This weekend on ROH Wrestling, Fred Yehi will challenge Jonathan Gresham for the Ring of Honor Pure Championship.
On the latest episode of the ROHStrong podcast, Yehi previewed this match, which is arguably the biggest opportunity he’s had in his ROH run up to this point. He recalled how he was “blown away” by Gresham the first time he saw the reigning champion.
“In my nine and a half, ten years in wrestling, the one wrestler who’s made a very strong impression on me, probably the strongest impression on me, is definitely Jon Gresham,” said Yehi. “I remember the first time I saw Jon Gresham, he wasn’t wrestling as Jon Gresham. He was doing a tag match against AR Fox and Uhaa Nation, who’s Apollo Crews with WWE. This was my first time watching him, and when I tell you I was completely blown away, especially around that time, because you didn’t really see many guys, if any, that were working that kind of a style, that technical, convincing style. But he was so smooth, he was so smooth and believable, and just the precision. And I’d never seen anything like that.”
Yehi then praised Gresham as a wrestler and stated that he’s excitied for this clash with one of the best wrestlers in the world.
“Jon Gresham, man, he’s one of the best in the world, and he’s that Ring of Honor Pure Champion for darn good reasons, man,” said Yehi. “He’s one of the best in the world, if not the best, at what he does. So I look forward to this opportunity to challenge Jon Gresham for that crown.”
“The Savage Weight” continued to compliment Gresham by focusing on the champion’s dedication to his craft. He noted Gresham’s hard work and shared his belief that fans sometimes underappreciate the grind that’s required to become successful in the wrestling world.
“Jon Gresham is the perfect fit for that, that’s up his alley. You watch what he does, like I don’t think that wrestling fans understand enough. I don’t think they really understand enough of what it takes for a performer to get to that level. You watch someone like Jon Gresham, and you watch how he does things in the ring, you watch he moves, you watch how he strings things together, at the end of the day, that’s years of hard work. That’s years of studying film, that’s years of trial and error, and even frustration.
“I just don’t think people really understand the work you have to put in and the frustration and the failure when it comes to honing a craft.”
Yehi also credited Gresham for carving out his successful path despite some of the obstacles he has faced in his career, namely as a competitior who doesn’t meet the stereotypical size of a wrestler.
“He’s gotten himself to a point where he’s made it work for him in spite of some of the disadvantages within pro wrestling, especially during a time where he was coming up, where you were not six feet tall and you were not a certain weight, people didn’t really give you those kind of opportunities,” said Yehi. “But the fact that he persevered through all of that, and he just took this wrestling thing and took it to a whole ‘nother level, man, I just don’t think people understand that. And I don’t think that’s really spoken of enough. You watch that, that’s a lot of hard work that’s been put into his craft.”
The full episode is available here:
