ROH Women's World Championship


The ROH Women's World Championship is a women's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American promotion Ring of Honor. Established on January 1, 2020, the inaugural champion was Rok-C. In addition to being in ROH, the championship is also occasionally defended on All Elite Wrestling's programs, as AEW and ROH are both owned by Tony Khan. The current champion is Athena, who is in her first reign, which is the longest reign in the title's history. She won the title by defeating Mercedes Martinez at Final Battle on December 10, 2022.

History

On January 1, 2020, the ROH Women of Honor World Championship was deactivated when the last champion Kelly Klein was stripped of the championship after ROH didn't renew her contract. A new tournament to crown the inaugural ROH Women's World Champion was set to start on April 24 of that year at Quest for Gold, however, ROH postponed all future events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 26, 2021, at ROH 19th Anniversary Show, ROH Board of Directors member Maria Kanellis-Bennett announced a tournament to crown a new ROH Women's World Champion. On July 11, at Best in the World, the tournament bracket and the championship itself were revealed.
On September 12, 2021 Rok-C defeated Miranda Alize via pinfall at the ROH pay-per-view Death Before Dishonor XVIII, the culmination of a 15-woman singles elimination tournament to become the inaugural ROH Women's World Championship holder.
On October 27, 2021, Ring of Honor announced that it would go on a hiatus after Final Battle in December, with a return tentatively scheduled for April 2022. All personnel would also be released from their contracts as part of plans to "reimagine" the company as a "fan-focused product". After Final Battle, several ROH wrestlers began to appear on other promotions and defended the titles. Rok-C defended the title against Impact Wrestling's Deonna Purrazzo during a television taping. However, Rok-C was defeated and lost the title to Purrazzo.
In early 2022, during the hiatus, then-ROH Women's World Champion Purrazzo was booked for the Multiverse of Matches at WrestleCon, which happened to be when the Supercard of Honor XV event was later scheduled for April 1, 2022. Purrazzo was unable to attend the latter event. At Supercard of Honor XV, Mercedes Martinez defeated Willow Nightingale to become the Interim ROH Women's World Champion and earned the opportunity to face lineal champion Purrazzo in a unification match at a later date. On the May 4, 2022, episode of Dynamite, Martinez defeated Purrazzo to become the undisputed ROH Women's World Champion.
On September 15, 2024 Athena became the longest reigning ROH women's champion & ROH title holder of all time as a woman surpassing Samoa Joe's reign as ROH World Champion at 645 days by holding the ROH Women's World Championship for 646 days.
In January 2025 the title was defended in Japan at World Wonder Ring Stardom by Athena who retained the title while there.
On February 17, 2025, Athena hit a new landmark as Ring of Honor Women's World Champion, passing the 800-day mark as champion.
On May 29, 2025, Athena hit another milestone as ROH Women's World Champion by hitting 900 days as champion.
On September 5, 2025 Athena hit a fourth Milestone as ROH Women's World Champion by hitting 1000-days as champion.

Inaugural championship tournament (2021)

Tournament bracket


Belt designs

The first ROH Women's World title design is similar to the 2017 to 2022 design of the ROH World Championship separating itself from the men's version of the design with the word women's above in the middle center plate and also with the title being smaller than the 2017 to 2022 design of the ROH World Championship belt design due to it being a women's title.
On March 31, 2023, a new design of the belt was revealed at Supercard of Honor, thus making it the second design of the championship belt. The design of the belt kept the original design of the previous design but now featuring silver plates and the updated Ring of Honor logo on the main plate and side plates. On the October 24, 2024, episode of ROH Wrestling, Athena was gifted a modified spinner version of the championship belt to celebrate her record setting title reign. During December 20, 2024, Athena also returned the 2023 version of the belt design carrying both at the same time, even down to the ring.

Reigns

As of,, there have been four reigns between four champions. Rok-C was the inaugural champion. Athena's reign is the longest at + days, while Deonna Purrazzo has the shortest reign at 115 days. Mercedes Martinez is the oldest champion at 41 years old, while Rok-C is the youngest champion at 19 years old.
Athena is the current champion in her first reign. She won the title by defeating Martinez at Final Battle on December 10, 2022, in Arlington, Texas.