Athena has been the mentor of Billie Starkz for a long time. She’s been Ring Of Honor Women’s champion for an even longer time.

These two met at last year’s ROH Final Battle, and they will headline this year’s pay-per-view in the main event.

Last night, ROH fans watching on Honor Club got to relive the nearly 30-minute battle from last year, which saw Athena score a narrow victory over her “Minion.”

Then, we went right to the ring as Athena and Starkz teamed up to face Missa Kate & Blair Onyx.

At the end of the match, Athena picked up Starkz and used her as weapon against their opponents. The champion then forced Onyx to submit.

An enraged Starkz grabbed Athena’s customized ROH women’s title belt and started to destroy it. Athena put a stop to it and used the belt to subdue her challenger.

Athena is the longest reigning champion in ROH history, as she won the belt from Mercedes Martinez in April 2023. Her title defense against Starkz will headline tonight’s pay-per-view.

MORE TITLE BOUTS

Chris Jericho will defend the ROH World title against Matt Cardona, who has spent the last four years reinventing himself as an independent deathmatch wrestler.

Cardona is a former WWE Intercontinental, tag team, and US champion under the name of Zack Ryder.

Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara will defend the ROH tag team title against The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) in a Texas bullrope match.

Red Velvet will put the ROH women’s TV title up against “Legit” Leyla Hirsch. Lee Moriarty has issued an open challenge for the ROH Pure Rules title.

Brian Cage will defend the ROH TV title in a Survival of the Fittest match against Komander, Blake Christian, Mark Davis, AR Fox and Willie Mack.

Other pay-per-view bouts include Katsuyori Shibata vs. “Dynamite Kid” Tommy Billington (nephew of the original); Jay Lethal vs. QT Marshall; and Mansoor vs. Atlantis Jr.

ZERO HOUR

That sounds like a lot of wrestling, but we have four more matches on the Zero Hour pre-show on YouTube. Here’s the lineup:

• The Infantry vs. The Undisputed Kingdom
• Lee Johnson & EJ Nduka vs. The Gates of Agony
• Harley Cameron vs. Hanako (from Stardom)
• Dark Order vs. The Grizzled Young Veterans