"The Most Wanted" Bandido made his return to ROH to confront Chris Jericho at Final Battle. Jericho completed the second defense of his title reign over Matt Cardona during Friday's show, albeit with the help of Bryan Keith and Big Bill, despite Cardona getting a visual win over the champion while the referee was distracted. Jericho rolled over for an easy pinfall after Bill played distraction and Keith struck Cardona with the ROH World title belt, and looked to pour salt on the wounds of defeat with a post-match beatdown.
However, Bandido's music hit and the luchador emerged to run Jericho, Keith, and Bill away, making his return to ROH for the first since being injured last year. Bandido last wrestled on "AEW Rampage" in June last year, making his most recent ROH outing a month earlier, but had been teased as returning with vignettes starting earlier this month and was reportedly in New York ahead of the Hammerstein Ballroom pay-per-view. He is a familiar opponent for Jericho, having been his first title opponent in his initial reign with the ROH World title in 2022. Bandido held the title himself once for 152 days throughout 2021, forced to vacate the title in November. He failed to re-gain the belt in the first ROH event under Tony Khan, with Jonathan Gresham winning a match between the lineal champion at Supercard of Honor 2022.
