Champion Turns Heel On AEW Rampage, Joins Faction

By ComicBook.com Staff

Ring of Honor World Champion Jonathan Gresham has aligned himself with Tully Blanchard's new stable. Gresham tagged with Lee Moriarty to take on The Gates of Agony (Toa Liona and Kaun) on AEW Rampage, but ultimately came up unsuccessful. Before the bout concluded, Gresham walked out on his tag partner, leaving Moriarty defenseless against Liona and Kaun. While Liona and Kaun were hitting Moriarty with lariats and gut checks, Gresham sealed the turn at ringside by embracing Blanchard. Gresham is the fourth man to join forces with Blanchard's group, as former FTW Champion Brian Cage is also within the ranks.

Gresham's turn comes just two weeks before ROH Death Before Dishonor, the second ROH pay-per-view event under Tony Khan's ownership. It was previously speculated that Gresham would defend his title against Cage at that event, but that seems unlikely given that the two are now within the same stable.

While the world title picture remains up in the air, numerous other championship contests have been announced for Death Before Dishonor. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler of FTR will put their ROH Tag Team Titles on the line in a Supercard of Honor rematch with Jay and Mark Briscoe. The Blackpool Combat Club's Wheeler Yuta will defend his ROH Pure Championship against the Jericho Appreciation Society's Daniel Garcia. ROH Television Champion Samoa Joe squares off against Jay Lethal with the gold up for grabs.

Another title bout that was teased on Rampage revolves around the ROH Women's Title. Following their tag victory over Christina Marie and Kayla Sparks, Serena Deeb turned on partner Mercedes Martinez, potentially setting her sights on Martinez's ROH Women's Championship.

While ROH has solely been running sporadic pay-per-views since AEW President Tony Khan purchased the company earlier this year, Khan has teased plans for consistent Ring of Honor content.

"I would love to get Ring of Honor weekly TV series, or streaming series, wherever it ends up going, very soon," Khan said. "And it's something I'm working on, and I think it would be awesome for the fans, in addition to the great shows they get from AEW. There are a lot of Ring of Honor fans around the world that can't wait until the TV comes back. And I am hopeful we'll have Ring of Honor TV and continue the great calendar of Ring of Honor PPV events. Supercard of Honor was a big success for us, and I'd like to bring Ring of Honor back to PPV as well and follow up on it. I don't know when the TV will start back up on a weekly basis, but that is my goal, to get it going again. It's something I'm working on."

ROH Death Before Dishonor goes down on July 23.

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