Wikipedia

Final Battle (2024)

The 2024 Final Battle was a professional wrestling live streaming event produced by American promotion Ring of Honor (ROH). It was the 23rd Final Battle event and took place on December 20, 2024, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York. The event aired exclusively on ROH's streaming service, Honor Club.

Final Battle (2024)
Promotional poster featuring various wrestlers
PromotionRing of Honor
DateDecember 20, 2024
CityNew York City, New York
VenueHammerstein Ballroom
Attendance1,408
Event chronology
← Previous
Death Before Dishonor 		Next →
Wrestle Dynasty
Final Battle chronology
← Previous
2023 		Next →
—

13 matches were contested at the event, including four on the Zero Hour pre-show. The event promoted two main event matches. On the last match of the card, Athena defeated Billie Starkz to retain the ROH Women's World Championship, while on the other main event, Chris Jericho defeated Matt Cardona to retain the ROH World Championship.

Production

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Background

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Final Battle is a professional wrestling event produced by Ring of Honor. First held in 2002, it is traditionally ROH's last show in the calendar year.[1] It is widely regarded as Ring of Honor's premiere flagship event, similar to WWE's WrestleMania.[2][3] On November 19, 2024, ROH announced that the 2024 Final Battle would be held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on December 20, and would air exclusively on Honor Club. Once a yearly tradition, this was the first Final Battle event to take place at the Hammerstein Ballroom since Final Battle 2018.[4]

Storylines

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The event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[5] Storylines were produced on ROH's weekly series ROH Honor Club TV exclusively on their streaming service Honor Club, on television programs of sister promotion All Elite Wrestling including Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision, and via promotional videos on both the ROH and AEW YouTube channels.

On the December 5 episode of ROH Wrestling, ROH World Champion Chris Jericho hosted his talk show segment, "TV Time with The Learning Tree," for the first time on ROH to discuss his upcoming title defense at Final Battle. He would dare anyone from New York to step up, to which Matt Cardona would then make a surprise appearance and accept Jericho's challenge for the title at Final Battle.[6]

On the November 14 ROH Wrestling, after ROH World Tag Team Champions The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara) competed in a match, they were suddenly ambushed by The Righteous (Vincent and Dutch), who wielded a bull rope with an attached cowbell. Later in the night, after The Righteous won their match, they cut a promo, declaring they should've been champions long ago and that attacking the champions would force them to get an opportunity. As they are meant to do, they also made their situation with the champions personal; Dutch specifically targeted Rhodes as he recounted training with his father Dusty Rhodes who Dutch claimed saw more in him than he did Dustin, which is how he came to possess the bull rope.[7] The Righteous continued the mind games over the next few weeks. Soon, on the December 5 ROH Wrestling, it was announced that The Sons of Texas would face The Righteous in a Texas Bullrope match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship at Final Battle.[8]

On the December 5 episode of ROH Wrestling, Jay Lethal appeared in a backstage segment where he was planning a return to ROH one and a half years after his last appearance at Death Before Dishonor in 2022. He and his associates (Sonjay Dutt, Satnam Singh, Jeff Jarrett, and Karen Jarrett) were then met by Q. T. Marshall, who offered to be Lethal's return opponent, but was shot down as Lethal wanted to wrestle a "bigger name."[9] The following week, Lethal met with ROH Board of Directors member Paul Wight to discuss his ROH return match only for a furious Marshall to interrupt, leading to a physical altercation. Wight would intervene and decide it would be best that the two would settle differences in the ring, with the match being made official for Final Battle.[10]

