ROH On HonorClub Preview For March 30, 2023

ROH On HonorClub Preview For March 30, 2023

March 30, 2023

With SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 just one day away, Ring of Honor returns to Honor Club for the latest edition of the best pound-for-pound wrestling on the planet! We know that Claudio Castagnoli will defend his ROH World Championship against Eddie Kingston on Saturday, that new ROH World Tag Team Champions will be crowned in the Reach For the Sky Ladder match, that the ROH Pure Championship will be at stake between Wheeler Yuta and NJPW’s Katsuyori Shibata, and that The Embassy will put their ROH World Six Man Titles on the line as well!

We also know Mark Briscoe will attempt to finally achieve his dream of becoming ROH World Television Champion when he faces Samoa Joe in head-to-head combat, but there is still more to be determined in the hours before ROH takes over Los Angeles on March 31st! This Thursday night, when the latest edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB debuts at 7pm ET, the final pieces of the SoH puzzle will be placed!

ROH WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…
“The Fallen Goddess” Athena(c) vs. Emi Sakura

Although she has never competed inside a ROH ring, Emi Sakura has more than earned her ROH Women’s World Title opportunity over a 27-year career filled with championship success. During the course of her career, Sakura has held 16 different championships on 32 occasions, while currently reigning as the DEADLOCK Pro Wrestling Women’s Champion in North Carolina, and as for Emi’s AEW career, since her debut at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2019, Sakura has competed in a total of 96 AEW matches while scoring 51 wins along the way. It’s a number that puts her in the top ten of all women in AEW history, but unfortunately for Emi, none of those 51 are against the reigning ROH Women’s World Champion Athena!

Point of fact, in their lone singles encounter on the 9/12/22 edition of DARK: ELEVATION, it was Athena who scored the victory over Emi, just as her trios team did on the 8/9/22 edition of DARK. In the case of both women though, it could be said that that was a long time ago, and both have evolved into something a little bit different than they were before.

Athena has transformed into one of the most ruthless, most aggressive competitors in either the Men’s or Women’s locker room in All Elite Wrestling, and that has parlayed into 15 consecutive victories in Ring of Honor competition, 5 successful title defenses, and turning away nine different women attempting to earn a title opportunity in Proving Ground matches. Factor in a wildly impressive AEW win streak, and Athena has won 27 straight singles matches dating back to October 11th of 2022, and she’s secured most of them with wanton disregard for the well-being of her opponent, above and beyond just what it takes to win that particular match, but she may have found a match for that in the Emi Sakura that’s risen to the surface since her January 27th RAMPAGE fight with Jamie Hayter.

That AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator bout brought out an aggressive, violent side of Emi Sakura that All Elite Wrestling had not experienced over the last several years. It was a mean streak, the kind that has helped Emi amass the championship history she’s built to date, and one that may prove absolutely necessary if she wants to become the 5th ROH Women’s World Champion, and move on to SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 this Friday night to defend said title! Just days ago, Emi made it clear on DARK: ELEVATION that she’s coming for Athena’s crown:

The one thing for certain about this collision is that both Emi Sakura and Athena are going to beat the tar out of one another as each tries to be the one heading to Los Angeles as ROH Women’s World Champion! Don’t miss out on what is going to be a truly hard-hitting affair!

REACH FOR THE SKY PREVIEW…
The Kingdom(Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) and LFI (Dralistico & Rush) vs. Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin) and The Lucha Bros (Penta El Zero Miedo & Rey Fenix)

Ahead of their collision at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 in the Reach For The Sky Ladder Match to crown new ROH World Tag Team Champions, four of the five teams involved will collide in a huge 8-Man Tag thus Thursday night on Honor Club!

Top Flight has gotten the best of The Kingdom on nearly every instance they’ve collided, save the night Taven bested Darius, so that is one factor playing into this equation, as is the history between LFI and The Lucha Brothers, a history that saw masks torn and blood shed. Suffice it to say that there is a lot wrapped up in this battle, and that’s before Aussie Open is thrown into the mix and the ROH World Tag Team Championship belts are hoisted high above the squared circle!

