Chris Jericho To Defend ROH World Championship Against Ex-WWE Star At Final Battle [Spoiler]

Chris Jericho’s next challenger for the Ring of Honor World Championship is one that fans will be very familiar with.

Following the conclusion of the December 4th episode of Dynamite, the next episode of Ring of Honor TV took place to continue the build to Final Battle, which will take place at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday, December 20th.

As reported by Jim Valley of F4WOnline, who was in attendance for the taping in Fishers, Indiana, Jericho and Bryan Keith appeared for a TV Time segment. Jericho noted that Big Bill was absent as he was “sent to Nepal to study the lessons of The Learning Tree.”

As Jericho continued his segment, Matt Cardona made a surprise appearance to confront the ROH Champion and issue the challenge for Final Battle. Jericho attempted to call Cardona by his WWE name but was cut off:

Chris says, If it isn’t Zack…” and Cardona grabs the mic and says “Zack is dead. The man who’s going to beat you at Final Battle is Matt Cardona”

It was also noted that Cardona knocked off Jericho’s cowboy hat and backed out of the ring to close out the segment. A follow-up also took place on the Rampage taping, which will air on December 7th. Jericho cut a promo on Cardona, prompting the King of the Indies to make another appearance and proclaim that he would be the King of New York at Final Battle. Jericho and Keith attacked Cardona to close out the segment.

The match at Final Battle will be Cardona’s first on AEW TV since Cardona was a surprise opponent for Adam Copeland back in March. Speaking exclusively with Inside The Ropes, Matt Cardona expressed how grateful he was for making the dream match a reality.

Following his exit from WWE in 2020, the former Zack Ryder underwent a complete reinvention, most notably in a Deathmatch against Nick Gage in GCW. In the past 4 years, Cardona has competed all over the world on the independent scene and has become one of the biggest stars not signed to a major promotion.

Has Chris Jericho Wrestled Matt Cardona Before?

Jericho and Cardona have only had one televised singles match with each other, which took place on Raw in 2016. In that match, the former Zack Ryder defeated Jericho in just under 2 minutes.