Why Jonathan Gresham Says ROH Was Fun But Not The Company He Fell In Love With

Jonathan Gresham was the ROH World Champion when Tony Khan acquired Ring of Honor in 2022, carrying the brand into a new era under the AEW President. He departed the company later that year after losing his title and has since signed for IMPACT Wrestling. He reflected on his time with the company while appearing on the "Better than Broadway" podcast. 

"In hindsight, I mean it was a very fun part of my career because I was able to express myself through my matches and use a lot of my creativity that I've just been sitting on," Gresham said. He explained that from the time he started wrestling, his goal had been to get to Ring of Honor. But when he did finally get to join the company he felt the promotion had changed from what had drawn him originally. 

"It wasn't the same company I had fallen in love with, and so my goal was to kind of bring it back to that way," he said, "And something that I thought could help Ring of Honor stand out was pure wrestling because when I look around at different companies, besides the names, the look of the show, the aesthetic of the show was really different, there's different players but ultimately the rules are somewhat the same. There's nothing different, so what differentiates all these different companies?" 

Gresham said that since he signed for the company in 2017, he had a plan to bring the ROH Pure Championship back. The title had been unified with the World Championship held by Bryan Danielson in 2006. In 2020, it was revived and Gresham won the tournament to crown a new champion. With the way his plan unfolded, and having the Pure Championship live on under the current ROH brand, he said that he feels really proud.