The ROH Women's World Championship is a

women's professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport. As is the norm for this sport, women's professional wrestling is organized by wrestling federations called Professional wrestling promotion, promotions. Some prom ...

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

created and promoted by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within ...

Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011; the promotion was subs ...

(ROH). The current champion is

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

, who is in her first reign, which is the longest reign in the title's history.

History

On January 1, 2020, the ROH

Women of Honor World Championship The Women of Honor World Championship was a women's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion Ring of Honor (ROH). History At Final Battle, December 15, 2017, it was announced tha ...

was deactivated when the last champion

Kelly Klein Kelly Klein (born January 28, 1986) is an American former professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in Ring of Honor (ROH), where she was a record three-time and the final Women of Honor World Champion. Professional wrestling car ...

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 The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. (The title replaced the ROH Women of Honor World Title in the ROH

Women of Honor Women of Honor is a term used by Ring of Honor (ROH) to refer to its women's division and to the promotion's female talent. The term is applied universally to wrestlers, backstage interviewers, and managers/valets. History of women in Ring of ...

division.) On March 26, 2021, at ROH 19th Anniversary Show, ROH Board of Directors member

Maria Kanellis-Bennett Mary Louis Kanellis-Bennett (born February 25, 1982) is an American professional wrestler, manager, promoter, singer and model. She is best known for her tenures in WWE, TNA, All Elite Wrestling, and Ring of Honor. Outside of wrestling, she is ...

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 Death Before Dishonor XVIII was a professional wrestling pay-per-view produced by Ring of Honor (ROH). It was the eighteenth event in the Death Before Dishonor chronology. It took place on September 12, 2021. The show was originally supposed to ...

, 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 Final Battle is a professional wrestling event, held annually by the Ring of Honor promotion. The event was initially held in 2002. It is held in December, and is the promotion's last show of the calendar year. The 2009 edition of the show was ...

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 Deonna Lynn Purrazzo (born June 10, 1994) is an American professional wrestler. She is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Purrazzo began training in December 2012, and then started wrestling in various independent promotions the following y ...

during a television taping. However, Rok-C was defeated and lost the title to Purrazzo. (Deonna Purrazzo also wrestled in the ROH Women of Honor division throughout years 2015 to 2018 familiar with it.) In early 2022, during the hiatus, then-ROH Women's World Champion Purrazzo was booked for the

Multiverse of Matches Multiverse of Matches was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) List of Impact Wrestling pay-per-view events, event produced by Impact Wrestling as a part of WrestleCon. It took place on April 1, 2022, at the Fairmont Dallas Hotel in Dallas, ...

at WrestleCon, which happened to be when the

Supercard of Honor XV Supercard of Honor XV was a professional wrestling pay-per-view produced by American promotion Ring of Honor (ROH). It took place on April 1, 2022, at the Curtis Culwell Center in the Dallas suburb of Garland, Texas. It was the fifteenth event in ...

event was later scheduled for April 1, 2022. Purrazzo was unable to attend the latter event. At

Mercedes Martinez Jazmin Benitez (born November 17, 1980) is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Mercedes Martinez. She also appears for AEW's sister promotion, Ring of Honor (ROH), where she is a former ROH W ...

defeated

Willow Nightingale Danielle Paultre (born January 25, 1994), better known by the ring name Willow Nightingale, is an American professional wrestler. She is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where she is a current member of The Conglomeration and a former AEW T ...

to become the Interim ROH Women's World Champion and earned the opportunity to face lineal champion Purrazzo in a

unification match Championship unification is the act of combining two or more separate professional wrestling championships into a single title. History In professional wrestling, championships may be unified to consolidate the number of championships in a give ...

at a later date. On the May 4, 2022 episode of ''

Dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...

'', Martinez defeated Purrazzo to become the undisputed ROH Women's World Champion. (Prior Mercedes Martinez was also familiar with the ROH Women's division having her first run wrestling in the division throughout years 2006 to 2007 making her a

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces. A topic o ...

.) On September 15, 2024

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 The ROH World Championship is a professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by Ring of Honor (ROH). It is considered the most prestigious title in the promotion. The current champion is Bandido, who is in his second reign. In ...

at 645 days by holding the ROH Women's World Championship for 646 days. (Prior to her reign Athena also wrestled in the Women of Honor division throughout years 2013 to 2015.) In January 2025 the title was defended in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

World Wonder Ring Stardom , is a Japanese ''joshi puroresu'' or women's professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan. Stardom was founded in September 2010 by former All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) co-producer Ross ...

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.

Inaugural championship tournament (2021)

Tournament bracket

Belt designs

The first ROH Women's World title

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

(2020–2023) is similar to the 2017 to 2022 design of the

ROH World Championship The ROH World Championship is a professional wrestling Championship (professional wrestling)#World championships, world championship created and promoted by Ring of Honor (ROH). It is considered the most prestigious title in the promotion. The cu ...

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 (The original design of the ROH Women's World title is

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

with

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

ROH

Logos ''Logos'' (, ; ) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric, as well as religion (notably Logos (Christianity), Christianity); among its connotations is that of a rationality, rational form of discourse that relies on inducti ...

indented in the center and indented on side plates). On March 31, 2023, a new design of the belt was revealed at

Supercard of Honor Supercard of Honor was the first Supercard of Honor professional wrestling event produced by Ring of Honor (ROH), which took place on March 31, 2006 at Frontier Fieldhouse in Chicago Ridge, Illinois. As with other Supercard of Honor events, it to ...

, 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 ''Ring of Honor Wrestling'' (also known as ''ROH Honor Club TV'', and often shortened as ''ROH Wrestling TV'', ''ROH TV'', ''ROH TV on HonorClub'', or ''ROH on HonorClub'') is an American professional wrestling television series produced by Rin ...

'',

was gifted a modified

spinner Spinner may refer to: Technology * Spinner (aeronautics), the aerodynamic cone at the hub of an aircraft propeller * Spinner (cell culture), laboratory equipment for cultivating plant or mammalian cells * Spinner (computing), a graphical widget in ...

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.

's reign is the longest at + days, while

has the shortest reign at 115 days. 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

on December 10, 2022, in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal c ...

Names

References

External links

ROH Women's World Championship
at Cagematch.net {{ROH Women's World Championship Ring of Honor championships Women's professional wrestling championships World professional wrestling championships