In a night that could be labeled Night of Champions II, Ring of Honor is kicking off its association with Sinclair Broadcast Group in a big way by having all three titles defended on the inaugural television show. The taping is to occur on August 13th in Chicago Ridge, IL. Already announced for the taping, Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) will defend its tag titles against The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) in a match that could very well be the KoW’s swansong bout in Ring of Honor before the duo heads up to Connecticut to compete for World Wrestling Entertainment.
El Generico will defend his television championship against Jay Lethal, who made his return to ROH at last month’s Best in the World 2011 event.
Davey Richards, who won the Ring of Honor World Championship from tag team partner Eddie Edwards at Best in the World 2011, will defend his newly minted title for the very first time in ROH against a competitor he knows all to well: Roderick Strong. Strong and Richards have squared off numerous times in both singles and tag action. Their most recent contest was during WrestleMania 27 weekend at Honor Takes Center Stage – Day 1 where Richards came out the victor.
For months, Richards lived up to his nickname (“The American Wolf”) in his pursuit of winning the ROH World Championship from then champion Roderick Strong. As hard as he tried, Richards could never pry the belt off of Strong. But now that he is champion, Richards will learn first hand if he has the needed strength to hold on to the title and not relinquish it during his first defense.