This is a chance for two teams to garner a small advantage before Friday night, a psychological edge perhaps, before Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis are thrown into the mix, and the ladder introduces utter chaos into the equation!

ONE-ON-ONE…
Eddie Kingston vs. “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels

It has been 13 years since the last time Eddie Kingston and Christopher Daniels collided in a singles bout at CHIKARA’s KING OF TRIOS 2010 event; they’ve been in tags in ICW and House of Hardcore, but even the last of those took place nearly nine years ago.

A lot has changed since then, both men have experienced a multitude of life-altering events, won and lost championships, lost friends and loved ones, seen the highest of highs, and experienced the lowest of lows. It wasn’t all that long ago that Christopher Daniels broke down in tears, unsure of what his wrestling future would be, and it was even more recent that Kingston walked out of All Elite Wrestling, quitting after the dissolution of his relationship with Ortiz pushed him to the breaking point, and showed up in Ring of Honor basically waving his 1099 flag as a free agent able to do whatever he wishes with his wrestling career.

So with that in mind, with Kingston looking at a championship fight with Claudio Castagnoli 24 hours after this bout with a former ROH World Champion, and Christopher Daniels wanting to have the impact on this new era of honor that he did on the original, both these men need to make an impact this Thursday! Claudio will no doubt be watching closely, sizing up this opponent he’s known for many years but hasn’t faced since March 13, 2011, and readying himself for SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023. Can “The Fallen Angel” upset the whole apple cart with a victory over Kingston? What would that do for Daniels’ own aspirations to perhaps become a 2-Time ROH World Champion like “The Swiss Superman”? And what would a loss so close to ROH’s Los Angeles trip do to Eddie’s morale?

ROH Pure Championship Match…
Wheeler Yuta(c) vs. Leon Ruffin

Just 24 hours before facing Katsuyori Shibata at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023, the ROH Pure Champion will put his title on the line against Leon Ruffin, and while it may be Leon’s debut for ROH ON HONOR CLUB, it’s not his first dance for the championship.

Back on the November 14th edition of DARK: ELEVATION, Leon challenged Daniel Garcia for the title, and though he did not claim victory, it did give Ruffin a taste of what competing in ROH’s Pure Division feels like. So it is with that experience that Leon Ruffin hopes to score a major upset and snatch the Pure Championship from Yuta’s wicked grip before he even steps into the ring with Shibata.

Yuta is taking a risk by taking on a title challenge so close to the biggest fight of his career, but with the rate his ego seems to be expanding, it’s likely the defending Pure Champion sees this fight as little more than a cakewalk to keep him warm for the bout with “The Wrestler” coming up at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023. Will that pride be Yuta’s downfall, or will Leon Ruffin become little more than a message directed at Katsuyori Shibata?

IN ADDITION:

– Miyu Yamashita vs. Shazza McKenzie

– The Embassy (Brian Cage, Kaun, & Toa Liona) vs. Arjun Singh, Dak Draper, & JD Griffey

– Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) vs. Varsity Athletes (Ari Daivari & Tony Nese)

– AR Fox & Metalik vs. The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Shawn Dean)

– El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Blake Christian

We are on the cusp of SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 going down in Los Angeles on March 31st! Every ROH championship will be on the line come Friday, but we won’t know who will be defending the ROH Women’s World Championship until after Emi Sakura and Athena get done with one another!

This Thursday night marks the last stop on the road to SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 and it all goes down on latest edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB, premiering at 7pm ET/6pm CT exclusively on Honor Club, the home for ROH ON HONOR CLUB every Thursday night, an archive of classic ROH events dating back to 2002, and even Straight Shootin’ with Christian Cage!

Be sure to visit Ring of Honor for more news and updates

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