Right from the get-go, Tony Khan set the tone for an all things positive on a media conference call: “A lot of things to get excited about at Final Battle.”
And, if you had made a decision to drink every time the owner of AEW said a variation of “excited” you would probably be in the hospital for alcohol poisoning.
Khan did a media call on the afternoon of December 12 to promote Ring of Honor Final Battle on Friday, December 15, 2023, at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas.
If you dropped out before the first 35 minutes were up, you might be under the belief that there’s only one match that matters on this card, the main event of Athena defending her ROH Women’s World Championship against Billie Starkz.
“Athena and Billie really deserve this spotlight,” said Khan.
Athena, who was Ember Moon in WWE, been on a “dominant run” and has “reached new heights as the champion.” She is the focus of the ROH program. “Her work has been one of the strongest things about the ROH show.”
As for Starkz, he mistakenly called her a “18-year-old wrestling genius” when, in fact, she turned 19 on December 8.
“You sometimes forget how young Billie is,” noted Khan.
He went out of his way to call announcer Lexy Nair “an indispensable part” of the storyline, perhaps laying the groundwork for Nair to do more than just hold a microphone. Since the feud began at Forbidden Door, Khan said that he has been making time to meet with all three every week. “It’s been a tremendous process,” he said, adding that early on saw that their battles were gathering “steam” and that they should stick with the program.
ROH Women’s World Champion Athena at media scrum at CURE Insurance Arena, in Trenton, on Friday, July 21, 2023. Photo by George Tahinos, georgetahinos.smugmug.com
The status of the ROH tag team titles came up twice, since Adam Cole is out of action and his championship partner, MJF, is mighty busy.
“They are a great tag team for any company,” said Khan, but admitted that forfeiting the titles and holding a tournament is indeed “something to look at, at some point.”
The ROH TV title is vacant, and a new champion will be crowned in the Survival of the Fittest finals. Right now it’s Dalton Castle vs. Komander vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. Lee Johnson vs. Lee Moriarty vs. a mystery opponent. Khan is excited by “the exciting stars involved” and teased that the missing name could be a wrestler coming back from Japan or maybe another luchador from Mexico.
It’ll be an “I Quit” match between Ethan Page against Tony Nese (with “Smart” Mark Sterling). Khan noted that both competitors wanted more ring time, and being on ROH was a solution. “Two great wrestlers getting a chance to showcase themselves,” he said. They “brought a lot of great ideas to their program” and there was a “good buzz” for their contract signing.
Khan brought up his own personal history in Dallas (Garland is a suburb of the Texas metropolis) with the Briscoes, including the Dog Collar Match against FTR last year. He was considering what to do to honor the memory of Jay Briscoe, and came up with the Jay Briscoe Memorial Fight Without Honor, putting FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) and Mark Briscoe vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and Claudio Castagnoli).
He was “thinking about the end” admitted Khan, and how to get there. “I think FTR and the Briscoes are going to be linked together, forever.” Jay Briscoe wrestled Bryan Danielson 20 years ago at Final Battle as well. To confirm the bout, Khan said he went to each member of the Blackpool Combat Club individually for their thoughts.
Fellow Blackpool Combat Club member Wheeler Yuta isn’t on the card (at the moment) but came up in a question about the Pure championship. “I think that the Pure championship has gained a lot of profile” because of Daniel Garcia, Yuta, and Katsuyori Shibata, he said.
The announced Keith Lee vs. Shane Taylor match wasn’t mentioned at all.
Khan was also asked about distribution for ROH beyond streaming on HonorClub. He said he talked to Warner earlier in the day about that and other possibilities down the road for AEW.
“Ring of Honor is really a third party in the relationship,” he admitted, and “peripheral to the conversation.” But that there was “a lot of interest in ROH.” In particular he was high on the growing library from AEW and ROH and believes something will come about to have all of it available.
He didn’t specify numbers of HonorClub subscribers when asked, but did say that the company sees an increase in subscribers leading up to events like Final Battle — which is only on HonorClub and not pay-per-view.
Make no mistake, as Khan is still very high on ROH and its future.
“I think we’ll have a really consistent and sustainable company that we’ve been able to build that has great shows and has put a lot of great matches into the wrestling ecosystem that I was very excited to revive, because it has a great history and had a lot of value that it could add to my own portfolio personally, but also to the world,” he said.
Did you note that he was excited?
FINAL BATTLE 2023 CARD
- Dalton Castle vs. Komander vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. Lee Johnson vs. Lee Moriarty vs. TBD — Survival of the Fittest Finals for the vacant ROH World Television Championship
- Keith Lee vs. Shane Taylor
- Ethan Page vs. Tony Nese (with “Smart” Mark Sterling) — “I Quit” match
- FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) and Mark Briscoe vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and Claudio Castagnoli) — Jay Briscoe Memorial Fight Without Honor
- Athena (c) vs. Billie Starkz — ROH Women’s World Championship
TOP PHOTO: Tony Khan at AEW at Centre Bell in Montreal, Quebec, on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. Photo by Minas Panagiotakis, www.photography514.com
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