Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion Athena will put her record-breaking title run on the line as part of tonight’s ROH show on HonorClub against Abadon.
The match won’t be of the traditional variety, but will be a Halloween Ring of Horror match, assumed to be a hardcore match. Athena has held the title for nearly 700 days with 23 title defenses to her credit.
After returning last week on AEW TV, Tomohiro Ishii will be in action against Josh Woods while in a Pure rules match, Matt Taven of the Undisputed Kingdom will battle Aaron Solo.
In tag team action, the reluctant pairing of JD Drake & Beef will take on Peter Avalon & Preston Vance.
CMLL’s Reyna Isis will look to go 2-0 in ROH action as she goes one-on-one with Lady Frost.
Johnny TV, Billie Starkz and the Gates of Agony will all be in action against opponents to be named.
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It was sure to be chock full of tricks, but with even more treats as the extra-sized Halloween Edition of Ring of Honor on Honorclub hit the air for the 88th time! Starting with a promo from none other than The Righteous! Vincent and Dutch lamented the snakes in the industry and called out ROH Tag Team Champions Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara. The Righteous are snakes too and they want those belts.
BEEF & JD Drake defeated Peter Avalon & Preston Vance
So, BEEF is becoming very popular. It might be his infectious enthusiasm, it might be his family loyalty, it might be his chiseled physique. But for whatever reason, he’s becoming a big deal. Drake is of course the partner of BEEF’s cousin, Anthony Henry (who is currently on the shelf for about 6 weeks with an injury). So, after weeks of begging to meet Drake, BEEF got the chance to actually tag with him! Drake wasn’t as excited as BEEF though, so the alliance was uneasy. Avalon and Vance were also there.
BEEF and Vance kicked things off and it became clear that this match was going to boil down to fitness vs… BEEF and Drake. The strength factor was pretty even though, with Vance giving as good as he got, while BEEF no-sold his offence until a stalling suplex from Vance put him on his back. Avalon did have a bit of a size disadvantage, especially when up against Drake. But he was slippery and the bigger men had a hard time getting a hold of him.
BEEF and Drake actually managed to get some cohesivness, calling out moves to each other and trading tags in a way that made it seem like they had been teaming for years. That might be an interesting thing to keep in mind for the return of Anthony Henry in a few weeks.
Vance and Avalon looked good too. Avalon’s expressive face was hilarious when getting chopped and Vance brought a ton of skill and strength to the team. A miscommunication found Avalon on the recieving end of a Vance lariat though, so it may be a short lived team up.
Drake grabbed the prone Avalon in the ring and BEEF hit him with a big frog splash to get the win. Drake was a little annoyed as he was setting him up for his own finisher, but in the end he was happier with the win than without.
Johnny TV defeated Deonn Rusman
One thing that Rusman is very good at is being beaten up by big dudes. Brian Cage, Lance Archer and EJ Nduka have all clocked wins against Rusman in the last few months. Now TV isn’t necessarily the biggest guy in the sport, but he wrestles like he is. TV’s last ROH match was a loss to Komander, so TV would be looking to right the ship a bit here and Rusman seemed like a good enough candidate to let him do it!
TV jumped Rusman right off the top, taking him to the ground then doing a really good Ravishing Rick Rude impression. Rusman got mad at that and decided to run face-first into TV’s foot about it. Rusman showed some signs of live right up until TV kicked him in junk. Like, blatantly. But the ref didn’t seem interested.
I have to be honest. TV did his best to make this match look good, but Rusman just couldn’t keep up with him. There was a lot of missed and illogical spots that made it a relief when TV hit three rolling neckbreakers and Starship Pain to put an end to it.
Gates Of Agony (Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona) defeated CSJ & Dave Dutra
Last week, Kaun and Liona had a great match against the Infantry that they ultimately won. This week, they look to continue that momentum against CSJ and Dutra. This would be Dutra’s ROH debut. CSJ aka CantStopJamaal aka Jamaal Starkz had less information available on him, so I presumed this was his ROH Debut as well, for what it was worth.
Kaun was literally laughing as he and Dutra started things off. He and Liona isolated and assaulted Dutra, but Dutra managed to get the tag to CSJ when he was literally thrown across the ring at him. Kaun and Liona beat up CSJ on the out side so brutally you could hear the ringside fans exclaim “oh my God!”
Back in the ring, Liona sat on CSJ while Kuan posed and that’s how they got the win.
-The Tag champs, Sammy Guevara and Dustin Rhodes, addressed the Righteous’ challenge from earlier. They accepted the match and Rhodes told the Righteous to keep his family’s name out of their mouths because he’s from Texas, and they know how to deal with snakes down there: you cut their heads off. Rhodes and Guevara promised to be present for the Righteous’ match later in the show.
