ROH 2024: Reach for the Sky

The opening contest will feature a match between two former ROH World Champions that are looking to pick up some momentum heading into the new year after some meaningful losses. After successive missed chances, Castle failed to get a final world title match when he was defeated in the Survival of the Fittest match. Meanwhile, Bandido spent much of this year focused on the tag team division alongside partner Rey Horus, but they were unable to clinch a shot at The Briscoes. Both men look to gain some traction again, and this match is their first step in doing so.

Miranda, Diamante, Kiera, Tasha and Savannah built a reputation for themselves over this year as pretty much the mean girls of ROH. But when Miranda Alize lost her team a tag match at Glory by Honor her team mates proceeded to turn on her. The Lucha Baddie would return a few weeks later, saving former rival Willow Nightingale from a 4-on-1 beatdown. Now calling herself the Lucha Goodie, she’s after payback from her former friends and has Willow and the Death Party tag team on her corner to do so.

A frequent tradition in ROH, it’s time for the Honor Rumble! And it’s got big stakes involved with the winner of this match getting a shot for a title of their choosing at Supercard of Honor. There are 20 names confirmed so far, so who knows who the other 5 could be!
Confirmed participants: Adam Brooks, Adrian Soriano, Akira Tozawa, Brian Johnson, Cheeseburger, Dak Draper, Danhausen, Eli Isom, Flamita, Flip Gordon, Gabriel Hodder, Josh Woods, Kenny King, Lio Rush, Matt Cross, Matthew Omen, Rayo, Rey Horus, Silas Young and Slex

Suruga and Adora have fought eachother several times since the Japanese star arrived at ROH in 2022, and are set to renew their rivalry here. It’s been going on for a long time, with their first match happening at last year’s Death Before Dishonor with Mei picking up the win. At last year’s Final Battle, it would be Trish that came away victorious, winning her First Women’s Championship in a 3-way. However, she would get injured in that match, and Mei would win the vacant title the next month. Trish would win the title back following her return and has since outclassed Mei in a great series of matches during the summer, with their last match being at Best in the World, where Trish Adora climbed a ladder to retain the Women’s Championship. But Trish’s fortunes have dipped since then, losing her championship and failing to beat Rok-C for the #1 contender spot. While his happened, Mei Suruga was waiting in the sidelines, and provoked Trish to get this match. It’s a big fight feel, with the winner surely getting one step closer to winning back the women’s championship, that they both feel belongs around their waists.

This match is a rematch from last year’s Final Battle, where Gulak beat Henrdy to win the Pure Championship in what many people felt was the best match of the night. Since then, both men have walked very distinct paths, with Gulak having had a year full of big wins, great matches and cementing himself as possibly the best Pure Champion ever. He also became the only 2-time champion in the title’s history, after trading wins with Dragon Lee in what was one of the best trilogies in recent memory. Meanwhile Hendry has had a rough year, with unsuccessful pursuits of the TV title and a long rivalry with Josh Woods, and culminating in a failed attempt at the Survival of the Fittest match. He challenged Gulak for this match, saying that to turn his fortunes around he’d need to beat the man that took it all away a year ago.

Jonathan Gresham was the top dog in ROH for all of last year, holding the World Championship for over a year until his loss to Tony Deppen at Supercard of Honor. He was then targeted by rival Rush and the rest of LFI, which drew out his Foundation teammates Williams and Titus, who backed Gresham up throughout the summer. Eventually the trio would challenge long standing 6-man champions Shane Taylor Promotions and win the titles from them. But the former champions would obviously not take this lightly, and these two teams would fight at every turn, with Gresham and Taylor even getting in eachother’s way when it came to the world championship picture. The boiling hatred between the two factions meant that the only way this could be resolved is a fight without honor, with bragging rights and a championship on the line.

Haskins has held the TV title for a year, fending off all challengers since winning the title from Dalton Castle at last year’s Final Battle. But despite his hot streak, he still got pinned by Rush in a trios match on ROH TV, which led to the former 2 time World Champion challenging him. Rush claims that the only reason Haskins has got this far is because El Toro Blanco let him, and he says he will pin Haskins one more time and finally hold gold in ROH for the first time in over 2 years.