At the previous year's Final Battle, Athena retained the ROH Women's World Championship against Billie Starkz, the latter's performance getting her back in the former's good graces as her "minion".[11] Starkz would then take to Athena's more underhanded tactics as she and fellow minion, backstage interviewer Lexy Nair, assisted Athena in retaining her title at Death Before Dishonor of 2024.[12] A pay-per-view prior Starkz became the inaugural ROH World Women's Television Champion at Supercard of Honor.[13] However, after Starkz lost the television title to Red Velvet at Death Before Dishonor of 2024,[12] the dynamic between Athena, Starkz, and Nair reverted to Athena favoring Nair and looking down on Starkz.[14] On the October 24 ROH Wrestling, Athena celebrated becoming the longest-reigning champion of any kind in ROH history, where she again praised Nair and berated Starkz for perceived poor party planning, causing Starkz to walk out on the pair.[15][14] Over a month later on December 12, Athena and Starkz competed in a four-way qualifier for the International Women’s Cup at Wrestle Dynasty, also involving Velvet and Leyla Hirsch. Initially, Athena demanded Starkz lay down for her, but when that didn't happen, Athena would steal a pin on Velvet from Starkz to win.[16] Afterwards, Athena proclaimed she would skip Final Battle in preparation for Wrestle Dynasty, but a frustrated Starkz, tired of Athena's abuse, challenged her to a rematch for the ROH Women's World Championship at Final Battle. Athena accepted and the match was later made official.[17]

Results

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No.ResultsStipulationsTimes[24]
1PGrizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) defeated The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) (with Evil Uno) by pinfallTag team match[18]11:26
2PHanako defeated Harley Cameron by pinfallSingles match[18]7:19
3PThe Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) defeated The Infantry (Carlie Bravo and Capt. Shawn Dean) (with Trish Adora and Shane Taylor) by pinfallTag team match[18]9:56
4PGates of Agony (Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona) defeated LEEJ (Lee Johnson and EJ Nduka) by pinfallTag team match[18]10:21
5Atlantis Jr. defeated Mansoor (with Mason Madden) by pinfallSingles match[19]11:58
6Katsuyori Shibata defeated Tommy Billington by submissionSingles match[19]9:49
7Jay Lethal (with Karen Jarrett and Sonjay Dutt) defeated Q. T. Marshall (with Aaron Solo and Carolyn Fazio) by pinfallSingles match[10]12:40
8Red Velvet (c) defeated Leyla Hirsch by pinfallSingles match for the ROH Women's World Television Championship[20]11:49
9Lee Moriarty (c) defeated Nigel McGuinness by submissionPure Wrestling Rules match for the ROH Pure Championship[21]17:04
10The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara) (c) defeated The Righteous (Vincent and Dutch) by pinfallTexas Bullrope match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship[8]15:32
11Komander (with Alex Abrahantes) defeated Brian Cage (c), Willie Mack, Mark Davis, AR Fox, and Blake Christian by pinfallSurvival of the Fittest match for the ROH World Television Championship[22]25:18
12Chris Jericho (c) (with Bryan Keith) defeated Matt Cardona by pinfallSingles match for the ROH World Championship[6]18:27
13Athena (c) defeated Billie Starkz by pinfallSingles match for the ROH Women's World Championship[17][23]25:34
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match
P – the match was broadcast on the pre-show

ROH World Television Championship Survival of the Fittest match

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Eliminated Wrestler Eliminated by Method of elimination Time
1 Willie Mack Brian Cage Pinned after the Tornado Claw 9:29
2 AR Fox Pinned after an avalanche powerbomb 13:26
3 Brian Cage Mark Davis Pinned after a piledriver 16:26
4 Mark Davis Blake Christian Pinned after a low blow 17:01
5 Blake Christian Komander Pinned after Cielito Lindo 25:18
Winner Komander —

