Bryan Danielson Says He’d Have Been Perfect To Face Jonathan Gresham At ROH Final Battle 2021

Bryan Danielson says he would have gladly wrestled Jonathan Gresham for the Ring of Honor World Championship at Final Battle 2021.

Jonathan Gresham was scheduled to face Bandido for the Ring of Honor World Title at Final Battle. This event was the last event that Ring of Honor would have before going on hiatus.

Unfortunately, Bandido tested positive for COVID and had to be replaced by Jay Lethal. Bryan Danielson, who was very instrumental in the growth of Ring of Honor, says that he would have liked to step into that role instead but he did not know about the needed change until the day of the event.

“So it’s interesting,” said Danielson to Sports Illustrated, discussing how he learned Bandido was out of the Final Battle match. “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 realize until Saturday morning [the day of 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.

Danielson added, “I’m not sure that would have even been OK with the state my knee was in on Friday [Bryan had tweaked his knee days prior on Dynamite], but I think that’s a match that a lot of wrestling fans would want to see.”

Speaking of Jonathan Gresham, Bryan Danielson would say that that is one name that he does want to wrestle eventually. Jonathan Gresham, much like Bryan Danielson, honors pure wrestling and said as much in his post-victory speech at Ring of Honor Final Battle.

“He’s one of the guys I want to wrestle,” said Danielson. “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.”

Jonathan Gresham has a busy January. He will be defending his title at GCW and his first-ever TERMINUS event.

Learn more about the formation of TERMINUS in a new interview that Jonathan Gresham had with Sean Ross Sapp.