When the former World of STARDOM Champion debuted in ROH back in June she had to know that she had a target on her back, so it wasn’t a surprise when Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans immediately set their sights on the big signing. Rok-C would come to her aid, and they would defeat their foes in a tag match at State of the Art. But the shock came when Utami attacked her partner right after their match. She didn’t come to ROH to make friends, she came here to be the apex of this women’s division, and she was gonna start by taking out the current face of it. So, a match was set for Best in the World where Utami would beat Rok-C, and the same thing happened in a rematch the next month at Honor for All. Utami then proceeded to call out the reigning Women’s Champion Trish Adora, and captured the title at Death Before Dishonor. She has held it ever since, and has yet to be beaten since she arrived in ROH. But now Rok-C is in her way again, after defeating Trish Adora in a #1 contender’s match at Survival of the Fittest, and looks to win the championship that she made famous for the 4th time. Will the challenger succeed, or is there really no one on Utami’s level?

If there were any doubts whatsoever that The Briscoes were one of the all-time great tag teams in the history of pro wrestling they were disproven this year, with the brothers having held the tag team titles since Final Battle last year and defended it against all comers. However, another pair that is widely regarded as one of the best tag teams in the world made their way to ROH this summer. FTR, the team of Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, have been one of the premier tag teams on the planet for almost a decade and once they arrived in ROH the cards seemed set for a collision with the Briscoes. However, it would be another team that would get to FTR first. The MexiSquad, the team made up of Bandido and Rey Horus, saw themselves as worthy contenders for the ROH World Tag Team titles and told FTR that they’d need to go through them to get am opportunity. The Briscoes would then propose a Best of 7 Series, with the winners becoming the #1 contenders. After multiple grueling battles, FTR would defeat MexiSquad inside a steel cage at Survival of the Fittest to win the Series at 4-3. The dream match finally became official, and at Final Battle we will truly see who the better tag team is.

Many people pointed out Tony Deppen as the breakout star of 2022. During that year he put on many great matches and then won Survival of the Fittest that year. Despite failure at Final Battle last year, where Gresham retained over him and Rush, Deppen would eventually beat El Toro Blanco to get a second shot at Supercard of Honor, where he finally completed his rise and beat Jonathan Gresham to end the historic reign of the Octopus. He’s had the title ever since, establishing himself as a fighting champion and keeping it over some stiff competition. But a lot of parallels can be drawn up between Deppen last year and Dragon Lee this year. The former 2-time Television Champion spent all of 2023 having amazing match after amazing match, going on an incredible hot streak and consistently being a highlight of every bog show that Ring of Honor put out. This standard of performance would pay off big time when he won Survival of the Fittest, much like Deppen did last year. But Dragon Lee says that the similarities end there, he’s on a higher level than Deppen, and he’s going to outclass him at Final Battle. It’s time for the two biggest rising stars of ROH to face off, and only one of them will leave the biggest show of the year holding the World Championship.

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Ok so for this diary I will basically post these previews for every monthly show, saying how we got there while skipping the weekly TV shows. This will probably be the longest preview since I gotta explain so much of what's happened before.

Predictions:

Dalton Castle vs Bandido
Miranda Alize, Willow Nightingale, Holidead and Session Moth Martina vs Diamante, Kiera Hogan, Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans
Honor Rumble Winner:
Mei Suruga vs Trish Adora
Drew Gulak (c) vs Joe Hendry (Pure Championship)
The Foundation (c) vs Shane Taylor Promotions (Trios Championship)
Mark Haskins (c) vs Rush (TV Championship)
Utami Hayashishita (c) vs Rok-C (Women's Championship)
The Briscoes (c) vs FTR (Tag Team Championship)
Tony Deppen (c) vs Dragon Lee (World Championship)

Bonus Questions:
Who are the 5 unannounced entrants in the Rumble?
What match will get the highest rating?

No, she starts with ROH, even though when this mod was made I believe she had already been signed with WWE and dropped the title to Deonna. The title actually started vacant on this save since Deonna was on the Impact roster and wrestlers can't ork for 2 companies at once.

Dalton Castle vs Bandido
Miranda Alize, Willow Nightingale, Holidead and Session Moth Martina vs Diamante, Kiera Hogan, Tasha Steelz and Savannah Evans
Honor Rumble Winner: Kenny King
Mei Suruga vs Trish Adora
Drew Gulak (c) vs Joe Hendry (Pure Championship)
The Foundation (c) vs Shane Taylor Promotions (Trios Championship)
Mark Haskins (c) vs Rush (TV Championship)
Utami Hayashishita (c) vs Rok-C (Women's Championship)
The Briscoes (c) vs FTR (Tag Team Championship)
Tony Deppen (c) vs Dragon Lee (World Championship)