Jonathan Gresham and Baron Black are looking to bring their own flavor to independent wrestling starting in 2022 with TERMINUS: Modern Age Grappling. Now, they're opening up about how it came to be.
Ring of Honor Superstar Jonathan Gresham and Baron Black, who has been seen on AEW programming, are excited to run their very first show as part of TERMINUS: Modern Age Grappling. During the interview, the duo announced AEW star Daniel Garcia as the first talent appearing.
T E R M I N U S
— Jonathan Gresham (@TheJonGresham) November 15, 2021
M O D E R N • A G E • G R A P P L I N G
1. 16. 22 A T L A N T A G A pic.twitter.com/CdVzmRdzXW
With the future of Ring of Honor currently unknown, many fans had questions regarding if this promotion was going to be the next step for Gresham and if it's going to be a full-on promotion that will sign talent to contracts moving forward.
In a new interview with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, both Gresham and Black explain just how long this promotion has been in the works and discuss, albeit very tight-lipped, what may be in store for the future of this promotion.
Fightful: How and when did TERMINUS Get Cooked Up?
Baron Black: This is basically an idea that me and Jon had for years. We came up training together in Atlanta and we always had this idea, we used to tell each other after training or after shows and on the road, 'we're going to run a show. We're going to do it and it's going to be awesome.' We were saying that for years. If you see the line of collaboration years in the making, it is absolutely real. We've been talking about this for a long time and the stars finally aligned for it and now we're finally doing it.
Fightful: As we look at this, is this a one-off, will there be more?
Jonathan Gresham: It's more of, I like to keep things in my pocket and am a private person. It's something that I'm not gonna talk about right now but it's probably something that'll come up a little later. We definitely won't be signing people, that's for sure.
Fightful: A lot of people saw that, and they assumed it was a reaction to the ROH news. This was in the works, according to Baron, long before that.
Jonathan Gresham: My goal, after I finished in-ring wrestler was to be a coach, promoter, anything to help the wrestling industry with things that I have learned with my travels and time in wrestling. We've been cooking this up for a while. The timing is really funny. We don't really know what's going to happen with Ring of Honor. They could come back in April with Super Card and be back to normal, we don't really know. It's definitely not because Ring of Honor is going on hiatus. We were actually supposed to be running this show, this last weekend, the 14th, but New Japan STRONG reached out and had me do their show not the 15th, so it was impossible for me to run this show because they flew me out a day early. Just impossible to do this show, so we moved it to January 16, which, in hindsight, is better.
Fightful: Do you already have people in mind? Have you already reached out to people that you're going to bring to the show? How does that process work?
Baron Black: We have people in mind. Of course, we had to reach out as the event is less than 60 days away. We're not revealing those individuals just yet. My experience in AEW, I've seen the best of the best and my tenure in other places before AEW, I've seen great talent as well. We have reached out and those announcements will be coming up and you'll see who we have on board.
Fightful: We’ve seen Talon from Myron Reed in MLW all the way to Seth Rollins in WWE shout this out. It's got to feel good that so much talent are showing you guys love.
Jonathan Gresham: It definitely does (feel good seeing others show love). My message with the foundation is not just a gimmick. Just because The Foundation exists within Ring of Honor, I feel like it's an ideology and a way of thinking. People that believe in wrestling changing, because it does change every couple of years, every decade or so, it starts to change. The wheel is round. Right now, high spots and high fliers are really popular. To me, I feel like things are coming back around and the technical, pure wrestler is going to be at the forefront of wrestling again. We deserve it. We've been suppressed for so long. The ones that see and believe in that and can appreciate it, are gathering to see what TERMINUS is going to be and want to share it to get more eyes on it. The wrestling community has been tremendous the last couple of days and I appreciate everyone that has retweeted or interacted with the tweet. I appreciate it and can't thank you enough.
Baron Black: It did (feel great). In the planning process of releasing the trailer, I was discussing with Jon the idea around the trailer and he agreed we should do something like that. Even though he didn't admit it to me at the time, I know he was probably as nervous as I was. I was like, 'what if we put this out and nothing really happens.' The trailer we put together was well done and people will be interested simply because of who Jon Gresham is, who I am for the people who know who I am. The response, to me, I was taken aback. I was not expecting that. It exceeded my expectations completely.
You can continue to follow along and watch the development and growth of TERMINUS by checking out the promotion on Twitter, @TERMINUSpro. The first event will take place on Sunday, January 16, 2022, and the event will emanate from Atlanta, Georgia.
