Ring of Honor Review - December 11, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Athena Celebrated Three Years as ROH Women's World Champion

Yes, Athena has indeed been ROH Women's World Champion for three years now. I know it's easy to forget that unless you're an avid Ring of Honor viewer, but it's an impressive feat, nonetheless. Athena played her role well in this segment, but I hate that we're getting more tension teased between her and Billie Starkz. We've been down this road twice before and it's not fresh or interesting in the slightest.

Spanish Announce Project def. LSG and Josh Crane

We've seen what feels like a thousand squashes for Spanish Announce Project, and as I've said many times before, they never seem to lead anywhere, begging the question of why these matches are necessary in the first place. I understand wanting to put them to work, but why not just utilize them to put over other teams and give them a win every so often instead of nearly weekly? This was whatever with nothing worth noting about it.

The Dark Order (John Silver, Alex Reynolds and Evil Uno) def. The Frat House (Cole Karter, Griff Garrison and Preston Vance)

Putting Dark Order up against Frat House feels like they're outright telling me not to care. No offense to these guys as far as what they can do in the ring because their matches aren't bad by any means, but both undercard factions are never going to get beyond a certain level and thus their matches come off as meaningless. This was another example of that, even though the match itself was perfectly passable.

Zayda Steel def. Rachael Ellering

Steel made her official ROH in-ring debut on the Final Battle Zero Hour pre-show, where she lost to Leila Grey. I didn't love that she lost, but it made sense with Grey challenging Mercedes Mone for the AEW TBS Championship on the next night's Collision. It also made sense for her to bounce back here with a win over Ellering. It helped Ellering is an actual member of the roster. The match was what it needed to be and I'm looking forward to watching Steel rise in the ranks.

Jay Lethal def. Nathan Cruz

Despite being an ROH legend, Lethal was noticeably absent from Final Battle last Friday. Then again, I shouldn't be too surprised seeing as how he's been floundering on the brand for the last year or two. This was a very basic bout to give him a victory, which will likely lead him to losing to someone else on the roster. I applaud him for attempting to elevate the newer faces, but it's coming at the expense of his own credibility.

ROH Women's Pure Champion Deonna Purrazzo and Madison Rayne def. Billie Starkz and Diamante

Rayne was a rather random partner for Purrazzo seeing as how she hasn't been on ROH TV in some time (at least to my knowledge). I was worried Rayne might eat the loss here, but thankfully, that was not the case. Purrazzo picking up the win in her first match as Women's Pure champ was the way to go. The action was decent and Starkz submitting progresses whatever story they're telling with her and Athena (again).

Hechicero def. Josh Woods

Woods won't gain much from taking Eddie Kingston to the limit at Final Battle if he doesn't score an important win soon. Obviously, that didn't happen here, but Hechicero is a bigger star, anyway. I don't know whether Woods is supposed to be a babyface or a heel, but to their credit, they had a quality contest here. I'm all for Hechicero remaining a regular in ROH because the dude is awesome.

Adam Priest, "Dynamite Kid" Tommy Billington, Dalton Castle and The Outrunners def. Premier Athletes (Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari) and MxM TV (MxM Collection and Johnny TV)

This was a bunch of ROH's tag teams thrown together. It'd be nice if Priest and Billington used this win to build momentum and chase after the ROH World Tag Team Championship (they failed to capture the vacant tag titles against La Faccion Ingobernable at Final Battle), but time will tell. This was a solid showcase of the tag division, even though I feel like I've seen it before.

ROH Women's World Television Champion Red Velvet def. Lacy Lane in an ROH Women's World Television Championship Proving Ground Match

The Women's World Television title has easily been the most pointless belt in all of ROH and AEW this year, but Velvet's huge win over Mone at Final Battle can get her and the title back on track. This was a wise way to follow up on that. It was revealed recently that Lane has signed with AEW/ROH, so we'll be seeing more of her going forward. This was an average outing, but I appreciated that it wasn't more competitive than it needed to be.

The Death Riders (Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta) def. Aaron Solo and Willie Mack

Death Riders are being featured on ROH TV pretty much weekly at this point, so I have to imagine they're going to eventually enter ROH World Tag Team Championship contention. If not, these matches they're having are a waste of time. The outcome was never in doubt, but Solo and Mack are reliable hands and they gave Garcia and Yuta a fine fight before losing.

Komander and SkyFlight (Scorpio Sky and Top Flight) def. Shane Taylor Promotions (ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Shane Taylor and The Infantry and ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty)

It was announced a few weeks ago that Moriarty will be defending the ROH Pure Championship against Komander on the December 26th edition of ROH TV, so I liked that this served as a preview of that while simultaneously furthering the feud between SkyFlight and Shane Taylor Promotions. This wasn't given a ton of time, but it was an enjoyable main event for what it was.

Overall Show

The eight-man tag team match was probably the best bout on the show, but it took forever to get there. This had to be the longest edition of ROH TV in many months at well over 90 minutes. Needless to say, the excessive runtime was unnecessary and it made this episode a chore to watch. There was some storyline-significant stuff sprinkled throughout, but they really could have cut down on the repetitive, generic squashes.

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