Reyna Isis defeated Lady Frost
Frost has had an up and down year, splitting her time between ROH and AEW and amassing a 12-23 record. She had a chance to move up a tier a couple of weeks ago in a Proving Ground Match against ROH Women’s Champion Athena, but ended up short. Isis on the other hand, on a break from about a thousand CMLL matches, beat up Viva Van last week.
Equal in size and strength, this was a pretty good back and forth match between two international stars. Isis spent a lot of time on the top rope, running rolls and splashes. Frost ate a lot of offence but wa able to keep up and return the favor.
Frost thought she had the one-up on Isis with a big rolling cannonball in the corner. That just work Isis up though and she sat Frost down on the second rope to deliver a guillotine leg drop from the top rope for the win.
This was a really fun match, but the extra cherry on top was the commentary team trying to break down Isis’ moves into anatomical scientific terms like two second-year kinesiology students at a lecture.
Pure Rules Match: Matt Taven defeated Aaron Solo
While he’s had some success outside of ROH you have to go back to April to find Solo’s last win on Honorclub. Taven on the other hand took a shot at the ROH World Championship at the beginning of October and he and his Undisputed Kingdom partner Mike Bennett are perpetually in the Tag Title hunt.
This match was a Pure Rules Match, which meant that each competitor would get three rope breaks and one closed fist warning. In the event that it goes to the time limit, a panel of judges would award the win based on points. This would be Taven’s first Pure Rules match so it would be interesting to see if he could adapt.
Solo actually spent the first few minutes of the match in control, with Taven seeming a little hesitant to work within the confines of the Pure Rules. He figured it out though and began leaning on his technical ability to try and put Solo down.
Solo used his first rope break about a minute in and shortly thereafter, Taven appeared to injure his knee. Solo took advantage with big kicks and knees of his own. Taven battled back from it though and locked in a crossface, forcing Solo to use his second rope break at 4:31. Solo used his final rope break thirty seconds later to prevent a pin.
Taven hit a front slam into another crossface and Solo tapped out, giving Taven the win. ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty appeared at the top of the ramp and Taven called for his belt, the only one in ROH that Taven has not held.
-Remember the promos that BEEF and Anthony Henry used to do where BEEF was overly excited and Henry would be upset about it, even though they just got a win? Well, they did one of those but with Drake instead of Henry.
The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) defeated Jay Marsten & Solomon Tupu
The Righteous are one of the most consistently entertaining teams in ROH. They don’t care much for rules and such, but they are fun to watch. Marsten and Tupu were making their ROH debuts, but everyone was watching the top of the ramp for the Tag Champs.
Vincent started off against Marsten, but he and Dutch exchanged tags at record speed for some reason, each one getting a shot or two in before the other swapped out.
Tupu got beat up by Drake and Marsten got pinned by Vincent and that was about it for the match.
Afterwards, Vincent and Dutch started beating up Tupu in the center of the ring. Vincent smashed his leg with a chair with Dutch adding his railroad spike for good measure. As they lined up Marsten for the same, Guevara and Rhodes arroved and ran down to the ring!
Guevara grabbed a chair and the Righteous bolted, leaving the champions standing tall.
Tomohiro Ishii defeated Josh Woods
Josh Woods is a very big Premier Athlete and Ishii is a very big part of The Conglomeration. Together, they are two very big dudes who like hurting people, so this match had all the potential to be a “Knocker of Slobber” if you will. Woods was accompanied to the ring by Mark Sterling and Aria Daivari (3rd Athlete Tony Nese was off celebrating the birth of his twins!).
Ishii refused a Code of Honor and the two leapt into a series of amateur-looking holds and catch-style grapples. Woods had the size on Ishii, but Ishii’s pure strength and toughness more than made up for that. Ishii fed chops to Woods like they were Skittles and Woods responded with big stomps in the corner.
The two men beat the hell out of each other from there. Massive chops, huge slams and lots of screaming. Ishii has the density of a dying sun and so Woods’ attempts to throw him around didn’t go anywhere and made the ring shake when he found a ringpost.
Ishii got Woods up in a stalling brainbuster and dropped him like a sack of cement. That led to a pin and Daivari jumping Ishii in the ring. Ishii’s Conglomerate pal Kyle O’Reilly ran in to even the odds and the Athletes slunk away.
-Rhodes and Guevara cut a promo from the back. They were REALLY mad that the Righteous tried to hurt their opponent and yelled about it. Suddenly Vincent and Dutch appeared and jumped the champions, laying them out and posing with their belts.
