By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The following story contains a spoiler from the Ring of Honor television taping for a match that was taped for the weekly ROH on HonorClub series.
Former UFC and WWE star Ronda Rousey made a surprise debut at the Ring of Honor television taping on Friday in Los Angeles, California at the Kia Forum. Rousey teamed with Marina Shafir to defeat ROH Women’s Champion Athena and Billie Starkz.
Powell’s POV: I’m not sold on the call to have Rousey debut on the ROH taping rather than on AEW television. That said, ROH has the Final Battle event coming up on December 15 in Garland, Texas, and the Tony Khan owned promotion clearly needed an attention grabbing boost. Assuming Rousey’s debut match airs on HonorClub next week, Khan will learn exactly what impact her presence has on subscriptions to the streaming service. It’s worth noting that Rousey and Shafir also faced Athena and Starkz on the Wrestling Revolver show that was held in Los Angeles on Thursday (Chris Vetter’s review of that show is available via the main page).
Justified “Holy shit!” chants for @ringofhonor with ROH Women’s World Champion @AthenaPalmer_FG + her minion @BillieStarkz vs @MarinaShafir + her handpicked partner!
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) November 18, 2023
The Cocaine Warrior screws up yet another easy situation. Tony Khan makes Herb Abrams seem like a Mensa member.
Aew gets Edge, and Rousey. Good swap for Jade Cargill lol. And Will Ospreay signing tomorrow at full gear … huge weekend for Aew.
I couldn’t care less she debuted on ROH … the buzz this morning and buzz for this weekend is worth it. And maybe it will help ticket sales. The crowd popped big last night … so it was a win across the board.
Will Ospreay is still under contract to NJPW until February. Unless Tony actually bought out his contract he can’t sign tomorrow.
Njpw are happy for him to explore and talk to other company’s. He has their blessing. He signs with Aew tonight … and continues working Njpw . He won’t be joining worst wrestling entertainment I’m afraid.
He won’t finally work for a professional company that keeps him from killing himself in the ring.
There, fixed it for you.
Edge has never drawn a dime. Rousey hasn’t drawn anything in years. Tiny Will Ospreay will never draw in the US.
The “crowd” that popped last night was a couple of hundred people at most. Everyone had left by that point.
The “buzz” it created was with the same hilariously small core fanbase that slobs Tony’s knob for everything he does as the company continues to lose viewers and live attendance has completely cratered.
Edge never drawn a dime eh? That comment alone shows how clueless you are. He’s drawn plenty as has Rausey in 2 different company’s. Remind me what Jade has drawn please? Cheerio.
AEW fans are very passionate. Therefore they “pop” for anything so that’s not the barometer. The only judge if this has any impact is if ROH adds subs or PPV buys
Either way, ROH is kind of the AEW “D”-show. I like RR and I find this underwhelming