Gresham had a significant conversation with Khan ahead of his death, according to multiple sources
The opening match of ROH’s Death Before Dishonor 2022 was for the ROH World Championship. The two wrestlers involved were as follows: Jonathan Gresham, reigning champion before getting his release from Ring Of Honor and Claudio Castagnoli, who had been requested by Gresham to win the title in order to make their working relationship more amicable.
In a meeting before Gresham beat Khan, the ROH president reportedly insulted Gresham. Further, the report by Fightful Select said that there was much more to the situation.
Gresham, Khan, and other members of the cast were participating in a conversation about the direction of their character on Death Before Dishonor when that conversation was overheard by building security as well as other members of the production, who claim to have heard them discussing it. When the conversation ended, Gresham reportedly became visibly upset and even asked for his character to be given fewer liberties off-camera.
AEW’s apparent lack of communication, as well as previous stories from wrestlers like Joey Janela, went on to report that Gresham was very frustrated. Gresham had some discussions with QT Marshall and Sonjay Dutt, with Khan ultimately having the final say on creativity. In order for Gresham to meet with Khan per requests, he had to wait hours before their meeting.
The report revealed that Marshall and Khan are not the only ones who use talent agents as go-betweens, such as Pat Buck, Christopher Daniels, Megha Parekh, and AEW producers. All other questions about talent and booking had to be relayed to Khan directly.
From the wrestling side of things, the report states that Gresham came in to the meeting, seemingly made up his mind, and believed he knew exactly where he should go with his character and heel turn. Gresham and ROH disagreed on whether or not to focus on what drew people to him in The Artist Case as an artistic performer or a villain. It might be suggested from the outside that ROH was planning for Gresham to have a big-time heel run on top of some big-time company push.
Gresham vs. Claudio may have been the shortest match on Sunday’s card at just 11:30, but rumours of an ending had been hinted to Gresham before Saturday’s show. It is not known if he knew about it ahead of time though.
