Ring of Honor: Final Battle goes Friday, Dec. 5. Here’s a look at the card as it stands:
- Ricochet (c) vs. Dalton Castle for the AEW National Championship
- TBD vs. TBD in the tournament final for the inaugural ROH Women’s Pure Championship
- Athena (c) vs. Persephone for the ROH Women’s World Championship
- Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor, Carlie Bravo, and Capt. Shawn Dean) (c) vs. SkyFlight (Scorpio Sky, Dante Martin and Darius Martin) for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship
- Bandido (c) vs. Blake Christian vs. The Beast Mortos vs. Sammy Guevara vs. Komander vs. Hechicero in a Survival of the Fittest match for the ROH Men’s World Championship
- Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Red Velvet for the ROH Women’s World Television Championship
- La Faccion Ingobernable (Sammy Guevara and The Beast Mortos) vs. Tommy Billington and Adam Priest in a tag team match for the vacant ROH Men’s World Tag Team Championships
- Lee Moriarty vs. Nigel McGuinness in a 30-minute Iron Man match
Below is a summary of the media call with Tony Khan ahead of the PPV.
Khan starts off with addressing the possibility to put ROH on TV with different media partners. He says There’s a lot riding on the AEW contract and ROH would need a rights deal and the “perfect situation” to get on TV.
Khan says Zayda Steel’s made a solid impression in her short time and fans should look forward to updates regarding her contractual status.
He says the ROH acquisition played a massive part in helping AEW All In in Texas break ticket records. Mark Briscoe is in no small part one of the reasons for this. AEW’s massive success in 2025 has made it less necessary for ROH to get a TV deal. But Khan reiterates the necessity to find the right situation.
Opinions and emotion power the wrestling industry. Khan says wrestling is the “most human” of the sports in regards to the fan involvement. Whether fans react positively or negatively, wrestling brings out fans’ emotions in a unique way compared to other sports.
Khan says it’s a lot easier to tape shows and move fluidly. There’s been a track record, where booking the shows can roll with the punches. The issue is the expenses involved in the tapings, but Khan always makes sure the fans at the shows get their money’s worth.
In ROH’s four years under Khan’s oversight, 2025 has been his favorite. The history of ROH is special but 2025 has put a consistently great ROH product week-to-week and a lot of 2025 ROH matches could contend for Match of the Year status.
Regarding Blake Christian’s entrance song, Jack Harlow’s song has been at a 1% approval rating. Khan would like the get the other 99% by tomorrow but that’s unlikely. He is working on it, to be clear.
Nigel McGuinness and Lee Moriarty have trained together and wrestled each other a lot. Khan highlights Moriarty as a ROH stand-out in 2025. Two of the best pure technical wrestlers and Pure Champions go at it for the title. This is going to be a hard-hitting match with a 30-minute time frame. A lot can happen, given the rules. A “very different” match from the rest of the Final Battle card.
Regarding ROH World TV Champion Nick Wayne, his injury timeline changed. Within AEW, there have been a number of these situations. Especially during Covid in 2020, a lot of fluidity is required to put forth the best (and safest) wrestling possible. Khan puts over Wayne’s talent and future. Christian Cage, Darby Allin, and Adam Copeland were all blown away with Nick Wayne’s instincts when they were introduced to him. There would have been an interim champion, had Khan been prepared for the injury. Wayne was initially supposed to be on the Final Battle card.
Talking about the Women’s Blood and Guts match, Penelope Ford and Queen Aminata were both substituted after being injured in the weeks leading up to the big match.
Yuka Sakazaki vs. Billie Starkz will be tonight and the winner will be in the final tomorrow. Queen Aminata was scheduled to compete in the other semi-final tonight but she is not medically cleared. Deonna Purrazzo will win by forfeit and will face the winner of Sakazaki / Starkz at Final Battle.
Khan puts over “The Fallen Goddess” Athena as the MVP of ROH and her work as ROH Women’s World Champion since winning it at Final Battle 2022 is more than noteworthy. Persephone is a legitimate contender to her title and Athena’s three-year title reign could be over Friday. Persephone has put in the work in ROH and the CMLL partnership is paying dividends.
Mercedes Mone will wrestle anywhere, anytime. This is no secret, evidenced by her 13 championship belts. Khan puts over her talent and her love for the work. She sets the bar high for any challengers. There are a lot of young, hungry wrestling in ROH and they want to measure themselves against Mone’s standard. Khan would love to have her on ROH more, but Red Velvet is looking to get her title back.
The CMLL partnership has been bountiful for both CMLL and for AEW/ROH, bringing new fans to different talented wrestlers that they otherwise might not be as familiar with. The partnership has given both promotions pride in their commitment to each other.
Ring of Honor: Final Battle goes Friday, December 5th live from GalaxyCon in Columbus, OH.
