AEW's Chris Jericho To Defend ROH World Title Against Former WWE Star At Final Battle

By Sam Palmer
Chris Jericho, cosplaying as Brett Michaels AEW/Ricky Mavlik

ROH will be returning to the legendary Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City for their annual Final Battle event on December 20, with the 2024 edition being the first to take place in the iconic venue since 2018, and it seems that Chris Jericho has got himself a challenger for the ROH World Championship on that night. During the December 4 set of tapings for "AEW Rampage" and "ROH on HonorClub," Jericho explained that when he gets to Final Battle, he wants to wrestle someone from New York and beat them on home soil, whether that be Tony Soprano, Frank Sinatra, or Johnny Rodz. This did prompt a New York native to answer the challenge, former WWE star Matt Cardona.

Jericho did attempt to call Cardona by his former name of Zack Ryder, but Cardona interrupted him and said that he was going to beat him for the ROH World Championship at Final Battle, before knocking Jericho's hat off his head. This feud actually started on social media when Jericho began calling himself "The King of New York," something Cardona took offense to as Jericho, despite being born in New York, is well known for being Canadian. With this match officially confirmed, it joins the ROH Women's World Television Championship match between Red Velvet and Leyla Hirsch as the only matches announced for Final Battle with just over two weeks to go before showtime.

Cardona's appearance surprised a lot of people given his connections to GCW, a company AEW President Tony Khan recently pulled Ricky Starks from appearing for due to comments made by GCW staple Effy about Khan and his family. However, Cardona has wrestled for AEW on a number of occasions, with the most recent being a TNT Championship Open Challenge match against Adam Copeland in March 2024.

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