ROH World champ battles former Impact World champ to draw; AEW wrestler calls next

Jonathan Gresham’s Terminus promotion closed out the debut show with a bang. Wrestlers from ROH, Impact, and AEW all appeared to set up directions for future shows. It was enough to make your head spin with euphoric delight.

The main event saw Gresham defend the ROH World Championship against Josh Alexander in a Pure rules match. Alexander experienced travel issues, but this was one fight he refused to miss. Alexander hopped into his truck to drive 14 hours to make the show.

Gresham and Alexander battled to a double pin draw. As Alexander executed a suplex off the turnbuckles, Gresham hooked his feet up to cradle Alexander upon impact on the mat. Alexander did the same for a simultaneous double pin. In my opinion, I would have judged the win for Gresham, because he initiated the pinning sequence and secured it first by a split-second. However, both men’s shoulders were on the mat, so it enters that fuzzy gray area in the rule book.

Earlier in the evening, Bandido successfully defended his ROH World Championship against Baron Black. Bandido was originally supposed to defend the belt against Gresham at ROH Final Battle, but Bandido pulled out due testing positive for COVID. Gresham was then booked against Jay Lethal. ROH turned that PPV main event into a title bout without stripping Bandido, so there are now two world champs in ROH.

As Terminus wrapped up, Bandido made his way to the ring to confront Gresham.

Both wrestlers were intent on finding out who is the true ROH champ, but a surprise appearance from AEW’s Santana complicated matters. Santana challenged Gresham for the ROH World Championship.

Challenge accepted for the next Terminus show on February 24.

That closing scene produced several potential directions weaving through a few different wrestling promotions. The most clear cut match will be Gresham versus Santana. As a fan of Santana, I love to see him branching out into bigger things.

For the ROH title controversy, I prognosticate that Gresham versus Bandido is a prime attraction for ROH’s return on April 1 with the Supercard of Honor PPV. Throwing Impact into the mix, they could pick up with a rematch between Gresham and Alexander. That could be a little more complicated though. Alexander is on the path to becoming Impact’s next world champ, so neither ROH nor Impact would want their man to lose. In the meantime, Gresham will defend the ROH World Championship against Steve Maclin. That bout airs Thursday night (Jan. 20) on TV during Impact Wrestling.

Terminus quick results:

• Jonathan Gresham retained ROH World Championship against Josh Alexander in a draw
• Dante Caballero & Joe Keys defeated Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi
• Bandido retained ROH World Championship against Baron Black
• Jordynne Grace retained Impact Digital Media Championship against Kiera Hogan
• Diamante defeated Janai Kai
• Mike Bennett defeated Moose
• Daniel Garcia defeated JDX, Invictus Khash, and Adam Priest in a four-way eliminator
• Lee Moriarty defeated Josh Woods

Terminus had a few surprising results on paper. Josh Woods, who holds the ROH Pure Championship, lost clean to Lee Moriarty. Moose, who is the current Impact World Champion, lost to Mike Bennett via technical foul. According to the rules for Terminus, throwing an opponent over the top rope is a foul. Moose did it twice, thus the disqualification.

Terminus is available on replay through Fite TV.

Share your thoughts on the Terminus debut. Is Gresham versus Santana enough to sell you on Terminus’ next event?