronda Rousey, a Bronze Medal Judo player in the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2018 Hall of Famer, has been tied to Marina Shafir for many years as part of the Four Horsewomen with Shayna Baszler and Jessamyn Duke. Despite their long history, the two only had their first outing as a team on October 26th and actually took on ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz as part of a Pro Wrestling REVOLVER event on November 16th that ended in a No Contest when Athena attacked Rousey with the ROH title belt.
This Thursday night on Honor Club, Rousey and Shafir will have a second chance at the victory that was stolen from them at the PWR event. It's one of the biggest bouts in the history of ROH ON HONOR CLUB, possibly the biggest, and it is taking place this Thursday night!
ROH PURE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Katsuyori Shibata(c) vs. Trent Beretta
For the very first time in his twenty year career, Trent Beretta is entering into a Pure Rules bout, but not just a standard Pure Rules situation, but an actual Pure Championship match against the man who's reigned atop the division for nearly 240 days: Katsuyori Shibata!
This past Wednesday on DYNAMITE, as part of AEW's Thanksgiving Eve tradition, the ROH Pure Champion united the FTW Champion and the AEW International Champion to score a victory in Trios competition, and now Shibata is back in Pure Championship action with this bout on Thursday night!
Trent is heading into this having recently challenged for the TNT Championship against Christian Cage, so that taste of titles is still fresh on his tongue, and with having not held a singles championship in nine years, Beretta is hungry to add a new one to his resume!
Can Trent be the first man to hand Shibata a ROH loss since Kyle O'Reilly in 2016, or will “The Wrestler” continue to dominate the Pure Division?
ROUND TWO...
“All Ego” Ethan Page vs. “The Premiere Athlete” Tony Nese
It was just over a month ago that Tony Nese defeat “All Ego” Ethan Page, bringing an abrupt end to the five match win streak Ethan had amassed since returning to ROH competition after nine years. Now it's not as if “The Premiere Athlete” scored that victory on his own merit, “Smart” Mark Sterling is always around to lend a hand with that, but “All Ego” made sure to get his back when he helped Serpentico score a victory over Nese a few weeks later.
“All Ego” came to Ring of Honor with the intent of righting a ship he felt had drifted off course, to find his love for professional wrestling once again after many months wrapped up in drama and contracts and the other distractions that divert a professional wrestler from the primary goal of championship success. And isn't that the ultimate purpose of every wrestler in Ring of Honor? Don't they all want to become champions; be it the Pure Championship, the World Television Championship, or the World Championship?
Will this be the night Ethan Page rids himself of Tony Nese and Mark Sterling and moves on to the goals he had when he first came back to Ring of Honor back in September? Is the Survival of the Fittest in the winner's future? Is the ROH World TV Championship on the horizon for Ethan Page or Tony Nese?
ALSO FEATURING:
-Four Corner Survival: Jack Cartwheel vs. Fred Rosser vs. Willie Mack vs. Lee Johnson
-Four Corner Survival: Willow Nightingale vs. Diamante vs. Trish Adora vs. Kiera Hogan
-Tag Team Four Corner Survival: Iron Savages vs. The Workhorsemen vs. The Infantry vs. The West Coast Wrecking Crew