Last week during ROH ON HONOR CLUB, fans witnessed as Komander and Dalton Castle each qualified for the ROH World TV Title Survival of the Fittest bout taking place at FINAL BATTLE 2023, as well as Lee Johnson fail to earn himself a ROH World Title bout on the Proving Ground. Plus, ROH President Tony Khan informed Billie Starkz of her ROH Women's World Championship fight with Athena going down that night in Texas, we learned that Shane Taylor and Keith Lee would fight that night as well, Nyla Rose competed in her first-ever ROH match, and more!
FINAL BATTLE 2023 is just over a week away, and the Survival of the Fittest Six-Way Elimination bout that will crown a new ROH World TV Champion is looking for four more entrants! Three more will earn their way this Thursday night during ROH ON HONOR CLUB, the exclusive home for ROH action beginning at 7pm ET/6pm CT every Thursday night, as well as the exclusive home for FINAL BATTLE 2023! With content from more than twenty years of history, Honor Club is the place to watch the evolution of professional wrestling as created by Ring of Honor, and featuring some of the greatest professional wrestlers that have defined the sport for this century and beyond!
WORLD TV TITLE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST ELIMINATOR MATCHES..
Last week, in the first two Survival of the Fittest qualifying bouts, Dalton Castle and Komander advanced to the 6-Way Elimination Finals taking place at FINAL BATTLE 2023 where the winner will be crowned the new ROH World Television Champion. This week on HONOR CLUB, the ROH faithful will watch as six other men compete to earn a spot in that historic bout!
The Don Callis Family's Kyle Fletcher vs. Gravity
Kyle Fletcher and Gravity are two men whose ROH journeys only began this year, even though Fletcher did have a quartet of bouts in 2018 and 2019, and for each this is a first-time opportunity to participate in the Survival of the Fittest competition. Fletcher, a former ROH World Tag Team Champion, has only lost three matches in the New Era of Honor, and is undefeated in singles competition with six victories. Gravity, on the other hand, has exploded onto the ROH scene in 2023, making it to the finals of the World TV Title Eliminator Tournament before falling to Shane Taylor, though overall winning just five of his nine ROH singles bouts. He's been an impressive athlete, bringing his unique Lucha stylings to the table, but now Gravity must put it all together, and find that drive that got him to the Eliminator Tournament Finals if he hopes to stop the momentum Kyle Fletcher's been building since he first set foot in Ring of Honor in 2023!
“The Technical Beast” Josh Woods vs. “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson
Of the six men competing on Thursday night to earn their FINAL BATTLE 2023 shot, only two have ever competed in SOTF prior to this year, one of them being “The Technical Beast” Josh Woods. Back in 2017, during his first year in Ring of Honor, Woods attempted to make the Elimination Finals but fell to Silas Young in the Qualifying bout. Still, as a former Pure Champion, he craves adding that accolade to his resume, but he's got to make it past Lee Johnson who's coming in fresh off fighting the ROH World Champion on the Proving Ground. Admittedly, “Big Shotty” doesn't have the strongest record in Ring of Honor, winless in seven singles matches but having scored a big Four Corner Survival victory two weeks ago over Jack Cartwheel, Fred Rosser, and Willie Mack that led to said Proving Ground bout. So this is a major opportunity for Lee to continue to step up his game, and get one day closer to the biggest moment of his career; who will move on to FINAL BATTLE 2023 in this first-ever fight?
“Taiga Style” Lee Moriarty vs. “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams
Tracy Williams is the only wrestler competing this Thursday, besides Josh Woods, to have ever participated in a SOTF tournament, in his case the 2018 edition where Tracy lost in the Qualifying Round. In addition, Williams is also the only one of the men competing on Thursday night who has ever held the ROH World TV Championship, reigning for just 35 days in 2021.
Moriarty, a former challenger to both the ROH World Championship and Pure Championship, stands at 5-7 in ROH singles matches this year, but he's been in the ring with everyone from Jay Lethal to Katsuyori Shibata to Konosuke Takeshita, picking up a great deal of experience along the way.
Will the things “Taiga Style” has learned, and his affiliation with Shane Taylor Promotions, be the ticket to advancing to FINAL BATTLE 2023? Or will the experience of Tracy Williams prove the deciding factor in this SOTF 2023 Qualifying bout?
ONE-ON-ONE...
Billie Starkz vs. Dani Mo
Billie Starkz finally has the opportunity she's wanted every since coming to Ring of Honor, and essentially being forced to sit under Athena's learning tree. Honestly, if it wasn't for the abusive treatment Starkz had to endure, there would be few better places (perhaps none) to learn than at the side of, not only the most dominant Women's World Champion that Ring of Honor has ever seen, but one of the most dominating champions the company has seen across all divisions in its near 22-year history.
But one can only take so much abuse, and Starkz finally reached her limit with Athena's treatment, leading to their fight set for FINAL BATTLE 2023 in Texas. With a couple weeks to go before their showdown, Starkz is intent on being the best version of herself that she can be, and that means getting in the ring and keeping her skills fresh.
With that in mind, Billie Starkz will be in action this Thursday night on Honor Club, and there's no doubt that “The Fallen Goddess” will be watching!
SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE...
After months of issues between Ethan Page, Tony Nese, and “Smart” Mark Sterling, it appears there will finally be a resolution on December 15th when FINAL BATTLE 2023 comes to Honor Club! In that video embedded above, we heard Board of Directors member Jerry Lynn say that Sterling would be handcuffed to ringside, giving “Smart” Mark what he wants by being at ringside just not exactly how he wants it, and as we all heard in the chaos at the end, Jerry announced that the contract signing would go down this Thursday night!
Every wrestling fan knows how out of control these things can get, will this one follow in the footsteps of every contract signing that's come before? Or will the presence of ROH President Tony Khan overseeing the signing help to mitigate any such behavior?
ALSO FEATURING:
-Dalton Castle vs. Johnny TV
-The Butcher & The Blade vs. The Boys
-The Workhorsemen vs. The Infantry
-The Renegades vs. Lady Frost & Trish Adora
-The Righteous vs. The Outrunners
-Rachael Ellering in action