Jonathan Gresham Says The Idea For His Character Was Inspired By Kingpin From Daredevil

Jonathan Gresham’s on-screen persona was inspired by a Marvel Comics villain.

Speaking with the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, the Ring of Honor Pure Champion was asked about what he watches to study in-ring work and promos, respectively. He acknowledged that he was never big into promos, however, he noticed that if he wanted to start doing more, he would have to start talking more. Already using The Octopus as a nickname, Gresham said the following about where he got the inspiration for his character:

“I was never into promos. I never really gave it any time. I had a generic deal that I would always say. I was doing a lot of spot shows for years so I never really had to do a lot, so it was easy for me to ignore it. Now that I’m in Ring of Honor and I’m noticing that if I want to start doing more, I got to start talking. Okay, what do I talk about? I kind of found my gimmick from watching different movies. I think I watched Daredevil and I was watching Kingpin talk and then i was like, ‘yo, that’d be dope if I was like an evil underground boss. But how can I do that because of course, I’m smaller than everybody else? I was like how can I make that look like I can control these people, talk a big game, and people believe it? So I kind of got my idea off of that. I already had the name ‘The Octopus’ but it just kind of flowed together after that.”

Whether Gresham was referring to Michael Clarke Duncan’s Kingpin or Vincent D’Onofrio’s remains a mystery.

Gresham would conclude by saying that the person he studies the most right now is Jay Lethal. He appreciates how natural he sounds on the microphone, joking that he always has to stop himself from doing a “raspy Triple H voice.”

On the latest ROH Week-By-Week, it was announced that Jonathan Gresham will defend his ROH Pure Championship against Dak Draper at Ring of Honor’s 19th Anniversary Show on Friday, March 26.

Fightful will have live coverage of the event. You can keep up with the updated lineup at Fightful’s events section.

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