ROH World Champion Bandido tests positive for COVID and will miss Final Battle

Ring of Honor announced that Bandido has tested positive for COVID-19. He is the current ROH World Champion and was set to defend the gold this Saturday (Dec. 11) at Final Battle against Jonathan Gresham. That match is now canceled.

Here is ROH’s official announcement of the bad news:

“Unfortunately, ROH World Champion Bandido returned a positive result on his most recent Covid Testing and will not be present at Final Battle this Saturday, December 11th in Baltimore.

Thank you for continuously supporting Ring of Honor through it all and we appreciate your understanding that safety and health of our talents, staff and fans are our top priorities.

Stay tuned for match updates regarding Final Battle 2021 as we commemorate the history-making era that is coming to an end.”

Ring of Honor is going on hiatus following Final Battle, and every wrestler under contract is being released. They were certainly not expecting to lose their world championship main event match just two days before their last major event on the calendar. They will have to figure out a replacement match with little time to spare.

Bandido wrestled last weekend (Dec. 4) at Triplemania Regia in a five way match against Bobby Fish, Jay Lethal, El Hijo del Vikingo, and Samuray del Sol. He had a grueling and painful experience with COVID illness last year. We wish the best for him as he recovers from the virus again.