Bryan Danielson Wants To Fight THIS Ring Of Honor Star

"I think that’s a match that a lot of wrestling fans would want to see."

Bryan Danielson Jonathan Gresham
AEW/ROH

Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Bryan Danielson has talked up how he'd love to wrestling current ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham.

As soon as Danielson departed WWE earlier this year, one match many wrestling fans immediately hoped to see at some point was the American Dragon going up against Gresham. And if Danielson gets his way, this will indeed be a match we get to see somewhere down the line.

One of the best grapplers in the game, Gresham won the ROH World Title at this month's Final Battle PPV, where he defeated Jay Lethal. Originally, it was meant to be Gresham against Bandido, although Bandido had to miss the show due to a positive COVID-19 test - which led to ROH legend Lethal returning to the company for one night.

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On how he would've loved to have been the one to replace Bandido in this contest, Danielson explained:

"It's interesting. I'm not on my phone, ever. It's hard to get me to pick up my phone at any given point of the day. So I didn't realise until Saturday morning [the day of ROH Final Battle] that Bandido couldn't do the show. I was like, 'That would have been perfect for me to come in and do that'. It would have been a lot of fun. I'm not sure that would have been okay with the state me knee was in on Friday, but I think that's a match that a lot of wrestling fans would want to see."

On wanting that Gresham match in the future, the AEW star - himself a former ROH World Champion and ROH Pure Champion - added:

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"He's one of the guys I want to wrestle. They say it's the champions who make the championship, right? I think Jonathan Gresham is a great, great wrestler who would really make the championship. But without the platform, or if you don't have the vehicle to show off how talented Jonathan Gresham is, it makes it very difficult. The title is in good hands with Jonathan Gresham, but the hard part is what happens with Ring of Honor. We're all waiting to see what they end up doing."

As alluded to there, Final Battle was Ring of Honor's final PPV for the company as we know it. Following the financial strains of the global pandemic, October saw ROH announce that it would be shutting its doors for the first quarter of 2021, with all contracted talents able to seek work elsewhere.

Since then, ROH Pure Champion Josh Woods has competed on AEW Dark, ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers are on a collision course with FTR, ROH Women's Champion Rok-C has taken part in a WWE tryout, and two-time ROH World Champion Jay Lethal has of course signed with AEW.

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For Gresham, he has set up his own Terminus promotion with Baron Black. Just yesterday it was announced that the Octopus will defend his version of the ROH World Title against IMPACT Wrestling's Josh Alexander at Terminus' first show on 16 January - with Bandido likewise defending his version of the ROH Title against Baron Black at that show.

Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.