Action Andretti & Top Flight (Dante Martin & Darius Martin) defeated Trip Jordy, Dante Leon & Jah-C
Andretti has been acting a little strangely lately. A potential Andretti heel turn was teased during the taping of this week’s Collision, I won’t spoil anything here, so check that out for more information. Leon was last seen in ROH at the end of August in a losing effort against the Gates of Agony. This match would be Jah-C’s ROH debut for 2024 and Jordy had blue tights.
The match itself was fine, all six men have great speed and agility. Top Flight and Andretti had the benefit of being a cohesive team though, so they obviously had the advantage. They were able to tag in and out in what seemed like a fluid rotation, keeping whoever was legal from the other team completely overwhelmed.
Of the three newcomers, Jah-C impressed the most. He had speet and power and seemed like a lot more of a threat to Top Flight and Andretti. He had great sequences with all three.
In the end though, Duante finally put down Dante and Andretti and Top Flight got the win.
ROH Classic Match: Jay Lethal vs Curry Man (29.10.2005, Connecticut, USA)
The only reasoning for showing this match that I could figure out was “Curry Man wears a mask and it’s Halloween.” I love the classic ROH content, but its a lot more exciting in the context of a current story, match or wrestler. Neither Jay Lethal or Curry Man (aka Christopher Daniels) had anything to do with anything. Those two are very good at wrestling, so it was neat to watch. But somewhat pointless in the grand scheme of things.
Billie Starkz defeated Blair Onyx
Billie Starkz has always been a petulant teenager. But now, she’s a petulant teenager with an axe to grind against her former (Sister? Friend?) idol Athena. That didn’t bode well for Onyx, who was making her ROH Debut here.
Starkz had the upper hand in pure talent and size and wasted no time bratting her way into Onyx’ personal space. She seemed to be dialed up a bit more than usual, and was a lot more aggressive. A particularly vicious moment was a front flapjack slam that flattened Onyx’ face.
Onyx missed an elbow drop that led to a two count, infuriating Starkz. She caught Onyx in midair and planted her to the mat for the win.
The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Shawn Dean) w/Lee Moriarty & Shane Taylor defeated Spanish Announce Project (Angelico & Serpentico)
The Infantry and Shane Taylor Productions have always been friends. No better example could be made of this than the footage they showed of them backstage, agreeing to join Shane Taylor Promotions, officially! The SAP were cool with it, as they are with most things. Both of these teams deserved to be in the Tag Team title conversation and a win here would definitely push them into it.
Angelico and Dean started things off, with Dean in particular showing a lot more power than usual. He tagged in Bravo and he too seemed to have a different attitude, harder strikes, and more aggression. SAP were able to counter with their speed and agility, but even they seemed surprised and the Infanty’s new vibe.
Shane Taylor stomped down to the ring and distracted the Ref giving Trish Adora a chance to kick Angelico in the junk on the outside. The Infantry beat up both members of SAP on the ramp before tossing them back in to beat the 20 count.
Back in the ring, The infantry beat up an isolated Serpentico while Angelico was still recovering on the ramp. Dean bounced Serpentico’s face off the second turnbuckle and Bravo hit a high knee, but Serpentico kicked out at two.
Angelico arrived out of nowhere and cleaned house, saving his partner. Moriarty jumped into the ring and hit Angelico with a foreign object, knocking him cold and letting the Infantry pick up the win.
Diamante defeated Aminah Belmont
Diamante’s win-loss record for 2024 sits at 10-11. That includes a loss to Leyla Hirsch (who’s return to ROH is imminent) in a Texas Death Match and a failed attempt at taking the Women’s TV title from Red Velvet. Belmont, making her ROH debut, lost to Nyla Rose in 90 seconds on Collision in August and hasn’t been seen since.
It seemed to be part of her gimmick, but Belmont looked like a child in the ring with Diamante. It was no surprise to see Diamante dominate here. Huge supllexes, double stomps and a twisting DDT made short work of Belmont as Diamante picked up the win.
-Backstage, Lexy Nair congratulated Billie Starkz on her win, but they need to be focused on Athena’s match tonight and show their support. Starkz said that she was taking her “MIT Day Off” for this one and left, leaving Nair terrified of what awaited with Abadon.
The Dark Order (Evil Uno, John Silver and Alex Reynolds) defeated Jakked Jameson & The Iron Savages (Bronson and Boulder)
This unannounced Trios match started off with Silver against Bronson. Silver was dwarfed by the bigger man, so Uno tagged in and along with him came the momentum. Reynolds didn’t fare as well though, with Bronson targeting his injured ribs. Boulder tagged in and continued the pattern.