See also

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References

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  1. ^ DeRosenroll, Mike (December 19, 2009). "DeRosenroll's Classic ROH Feuds: History of "Final Battle" ROH World Title matches (2002–2005)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved February 5, 2011. Final Battle has been the name of the last ROH show of each year since the promotion started in 2002
  2. ^ "December 28th Newswire". Ring of Honor. 2011-12-28. Retrieved 2013-10-28. The ROH athletes put it all on the line at the biggest event of the year. Replays of the iPPV broadcast of "Final Battle 2011" are available here.
  3. ^ "Final Battle 2012: Doomsday- New York, NY 12/16/12 (DVD)". Ring of Honor. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-28. Ring of Honor closes out 2012 with the biggest event of the year...
  4. ^ Currier, Joseph (November 19, 2024). "AEW announces new dates: Hammerstein debut, Revolution 2025 in Los Angeles". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
  5. ^ Grabianowski, Ed (January 13, 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Lambert, Jeremy (December 5, 2024). "ROH World Title Bout Set For ROH Final Battle". Fightful. Retrieved December 5, 2024.
  7. ^ Sam, Robinson (November 15, 2024). "ROH on HonorClub results (11/14): Robinson's review of Red Velvet vs. Diamante in a Street Fight for the ROH Women's TV Title, Josh Woods vs. Komander, four-way tag team match". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 6, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Lambert, Jeremy (December 5, 2024). "ROH World Tag Team Title Bout Set For ROH Final Battle". Fightful. Retrieved December 5, 2024.
  9. ^ Sam, Robinson (December 7, 2024). "ROH on HonorClub results (12/5): Robinson's review of Chris Jericho's TV Time, Shane Taylor Promotions vs. Action Andretti and "Top Flight" Dante Martin and Darius Martin". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  10. ^ a b Defelice, Robert (December 12, 2024). "Jay Lethal Bout Set For ROH Final Battle". Fightful. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  11. ^ Sam, Robinson (December 15, 2023). "ROH Final Battle results: Robinson's live review of Athena vs. Billie Starkz for the ROH Women's Title, Mark Briscoe and FTR vs. Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, and Claudio Castagnoli". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  12. ^ a b Moss, Jeff (July 26, 2024). "ROH Death Before Dishonor live results: Mark Briscoe vs. Roderick Strong title match". F4wonline.com. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  13. ^ Sam, Robinson (April 6, 2023). "ROH Supercard of Honor results: Robinson's review of Eddie Kingston vs. Mark Briscoe for the ROH Championship, Athena vs. Hikaru Shida for the ROH Women's Title, first ROH Women's TV Champ crowned". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  14. ^ a b Staff, ROH - Ring of Honor Wrestling. "IT'S OFFICIAL! Later tonight, @BillieStarkz & the #ROH Women's World Champion @AthenaPalmer_FG face @amisylle & the #ROH Women's World TV Champion @Thee_Red_Velvet ! Watch #ROH TV on #HonorClub at WatchROH.com". Twitter.com. Retrieved August 8, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ Sam, Robinson (October 24, 2023). "ROH on HonorClub results (10/24): Robinson's review of Brian Cage vs. Komander for the ROH TV Title, Athena's celebration, Lee Johnson vs. EJ Nduka, Gates of Agony vs. The Infantry". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  16. ^ Pulido, Luis (December 12, 2024). "ROH On Honor Club (12/12/2024) Results: International Cup Qualifier, Two Title Matches, More Set". Fightful. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  17. ^ a b Lambert, Jeremy (December 12, 2024). "ROH Women's Championship Match Set For ROH Final Battle". Fightful. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  18. ^ a b c d Lambert, Jeremy (December 19, 2024). "Four Matches Added To ROH Final Battle Zero Hour". Fightful. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
  19. ^ a b Russell, Skylar (December 18, 2024). "Katsuyori Shibata And Mansoor Bouts Added To ROH Final Battle 2024". Fightful. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  20. ^ Lambert, Jeremy (November 28, 2024). "ROH Women's TV Title Match Added To ROH Final Battle". Fightful. Retrieved November 28, 2024.
  21. ^ Defelice, Robert (December 14, 2024). "ROH Pure Championship Match Set For ROH Final Battle". Fightful. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
  22. ^ Lambert, Jeremy (December 13, 2024). "ROH TV Title Match Announced For ROH Final Battle". Fightful. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  23. ^ Russell, Skylar (December 18, 2024). "Athena Confirms Match Will Billie Starkz Will Headline ROH Final Battle 2024". Fightful. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
  24. ^ Vetter, Chris (December 21, 2024). "ROH Final Battle results: Vetter's review of Athena vs. Billie Starkz for the ROH Women's Title, Chris Jericho vs. Matt Cardona for the ROH Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved December 21, 2024.
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