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JONATHAN GRESHAM ON THE STATE OF ROH, WHEN HIS DEAL ENDS, BARON BLACK ON AEW, WHAT THEY WANT TO BRING TO TERMINUS DEBUT AND MORE

Last week, PWInsider.com sat down with Jonathan Gresham and Baron Black to discuss a number of topics surrounding the creation of their new professional wrestling promotion TERMINUS: Modern Grappling Arts, which will commence with its debut event on 1/16/22 in Atlanta, GA.  Here are some highlights from the conversation:

JONATHAN GRESHAM ON THE STATE OF RING OF HONOR:

"My thoughts is that it sucks and I'm sad that it had to come to this. The reasons why I do not know, that wasn't discussed with me. But my heart goes out to a lot of the boys that were relying on this, as well as myself, the salaries that we were getting. These monthly paychecks that we were getting, and now just abruptly it's over. Mine ends in December that's the last check that I will get from Sinclair and Ring of Honor. And it's putting me in a different mindset. And the one thing it has done for me, I'm hoping that it did the same with other guys, but it lit a fire up under me.  I'd gotten really comfortable. I had stopped grinding for a little while like I used to while I was traveling all over the world and wrestling pretty much anybody. And I was okay with doing that for some reason because I was getting this amount of money every month. But now that it's gone, I have the fire again. And I feel like I would enjoy wrestling even more now that I don't have this paycheck coming in every month from Ring of Honor. So that's just the way I'm taking it. My heart just goes out to the boys that have mortgages and families and things of that nature. So, that's where my heart is at the moment."

GRESHAM ON POSSIBLY BEING IN THE FINAL ROH CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH AT FINAL BATTLE:

"Yeah, it's crazy to think about it like that. It quite possibly could be the last Ring of Honor show. And I don't know for me, I think everything happens for a reason. I fell in love with Ring of Honor. It got me out of a lot of trouble, kept me out of a lot of trouble when I was younger. That I became obsessed with the company and I was already obsessed with wrestling but then I found my destination. And everything I did travel around the world training with people, different things like that was all because I wanted to get the Ring of Honor. And finally got to Ring of Honor and I started to evolve until I am today. And to see everything that I was blessed enough to accomplish, to be in this position, it's kind of full circle for me. So regardless of win or loss, I've lived my dream to the fullest and I'm just looking towards the next chapter now, after Final Battle."

BARON BLACK ON AEW LOCKER ROOM

"To be bluntly and brutally honest about the locker room atmosphere in AEW, it is the best I've ever experienced in my career to be straightforward. And that's no fluff. Everything is more relaxed everything is more calm. You feel welcome. You're not feeling like you're walking around on eggshells. You not feeling like there's tension in the air. Everybody really just enjoys coming to work and that's one thing a lot of wrestlers can attest to, that you don't feel when and you walk in certain locker rooms in certain places. But here at AEW you don't feel that, you feel welcome. I actually get up in the morning and you excited to go to work. You know what I mean? I'm about to actually hit the road now and go on for their tapings in Virginia in Norfolk, for Dynamite and Rampage and Dark and I'm excited to go. I've loved every moment I've been there. I'm still here and I'm going to continue to be there and do everything in my power to continue to be there. So yeah, the locker room is the best I've ever experienced and it's so relaxed, it's so welcoming. Tony Khan is welcoming. That's probably a guy that I didn't expect to be as friendly as he is, but he's very friendly. He's very hands on. And he genuinely cares about everyone wellbeing. Whether you're an extra talent like me currently, or you are a roster member that's been there since day one. He treats everybody equally."

BARON BLACK ON HANGMAN PAGE'S AEW TITLE WIN:

"I think it's great.  Adam Page is a guy I've actually been on shows with for a while. A lot of people don't know his history. Before Ring of Honor he was in the Carolina area. I've seen him a lot at this place called PWX, that's in North Carolina. And I've seen him actually grow from there to Ring of Honor to the other ventures, all the way to AEW. So, I think it's good I think it also shows AEW's commitment to building new stars along with the already established stars that had already signed with the company when the company began. And you seeing that pay dividends now because, now he's AEW world champion and he's really like one of the pillars of the company now, and now he's the face. And it's a star that they actually got behind from day one of the company and built it all the way up to this point. So that's very encouraging for a newer superstar like myself or even a younger superstar younger than me that a company will invest in their talent and see it through."

WHY ATLANTA AREA FANS SHOULD BE EXCITED FOR THE DEBUT OF TERMINUS: MODERN GRAPPLING ARTS:

Baron Black: "That's real easy. That's real easy. That's real easy for me to tell them why they need to come out. Atlanta used to be a very hotbed for wrestling and Atlanta was definitely a destination point. The goal here is to revitalize this historic wrestling territory known as Atlanta, Georgia, to bring it into a hotbed once again. I'm talking about the days of the Omni, I talking about the days with NWA and The Battle of Atlanta and all that. We're going to bring that excitement back. That's what I want. There's so many fans, wrestling fans in Atlanta, that do not necessarily know that wrestling goes on in Atlanta outside of your big TV companies like AEW and a competitor. So now we're going to make that known to them and everywhere I go and they find out I'm a wrestler or some people recognize me, which has happened, they don't know about the independent shows that go on in Atlanta Metro area. So we're going to change that, we're going to make this place on fire again, period."

Jonathan Gresham: "All I'm going to say is I want the fan of Atlanta to feel like Terminus is not just mine, it's not just Baron's, it also belongs to them. I want them to feel a part of this because they are the life blood of Terminus basically. They're going to help us grow into something hopefully bigger than we could imagine. And I just want them to have that relationship with Terminus that I felt with pro wrestling when I was younger. That same connection that I have with Ring of Honor when I found it. I want them to feel the same way about Terminus. That is the magic I want to help create."

WHAT THEY LOVE ABOUT PRO WRESTLING THEY HOPE TO BRING TO TERMINUS:

Jonathan Gresham: "Beautiful in ring storytelling.  An alternative to everything else that they see on television and every other independent."

Baron Black: "For me, it's nothing like that excitement and anticipation right before you're a watching a show that you've been waiting to watch. There's nothing like when you was a kid and you was so anticipating that next pay-per-view that came on. I want them to have that feeling every time Terminus runs a show."

To buy tickets for the debut of TERMINUS, click here.

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