This article is about a retired women's professional wrestling championship used in Ring of Honor from years 2017 to 2020. For ROH's main current women's championship, see ROH Women's World Championship.
At Final Battle, December 15, 2017, it was announced that a tournament to crown the first Women of Honor Championship holder would start on January 20, 2018.[1][2] The tournament featured female ROH regulars, called the ROH Women of Honor and female wrestlers from then ROH partnered all Japanese female wrestling promotion from JapanWorld Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) as well.[3]
Also during year 2019 of this title's existence, the Women of Honor World Championship was defended in Japan at a Stardom event by Mayu Iwatani after she defeated Kelly Klein for the title at ROH pay-per-viewBound By Honor[6][7] (during Klein's first reign and became champion for the first time in her career) in addition to ROH shows, pay-per-views, and events. On February 24, 2019 the Japanese stardom pay-per-view event took place and Mayu Iwatani was successful at retaining the title in her first title defense. Also on that night the match was the main event.[8][9][10][11]
Kelly Klein became the first and only 2 & 3-time ROH Women of Honor Champion.[12][13] During Kelly Klein's third reign, ROH producer Joey Mercury left the promotion. In a series of tweets, Mercury said ROH doesn't have a concussion protocol and Klein had to wrestle while injured. Klein agreed with Mercury and ROH let her go after her contract expired on December 31, 2019. Two months later, the creation of a new title was announced, the ROH Women's World Championship after the ROH Women of Honor World title was deactivated on January 1, 2020.[14]
Inaugural and longest reigning champion, Sumie Sakai
The belt design has blackleather with a pink & purple back design of the leather. It has a pink & purple outlined crown at the top of the center plate with the logo WOH in the middle of the center plate. Also under the WOH sign of the original design of the title it has the word Women of Honor and under that it has the word champion both with pink & purple squared backgrounds behind the gold wordings closing the wordings in short squares also with gold center & side plates with pink & purple outlined roses & flowersindented in the title for a very feminine approach, with two sections of the world on its side plates (2-side plates, 1-center plate).[15][1]
Reigns
Over the championship's one-year history, there have been six reign between four champions. Sumie Sakai was the inaugural champion, while Kelly Klein was the last. Klein held the record for most reigns at three. Sakai's reign is the longest at 251 days, while Angelina Love's reign is the shortest at 15 days. Sakai is the oldest champion at 46 years old, while Mayu Iwatani is the youngest at 25 years old.
Defeated Kelly Klein in the finals of an 16-woman single-elimination tournament become the inaugural champion. During her reign, the title was also renamed to the Women of Honor World Championship.
