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It feels like every couple weeks there is a major shake-up in the landscape of Ring of Honor, Samoa Joe vacating the ROH World Television Championship for example, and this past Saturday on RAMPAGE was no different as a new Pure Champion was crowned when Wheeler Yuta defeated Katsuyori Shibata! That makes Yuta the only 2-Time and 3-Time champion in the history of the Pure Title, and has done little but fueled his already expanding ego. Fans also witnessed ROH World Champion Eddie Kingston fall to Brody King in the Continental Classic Tournament, a heartbreaking defeat for the champion considering he's put both the ROH World Title and the NJPW STRONG Openweight Title on the line in said tournament, but one he's got to get over quickly given his match with Lee Johnson on Thursday and his fight with Bryan Danielson on Saturday! As FINAL BATTLE 2023 draws nigh, and the Survival of the Fittest to crown a new ROH World TV Champion takes shape, ROH ON HONOR CLUB is the place to catch all the action starting at 7pm ET/6pm CT every Thursday night! In addition to being the exclusive home of FINAL BATTLE 2023, Honor Club is also the place to watch more than 20 years of professional wrestling history created by Ring of Honor, featuring some of the greatest professional wrestlers that have defined the sport for this century and beyond! SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST TV TITLE ELIMINATOR... Dalton Castle vs. Evil Uno And so it begins, the road to FINAL BATTLE 2023 and the crowning of a new ROH World Television Champion with the return of Survival of the Fittest (https://www.ringofhonor.com/post/the-history-of-survival-of-the-fittest)! A staple of ROH since 2004, the short explanation for SOTF is that a series of matches whittle the field down to six competitors, and those six compete in an Elimination-Style bout to determine the winner. When ROH returns to Texas for its annual year-end extravaganza, for the very first time in the event's history Survival of the Fittest will have a championship title at stake, which means the competitors in Ring of Honor need to start earning their way into that title situation! Two such bouts will go down this Thursday night on Honor Club when Dalton Castle locks horns with Evil Uno in one SOTF Eliminator contest while Komander faces Gringo Loco in another! Castle, though a former ROH World/TV/Six-Man Champion, as well as the winner of the 2017 Soaring Eagle Cup Tournament, has not had great success in the SOTF field. 2015 saw him knocked out in the qualifier, as did 2018, and while Castle made it to the Elimination bout in 2016, he was the second man eliminated in the match. So he would love nothing more than to return to the finals and add a SOTF victory, as well as a second TV Championship reign, to his already impressive ROH resume. As for Evil Uno, given his limited ROH experiences, he has never been entered into the SOTF field, although he and Stu Grayson did participate in the Tag Wars 2010 tournament early in their careers, and somewhat surprisingly this will also mark Uno's first foray into singles competition under the ROH banner. He, along with the rest of The Dark Order, have been quite successful in ROH competition in the New Era of Honor, including that unforgettable Fight Without Honor at DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2023 against Stu Grayson and The Righteous, but this is a whole new test for Uno. At least history, albeit from over four years ago, bends in his favor as the lone singles encounter between Dalton and Uno went in Evil Uno's favor. Komander vs. Gringo Loco Now the other two competitors facing a SOTF Eliminator Match this Thursday are completely new to this ROH staple, but they are quite familiar with one another. Though their first meeting took place only 17 months ago, Gringo Loco and Komander have shared the ring on twenty-four occasions, some as friend and some as foe, with each holding a victory in their two singles matches, and Komander holding the Ring of Honor victory from episode 19 on Honor Club. This Thursday, Gringo Loco has a chance to not only even up their ROH score, but also get into a Ring of Honor title picture for the very first time! Komander has had opportunities at both the ROH World Championship, as well as the ROH World Tag Titles, but a berth in the SOTF Finals would be his first time near the World Television Championship, so this Thursday is a night of huge potential for both individuals. Who will advance to FINAL BATTLE 2023 this week on Honor Club? PROVING GROUND MATCH... ROH World Champion Eddie Kingston vs. “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson This isn't the first time “Big Shotty” Lee Johnson is standing on the Proving Ground with a potential ROH World Championship match at stake. Three months ago, during Claudio Castagnoli's reign, Johnson had his first opportunity to earn a title fight but, just three minutes and thirty seconds later, he was looking up at the lights. That didn't kill his hunger to find success in ROH, not in the least, in fact in the eleven weeks of ROH ON HONOR CLUB since, Lee has been in the ring seven of them to garner that invaluable experience, and though he's won just one of those bouts, last week's Four Corner Survival, each has pushed “Big Shotty” to better himself just that much more. This week on Honor Club, Lee has his second chance to step onto the Proving Ground for a potential ROH World Championship match, only this time it is against Eddie Kingston, a man coming into Thursday night having just tasted bitter defeat in his first Continental Classic bout: So will this be a Kingston fired up from losing to Brody King, or one vulnerable to being upset by Lee Johnson, sending him into Saturday's COLLISION contest with Bryan Danielson on even more of a down note? ONE-ON-ONE... “Minion in Training” Billie Starkz vs. “The Problem” Marina Shafir Last week, after the Open Challenge of ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz led to the shocking arrival of “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey as Marina Shafir's partner, and the subsequent tapping out of the Minion-in-Training, let's just say that Starkz is not high on the list of Athena's favorite people at this moment. But this week on Honor Club, Starkz will have her opportunity to make up for that failure (only in Athena's eyes would tapping out to a Olympic-level Judo player be a failure) by defeating Marina Shafir in a singles bout. Now outside of ROH the two women have split a pair of singles matches, Marina winning the first REVOLVER bout and Starkz the second, and then of course there is the No Contest tag match there that led to the ROH fight last week, so this is in essence their rubber match. Would a victory here finally prove Billie's worth to “The Fallen Goddess” or will she forever remain a Minion-in-Training? And if “The Problem” is the one getting her hand raised Thursday night, will she then set her eyes on the Forever Champion with FINAL BATTLE 2023 on the horizon? ALSO FEATURING: -Trish Adora vs. Emi Sakura -Robert Anthony vs. Willie Mack -Leyla Hirsch in action! -The Infantry (Capt. Shawn Dean & Carlie Bravo) vs. The Boys -And more!!!

