Storylines
The event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. [6] Storylines were produced on ROH's weekly series ROH Honor Club TV exclusively on their streaming service Honor Club, on television programs of sister promotion All Elite Wrestling including Dynamite and Collision , and via promotional videos on both the ROH and AEW YouTube channels.
One of the main features of Final Battle would be the finals of the ROH Women's Pure Championship tournament. [7] First introduced following the April 12 episode of AEW Collision , [8] the title tournament was originally meant to culminate at Supercard of Honor, but had to be postponed due to injuries, according to Tony Khan. [9] [10] The tournament bracket was officially revealed on August 29, hours before Death Before Dishonor, and would officially begin that night before continuing across several episodes of ROH Honor Club TV. [11] On the December 4 episode, Billie Starkz would defeat Yuka Sakazaki to advance to the tournament final. [12] Meanwhile, during the media call for Final Battle, Tony Khan announced that Queen Aminata, who had previously suffered a neck injury, would be medically unfit to continue in the tournament. As such, her scheduled opponent, Deonna Purrazzo, earned a bye to the final, meaning she would face Starkz at Final Battle to determine the inaugural champion. [13] [14]
When Tony Khan introduced the AEW National Championship, he declared that it would be defended across multiple promotions, including ROH. [15] Thus, on November 6, it was announced that the title would have its first defense at Final Battle, which would be the first time an AEW championship would be contested for on ROH programming. [7] The inaugural National Champion was determined at Full Gear in a Casino Gauntlet match, where Ricochet pinned Kevin Knight to win the title. [16] On the subsequent episode of AEW Collision, after Dalton Castle and The Outrunners (Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd) had a match, Ricochet and the Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona) came out and attacked the three, with Ricochet claiming more time should've been allocated for his title celebration. [17] Afterwards, it was announced that Ricochet would officially defend the National Championship at Final Battle. [18] His challenger was determined to be Castle on the December 2 special episode of ROH Honor Club TV. [19]
On the November 27 AEW Collision, Tony Khan announced that Rush was originally scheduled to challenge Bandido for the ROH World Championship, a rematch from when Bandido first won the title by defeating Rush at 2021's Best in the World. [20] However, it was determined that Rush would be out of action with a knee injury, meaning he would be unable to compete at Final Battle. [21] As a result, Bandido would instead defend the title in a Survival of the Fittest match against Blake Christian, Hechicero, Komander, and Rush's La Facción Ingobernable (LFI) stablemates Sammy Guevara and The Beast Mortos. [22] [23] Rush and Guevara also held the ROH World Tag Team Championship, but due to Rush's injury, the titles were vacated. Thus, Guevara and Mortos, representing LFI, would also face the team of Adam Priest and Tommy Billington for the titles at Final Battle. [18]
At the previous year's Final Battle, Nigel McGuinness answered an open challenge for Lee Moriarty's ROH Pure Championship, but was unable to win the title. [24] Eight months later on AEW Collision, McGuinness and Moriarty were involved in a four-way match for which the winner earned an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match at Forbidden Door. McGuinness would win that match by submitting Moriarty. [25] On the November 28 "Black Friday" edition of ROH Honor Club TV, McGuinness spoke backstage about wanting to settle the score with Moriarty, and thus, challenged him to a non-title 30-minute Iron Man match at Final Battle. [26]
Lineal ROH Women's World Television Champion Red Velvet was scheduled to defend the title at Supercard of Honor, but due to mounting injuries, was unable to compete. An interim champion would be determined that night, with Mina Shirakawa winning a four-way match to win the title. [27] However, at WrestleDream, Shirakawa lost the interim title to AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Moné in a Winner Takes All match. [28] Moné would soon become the undisputed champion after she defeated the lineal champion Velvet in a unification match on the November 19 combined broadcast of AEW Dynamite and Collision. [29] On November 27, Velvet called out Moné for not appearing on ROH Honor Club TV since winning the title, and enacted her rematch clause for Final Battle, which was made official. [30] [31]
