The King of the Indy Scene is back! In Ring of Honor.
In a big surprise, the former WWE star made his return on Thursday by interrupting a segment with the current ROH World Champion.
The segment was rather simple: Matt Cardona came down. Chris Jericho tried to disrespect him by calling the former WWE star, Zack Ryder. Cardona surprised the world champion by confirming their match at Final Battle on December 20th.
Cardona has been off and on AEW for the past year. Fans had a nice blast from the past moment when he accepted an open challenge from Adam Copeland (aka Edge) on the March 20th episode of Collision. The Indy God has been building his name since his release from WWE in 2020. He managed to repackage himself and successfully shed his WWE image.
It’s doubtful that Chris Jericho is dropping the belt this soon into his run, especially since Cardona isn’t a contracted ROH/AEW star, but it should be a fun match nevertheless. AEW is already advertising Cardona for the upcoming Winter is Coming edition for Rampage.
Chris Jericho is coming off two tough title defenses: he successfully retained the ROH World title against Mark Briscoe in a Ladder War match and survived a strikefest against Tomohiro Ishii. Chris Jericho’s body might thank him for taking a standard pro wrestling match this time around.
Then again, these two will be fighting in the Hammerstein Ballroom so it can change anytime soon. Final Battle is shaking up to be a solid show. Given the talent involved, it would be surprising if this was less than great. The Texas Bull Rope Match has the potential to be one of the best tag team matches of 2024.
Below is the current match card ROH’s Final Battle pay-per-view on December 20th:
- ROH World Championship Match: Chris Jericho vs. Matt Cardona
- ROH Women’s TV Championship Match: Red Velvet vs. Leyla Hirsch
- ROH World Tag Team Championship Texas Bull Rope Match: Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara vs. The Righteous