Tonight on AEW Rampage, Wheeler Yuta defeated Katsuyori Shibata to become a three-time Ring of Honor Pure Champion!

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

It was announced last Thursday night during ROH ON HONOR CLUB that, following Samoa Joe vacating the ROH World Television Championship, a new champion would be crowned at FINAL BATTLE 2023. To determine the new champion, AEW/ROH President Tony Khan dipped into the rich, nigh on twenty-two year, history of Ring of Honor and landed on the Survival of the Fittest tournament as the method by which the 31 World Television Champion would be crowned! It's a tournament format that hasn't been tapped since 2021, and while has always seen the winner earn a shot at the ROH World Championship, has never before been used as a championship match itself. But what is Survival of the Fittest? Here's a bit of a history lesson for those either unfamiliar with the format, or simply need a refresher course after a couple years without a SOTF taking place. Born on June 24, 2004 at the Ramada Inn in Essington, PA, the Survival of the Fittest tournament was inspired by Maryland Championship Wrestling's Shane Shamrock Cup, a tournament so-named in honor of the late Shane Shamrock (Brian Howser) who died on August 18, 1998. The initial idea for the tournament finals was an Elimination Match featuring six competitors who each had to qualify via victory in six singles matches. That original intent faded fairly quickly as the inaugural SOTF Tournament actually featured fourteen men looking to qualify for the finals due to one bout morphing from a singles bout into a tag team format: -Austin Aries -Roderick Strong -Samoa Joe -Homicide -John Walters -Mark Briscoe -Jay Briscoe -Bryan Danielson -Alex Shelley -Colt Cabana -Trent Acid -John Walters -Jack Evans -Matt Stryker Of those 14 men, the finals would come down to Aries, Cabana, Homicide, Mark Briscoe, Samoa Joe, and Bryan Danielson, the last of whom would actually win the 43 minute fight, leading to his failed challenge against Samoa Joe for the ROH World Title four months later at MIDNIGHT EXPRESS REUNION. The success of that original Survival of the Fittest Tournament would make it a part of the ROH calendar nearly every year prior to the dawn of the new era of honor, all but 2008 and 2013 as a matter of fact, with past winners of the tournament including Roderick Strong(2005), Chris Hero(2007), Tyler Black(2009), Eddie Edwards(2010), Jay Lethal(2012), Adam Cole(2014), and Bandido(2021). All of those men, save Hero who was a record-setting World Tag Champion, held the ROH World Championship at one point, several of them directly due to their victory in the SOTF tournament, and all are certifiable ROH Hall of Famers. The importance of Survival of the Fittest to their careers can not be understated, and with its return in the closing month of 2023, it is now set to change the course of another individuals career. Only this time and for the very first time, instead of a future ROH World Championship opportunity at stake, the winner of the tournament will be crowned the new ROH World Television Champion! Who will follow in the footsteps of Samoa Joe, Matt Taven, Adam Cole, Shane Taylor, and Dalton Castle to create their own enduring legacy as World TV Champion? The qualifying matches kick off shortly exclusively on future episodes of ROH ON HONOR CLUB, with the final Six Way Elimination bout taking place at FINAL BATTLE 2023 which will be available exclusively on Honor Club for subscribers! Not only will the ROH faithful get the traditional year-end extravaganza, but they will also have access to previous the ROH PPV's in the new Era of Honor, classic ROH content dating back to 2002, and so much more featuring the greatest professional wrestlers of the 21st Century!

