ROH Final Battle 2024 card will have six title matches

On Friday, ROH will make its triumphant return to the legendary Hammerstein Ballroom. “Final Battle” has been held at the iconic venue numerous times with the last time in 2018. On Tuesday’s media call, Tony Khan said this would be his first time ever at the venue. 

During the go home show on Honor Club, four matches were announced for the “Zero Hour” pre-show. Harley Cameron will face STARDOM’s HANAKO. Cameron has spent some time in ROH, while HANAKO will be making her debut. The remaining matches have had some build heading into “Final Battle”. Grizzled Young Veterans just lost the NJPW STRONG Tag Team titles on Sunday. They will face the Dark Order. 

A feud between Gates of Agony and LeeJ (Lee Johnson and EJ Nduka) has been building to a head and they’ll fc on the pre-show. Johnson defeated KAUN on Thursday night’s episode. Undisputed Kingdom will face The Infantry. 

Two random matches for the main card were announced on episode 95. Katsuyori Shibata will face Tommy Billington. Billington last competed in AEW on “Zero Hour” at ALL IN this year. This will be his ROH debut. MxM Collection’s Mansoor will face former ROH TV Champion, Atlantis, Jr. 

The main card isn’t exempt from random matches. Last week, a match between Jay Lethal and QT Marshall was hastily thrown together. Lethal has wrestled a few indie dates, but hasn’t wrestled in ROH since May. He also competed in the same “Zero Hour” match at ALL IN as Billington. Thursday’s show featured a segment where Lethal said he didn’t want to wrestle Marshall because he wants to face bigger wrestlers to get back in the title picture. Marshall is trying to cash in on his match with Big Boom! AJ. 

“Final Battle” will see six title matches. Brian Cage will put his TV title on the line in a Survival of the Fittest match. He will face Komander, Willie Mack, Blake Christian, Kyle Davis, and AR Fox. Cage has been mostly been competing in a tag team with Lance Archer as of late.

The Women’s TV title will also be on the line. Red Velvet will defend against Leyla Hirsch. Last year, Hirsch lost to Velvet in the tournament quarter final match to crown the inaugural champion. After defeating Matt Taven, Lee Moriarty issued an open challenge for his PURE Championship on Friday night. 

Over the last few weeks, The Righteous have been torturing Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara). Dutch revealed that Dusty Rhodes had believed in him 14 years ago. He claims that Dusty bestowed his bullrope to him because he would appreciate it more than his own sons. On episode 95, The Righteous showed up at Dustin’s wrestling school and attacked him with the bullrope and left him in a pool of blood. They Facetimed Guevara to show him what they’d done. The tag team titles will be on the line in a first ever double bullrope match. 

During the media call, I asked about the tag match along with an update on The Von Erichs, who are ⅔ of the Trios Champions with Rhodes. Khan stated that he was previously unaware of Dutch’s relationship with the elder Rhodes. They’ve had great moments with Sons of Texas. He said that Ross Von Erich had an injury that has taken longer to heal than expected, so they’ve focused on the tag titles instead. Ross is expected back soon. 

The self-proclaimed “The Nueve” Chris Jericho announced he will face someone from New York City “who has the mentality of a warrior” at “Final Battle”. He was interrupted by Matt Cardona. The match for the title was made official. Last weekend, Jericho showed up in GCW to attack Cardona. 

On Wednesday, ATHENA marked over two years as Women's Champion. In a match a year in the making, ATHENA will defend her Women’s Championship against her protégé and former M.I.T., Billie Starkz. This is a rematch from last year’s “Final Battle” main event. Starkz proved herself worthy of being champion when her mentor just barely beat her. 

In the year since, Starkz became the inaugural Women’s TV Champion. Since losing the title, the champ has treated Starkz as a letdown. Fed up with her treatment, Starkz finally snapped and turned on her mentor. ATHENA hasn’t been taking her seriously until Thursday’s episode. After their tag match, Starkz tore the custom spinner from the title. This enraged “The Fallen Goddess” and the two brawled. She’s finally taking her mentee as a threat.

During the media call, Khan announced that the World title matches would be a double main event. On Wednesday, ATHENA said that she would be making ROH history again alongside Starkz when they headlined “Final Battle”. They are the first two women in ROH history to main event at Hammerstein. 

“Zero Hour” will air on Honor Club, ROH’s YouTube, X, and Facebook at 7 PM ET. The main card will start at 8 PM ET on Honor Club.