The match plodded on with the Savages and Jameson doing their schtick and the Dark Order trying to wrestle a match around it. Uno tagged in Silver and they tried a triple team on Bronson but couldn’t do it because of Reynolds injured ribs. Chaos broke out and somewhere in there, Reynolds pinned Bronson.
Komander defeated Ariya Daivari
Komander had a chance to claim the ROH TV title from Brian Cage last week, but failed to continue getting up from being thrown at the ground. So now, he moves on to face Daivari of the Premier Athletes. Daivari was accompanied by Mark Sterling and Josh Woods. Tony Nese was still celebrating his twins, I assume.
With these two in the ring, the match was practically predestined to be great. Both had the speed and athleticism, with Daivari having the strength and conditioning advantage and Komander bringing the high-flying. The two battled in the ring while the commentators reminded everyone to vote on Election day, which you absolutely should do.
Sterling jumped up to cause a distraction and Daivari knocked Komander off the top rope. Working the back, Daivari threw Komander to the outside where Sterling and Woods stomped on him and tossed him back in the ring where Daivari applied a sleeper. Komander fought out though and the match carried on.
Daivari took out Komander with a vicious superkick, but missed the followup splash. Komander went for one of his own, but Sterling made the save and Woods hit Komander from behind. It wasn’t enough though, and Sterling distracted the ref. Komander hit a big running flip from the top rope on all three on the outside.
Komander threw Daivari back into the ring and hit a top rope equalizer to pick up the win.
-The new ROH World Champion Chris Jericho cut a promo endorsing Athena in her match tonight and wishing everyone a Happy Halloween. Thanks guys!!
ROH Women’s World Title Halloween Ring Of Horror Match: Athena (c) defeated Abadon
Halloween is the one day a year when Abadon is able to break from her otherworldly chains and walk amongst the living! Ok, that may not be entirely the case, as Abadon has been stalking Athena for months now, but last week during Athena’s Celebration of her Record-Breaking title run in ROH, Abandon did commit murder by using Athena’s face to murder a costco cake. Hanging over Athena’s head as well was Billie Starkz, a Minion In Training who might be looking to add “former” to that title.
As part of the Halloween Ring of Horror Match, the two were cuffed together with a chain between them. Abadon used that to her advantage, pulling Athena to her to face some hard strikes. Athena fought out and sent her to the outside. Athena tried a chait trick, but Abadon had a Kendo stick. Athena blocked it with a garbage can lid.
Athena grabbed a barbwire bat from a trash can and took a few swings, hitting Abadon in the midsection. Athena destroyed a few Jack o lanterns in order to use the table they were on. As she was setting it up though, Abadon charged her and drove her into the table. It did not break, so she tried again. And again. Finally on the fourth try, Athena’s body broke the table.
Back in the ring, Abadon and Athena traded punches and shots against the ropes. Both of them needed to figure out how to work around the chain that bound them together. Athena produced a ladder from under the ring and Abadon kicked it back into her face. Abadon set up the ladder in the corner and Athena drilled her with a trash can. It was painted orange, so it was definitely a Halloween Trash Can.
Abadon set Athena up on the ladder in the corner and hit a senton onto her from the top rope, earning a “fight forever” chant from the crowd. Abadon hit a double stomp on the ring apron (the hardest part of the ring!) and pulled a chair on Athena along with a bag of thumbtacks! She spread them on the outside of the ring, but Athena used the opening to hit her with a chair.
Athena hit a side slam off the top rope, but it only got a two count. Athena grabbed a Kendo stick, but the Ref could see that something was amiss. The chain had broken free from Athena’s wrist but before he could fix it, she nailed Abadon with the kendo stick. Then the chain was fixed.
Abadon set up Athena on an overturned staircase on the outside with intent to jump on her from a great height. Athena fought back though and powerbombed Abadon onto the staircase! It looked like it was done, but Abadon kicked out at two.
Athena then tied up Abadon with the chain. In ran Lexy Nair who passed Athena a handful of meat skwewers that she promptly drove into Abadon’s head. Three of them were stuck in her scalp as she rose, a terrified Athena backed up trying to escape, but the chain held her firm. Abadon dragged her to the outside and hit a swinging slam on the thumbtacks.
Athena went to the outside and grabbed a bottle, smashing it over Abadon’s head. She then drove her into a trio of steel chairs with a flip from the top rope. That put Abadon down and Athena got the pin, extending her record-breaking reign as ROH Women’s Champion.
Just as a note, this was a good show. But it was three hours long. That’s too long.
