Tony Khan appeared on Ring of Honor Television on Honor Club on Thursday night, November 16, to bring some clarity to the situation surrounding the ROH World Television Title, which was relinquished by Samoa Joe on the November 8 episode of AEW Dynamite.
ROH fans anticipated that information on the fate of the title would come the following night on Honor Club, but the only update that viewers received was that Tony Khan would make an announcement “next week” about the title. Now, we know how ROH will crown a new TV Champion.
Appearing on Honor Club, Tony Khan announced that there was no better place to crown a new champion than at Final Battle, and he dug into ROH’s history to resurrect a match type that dates all the way back to 2004.
ROH will crown a champion by bringing back the Survival of the Fittest at Final Battle, a match type that has seen some of the biggest names in Ring of Honor history since its inception in June of 2004. In the coming weeks on Honor Club, the company will host a series of qualifying matches, in keeping with tradition, to fill the spots in the elimination match.
Though the format has changed through the years (one night, two night, multiple weeks, etc.), the match itself is the same. A six-way elimination match, and to date, each winner received a ROH World Title shot. But at Final Battle 2023, the winner of this Survival of the Fittest will become the new ROH World Television Champion.
The first seven Survival of the Fittest tournaments were one-night affairs, with five or six qualifying matches early in the night, with the titular elimination match in the main event. In 2006, Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe wrestled to a 20-minute draw in their qualifying match, meaning neither advanced to the finals, leaving a five-man main event. In 2015, Roderick Strong advanced to the finals but was unable to compete due to a concussion, leaving–again–a five-man main event.
Eight of the thirteen prior winners of Survival of the Fittest were either former World Champions or would go on to later win the World Title (Bryan Danielson (2004), Roderick Strong (2005), Tyler Black (2009), Eddie Edwards (2010), Michael Elgin (2011/2015), Jay Lethal (2012), Adam Cole (2014), and Bandido (2021)). Seven winners would become ROH World Television Champions (Strong, Edwards, Lethal, Cole, Bobby Fish (2016), Punishment Martinez (2017), Marty Scurll (2018)). To date, Michael Elgin is the only two-time winner of the tournament. In fact, the only winner of Survival of the Fittest to have not held a title of some type in ROH is Delirious, in 2006. Chris Hero (2007) is a former two-time ROH World Tag Team Champion, but never won a singles title in ROH.
At Final Battle, another name will be added to a very prestigious list of all-time winners, and in addition, will become the new ROH World TV Champion.
As ROH announced recently, anyone with an active subscription to Honor Club will be able to watch Final Battle at no extra charge, on Friday, December 15, at 8 p.m. EST.
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