By Kevin Eck
Former ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham will make a major announcement on ROH’s YouTube channel on Monday at 9 a.m. Eastern.
Gresham, whose one-year reign as champion was ended by Josh Woods at Death Before Dishonor a few weeks ago, hasn’t indicated what the announcement will be about.
There’s backstage speculation that Gresham is going to announce when and where his rematch for the Pure Title will take place and that there will be a special stipulation for the bout. Another rumor is that a new member or members are joining The Foundation.
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ROH Women’s World Champion Rok-C has wasted no time making good on her promise to be a fighting champion. She’s also making it clear that her potential challengers aren’t limited to the ROH roster and her title defenses don’t necessarily have to take place on ROH events.
Rok-C made her first successful title defense by defeating international star Killer Kelly in Houston on a New Texas Pro Wrestling show last weekend.
The 19-year-old “Prodigy’s” next title defense will be against Laynie Luck at a Warrior Wresting event in Chicago on Oct. 16.
Luck was an alternate for the ROH Women’s World Title Tournament and is coming off a victory over Brandi Lauren on last week’s Women’s Division Wednesday.
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Speaking of Women’s Division Wednesday, “The Hot Mess” Chelsea Green will face the returning Ashley Vox on next week’s episode, which premieres at 7 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.
In case you missed it, it was announced on this week’s episode that Trish Adora has signed with ROH. She joins Rok-C, Miranda Alize and Max The Impaler as women’s division competitors who have signed new contracts with the company in recent weeks.
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Joe Hendry was my guest on the latest episode of The ROHStrong Podcast, which drops this Monday morning on ROHWrestling.com and most podcast platforms.
“The Answer” goes in-depth on his new persona and the motivation for reinventing himself; transforming his body and training with six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates; returning to the ring for the first time in nearly a year and a half earlier this month; the status of his partnership with Dalton Castle, and much more. Plus, the Scotland native tests his knowledge of American pop culture!
I’ll have another international star — one we haven’t seen in ROH in some time — as my guest on the following week’s podcast.
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PJ Black, who asked that I refer to him as Dr. Black, told me he has been working with Flip Gordon in an effort to study, treat and rehabilitate him.
As a result of being on the receiving end of a Jay Driller on a chair from Mark Briscoe at Glory By Honor last month, Gordon has been suffering from retrograde amnesia and thinks it’s 2018.
A video of one of Black’s sessions with Gordon will air on the next episode of ROH Week By Week, which premieres on Tuesday at 1 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.
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Also on the next ROH Week By Week, promising competitors Ativalu and Matt Makowski will face each other in their ROH debuts.
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There will be two big tag team matches on Ring of Honor Wrestling the weekend of Oct. 9, as The OGK (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) face ROH World Champion Bandido and Rey Horus, and Soldiers of Savagery (Moses and Kaun) take on Castle and Dak Draper.
On this weekend’s episode, Violence Unlimited (Brody King, Tony Deppen, Chris Dickinson and Homicide) have issued a challenge to “any four wrestlers who want to get violent” to face them in an eight-man tag match, and the Briscoes will wrestle Alex Zayne and Taylor Rust.
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Beer City Bruiser has been calling me out on Twitter for not writing that he was”illegally eliminated” from the Honor Rumble at Death Before Dishonor. Bruiser was tossed out by Caprice Coleman, who Bruiser has referred to as “an unlicensed commentator.”
I checked with a member of the ROH Board of Directors and they said Coleman was in fact a late addition to the match. So, no, Coleman wasn’t going into business for himself when he left the announce table to enter the match.
On a personal note, I take offense to Bruiser questioning my journalistic integrity. He knows better. After all, I’ve kept my word to him about not revealing that he drinks hard seltzer when he’s not out in public. (Psssst. Ruby grapefruit is his favorite. Kayfabe.)
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Until next time, keep safe and stay #ROHStrong!
Kevin Eck is a veteran pro wrestling journalist who has worked for The Baltimore Sun, WWE and WCW before joining ROHWrestling.com. Eck’s Files appears every Friday.
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