It's official! Samoa Joe will now team up with AEW World Champion MJF to defend the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Titles against The Gunns at AEW Full Gear ZERO HOUR!

The Ring of Honor World Championship will be on the line when Jay Lethal challenges the Champ Eddie Kingston LIVE at AEW FullGear ZERO HOUR!

As announced earlier, FINAL BATTLE 2023 is coming to Garland, TX and the Curtis Culwell Center, the home of SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2022 and the place where this new Era of Honor began! Tickets will go on-sale Friday October 27th at 10am CT at ROHTix, and come December 15th, if you're not in the building to experience the greatest pound-for-pound pro wrestling on the planet, the only place to watch it will be on HonorClub! That's right, for just the cost of your Honor Club subscription and nothing more, you will be able to watch Ring of Honor's premier year-end event, right alongside all the other amazing content available! FINAL BATTLE has been a hallmark of ROH's calendar since 2002, and has seen such milestones as the end of Samoa Joe's historic title reign, the beginning of Homicide's championship run, Steen versus Generico in a Fight Without Honor, Claudio Castagnoli defeating Chris Jericho, The Briscoes and Papa Briscoe defeating Kings of Wrestling & Shane Hagadorn, The Briscoes defeating FTR in that Double Dog Collar Match, Jay Briscoe and Adam Cole, Jay Lethal versus AJ Styles, and so much more! It's been a historic night for ROH for over twenty years, this year will be no different, and it can only be seen with your Honor Club subscription! So sign up now to catch all the ROH ON HONOR CLUB TV leading up to it, as well as to be able to enjoy the loads of historical content available at your fingertips!

