Who will answer Lee Moriarty’s open challenge?
Following a hard fought victory over former ROH World Champion Matt Taven on Thursday, Lee Moriarty is looking for a new opponent. The current ROH Pure Champion has issued an open challenge for his belt at Final Battle on December 15th.
Lee Moriarty is on a roll since beating Wheeler Yuta for the Pure Championship at Death Before Dishonor. The AEW star started with the company three years ago, but found his groove once he started wrestling for ROH early this year. Thus far, Moriarty has successfully defended his belt against Preston Vance and Angelico.
Who will step up to face Moriarty for the prestigious belt at Final Battle?
Could it be a former Pure Champion? While it’s doubtful that names like Bryan Danielson, AJ Styles, Jonathan Gresham, or Nigel McGuinness will accept the challenge; Katsuyori Shibata, Samoa Joe, or Wheeler Yuta have nothing booked for that night.
Though Joe is still filming Twisted Metal and Yuta is deep into the Death Riders story that is dominating AEW television right now, so it’s unlikely they'll re-appear. Whatever the case maybe, it should be a great match nevertheless. ROH has given no indication on who could challenge for the title nor has any possible names surfaced online.
Final Battle is shaping up to be a solid card as the ROH World Tag Team title match has been a strongly booked feud thus far and it’ll be interesting to see if Athena finally drops the ROH Women’s World Championship after holding for more than 730 days. Even Matt Cardona vs. Chris Jericho looks fun despite its predictability.
Check out the updated pay-per-view for next Friday’s show that features six championship matches on the card:
- ROH World Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Matt Cardona
- ROH Women’s World Championship: Athena (c) vs. Billie Starkz
- ROH World Tag Team Championship: Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara (c) vs. Vincent & Dutch in a Texas bull rope match
- ROH Women’s World Television Championship: Red Velvet (c) vs. Leyla Hirsch
- Open Challenge for the ROH Pure Championship
- QT Marshall vs. Jay Lethal
- ROH World Television Championship: Brian Cage (c) vs. Willie Mack vs. Mark Davis vs. Komander vs. AR Fox vs. Blake Christian in Survival of the Fittest