Last week during ROH ON HONOR CLUB, we witnessed Athena and Mercedes Martinez go to war over the ROH Women's World Championship, and thanks to a little help from her M.I.T. Billie Starkz, “The Fallen Goddess” made history repeat itself. This week the championship focus shifts to the ROH World Championship held by Eddie Kingston as he faces a new challenger, the fifth of his reign and for the second straight week, in the form of former ROH World Champion Dalton Castle! In addition, Athena will be in tag action alongside Starkz, Leyla Hirsch and Rachael Ellering united against The Renegades, Emi Sakura is back in the house, and the AAA all-star duo of Komander and Vikingo take on former ROH Tag Team Champions Matt Sydal and Christopher Daniels! The night begins at 7pm ET/6pm CT only on Honor Club, your exclusive home for FINAL BATTLE 2023, as well as more than 20 years of rich ROH history featuring women such as Mickie James, Sara Del Rey, Lacey, Daizee Haze, Allison Danger, Sumie Sakai, Madison Rayne, MsChif, and more!! ROH World Championship Match... Eddie Kingston(c) vs. Dalton Castle A Triple Crown champion in the annals of Ring of Honor history, Dalton Castle has stood atop the Television Title division, the Six-Man Division, and for 197 days atop the whole of ROH. After defeating Cody Rhodes at FINAL BATTLE 2017, Castle would successfully defend his crown on seven occasions before Jay Lethal ended the run on ROH WRESTLING #357 in a Four Corner Survival that also featured Cody and Matt Taven. In the years since, Castle has had multiple opportunities to reclaim the crown, including a bout with Chris Jericho in AEW, and a singles clash with Jay Lethal at HONOR REIGNS SUPREME 2019, but he's been unable to return to the throne. Perhaps that is why Dalton Castle seems so unhinged despite having won seven of his last eight matches here in Ring of Honor, with four of those being one-on-one bouts. Perhaps it's that Castler, as so many others have before him, look down upon Eddie Kingston and deem him unworthy of his hard-earned status as champion. If the latter is the case, then “The Peacock” is in for a rude awakening in this first-ever meeting with “The Mad King”! Just like Shibata, Minoru Suzuki, and Claudio Castagnoli before him, and just as Angelico learned last week, if people thought Kingston was a dangerous man before, then imagine what he has become when someone is looking to take either of his titles. The ROH faithful are in for one heck of a championship fight this Thursday night on Honor Club, one worthy of a championship whose legacy is as rich as the ROH World Title, between two men who are willing to lay it all on the line inside that squared circle to be recognized as they best at what they do! TAG TEAM TUSSLE... AAA Mega Champion El Hijo Del Vikingo & AAA Cruiserweight Champion Komander vs. “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal With Adam Cole on the shelf, MJF essentially stands as the ROH World Tag Team Champions all by himself, unwilling to relinquish the titles as he intends to do whatever it takes to keep them ready for Cole's eventual return. Now this Saturday night during the FULL GEAR 2023: ZERO HOUR (https://www.youtube.com/@AEW/videos) that may all change as MJF heads into a title defense against The Gunns seemingly without a partner. Suffice to say there will be a great many eyes on that particular contest as numerous teams in Ring of Honor want a shot at the gold, including former champions Matt Sydal and Christopher Daniels, as well as the AAA All-Star duo of El Hijo del Vikingo and Komander! While the OG ROH team reigned as champions for 91 days between November 2006 and February 2007, they have been unable to build that same momentum as a team to get into a championship situation. As for their foes, the AAA Mega Champion and AAA Cruiserweight Champion though they've only had limited experience together as a team, three matches all told, they did get an opportunity to challenge Aussie Open for the ROH World Tag Titles at DYNAMITE #200, but were clearly unsuccessful in that bid. What it did accomplish though was making them hungry to continue a pursuit of the titles, and that brings both these teams to this clash on Thursday night's edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB! Who will be the next team to rise up to contention, and will it by MJF or The Gunns who come out of FULL GEAR 2023 as the defending champs? TAG TEAM FIGHT... “Legit” Leyla Hirsch & Rachael Ellering vs. The Renegades (Charlette & Robyn) It took some time, but finally Maria Kanellis-Bennett pulled Leyla Hirsch into her orbit, and had “Legit” pursuing her for guidance rather than Maria chasing Leyla as a client. Similarly, though Rachael Ellering's help wasn't wanted by Hirsch last week after her victory over Charlette Renegade, Leyla did return the favor following Rachel's loss to Billie Starkz, and that balancing of her ledger has essentially created the situation Leyla finds herself in this Thursday night. Perhaps it's Maria's way of repaying Leyla for refusing her services only to come running back for help when the chips were down, but Kanellis-Bennett is certainly making Hirsch jump through hoops to get her guidance. The latest hoop means Hirsch has to team up with Ellering for Maria to consider actually helping out Leyla, thus the two women will square off with Charlette and Robyn this Thursday on Honor Club! If this ends in victory, will it mean Hirsch gets what she's been requesting from Maria Kanellis-Bennett or will further roadblocks follow? Will there be more hoops to jump? THE WORLD TV CHAMPIONSHIP... ALSO FEATURING: -ROH Women's World Champion Athena & Billie Starkz in tag competition! -Trent Beretta vs. Peter Avalon -“The Problem” Marina Shafir in action! -Emi Sakura returns to ROH! -The Bollywood Boyz vs. The Boys! -The Outrunners of Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd step into the ring!