TERMINUS
All Roads Lead Here
January 16, 2022
Salvation Army Kroc Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Salvation Army Kroc Atlanta

Watch: FITE

The debut show of the new Terminus promotion hits our screens this Sunday via FITE.

What is Terminus? 

For those unaware, Terminus is a new promotion from Baron Black and Jonathan Gresham. Announced in November, Terminus hopes to carve out a spot into the hearts of professional wrestling fans left by the hiatus of Ring of Honor.

The show is based in Atlanta and the name (Terminus) is an homage to Atlanta’s railroad history. Black and Gresham are good friends who trained together in WWA4 in Atlanta and now they bring their collective heads together for this new venture. After years of bouncing around ideas, they believe the time is right to produce their vision of what professional wrestling should be.

The Directive/Rules of Terminus

Clues to the goal of Terminus are evident in the recently published “directive.”

This is a set of rules in which Terminus believes will set them apart from other promotions. From listening to Gresham and Black on various podcasts, they seem to be focused on a strict rule structure for the show he wants to produce. They are of the belief that so loose in modern professional wrestling today, it’s hard for heels and faces to act appropriately and gives them a bigger mountain to climb when trying o get over. The directive is created in an effort to solve that perceived problem.

A quick look at these regulations seems to suggest that promotion will be geared towards fans of a technical, mat-based approach, with the rules seemingly created to discourage cheating, outside interference and eliminate fighting outside of the squared circle. Gresham appears to be a firm believer that there is a market for a more pure-based show in the absence of Ring of Honor and time will tell if that rings true.

How strictly enforced the rules will be on the night remain to be seen, but with rules such as what appears to be a complete ban on weapons, as well as a set of technical fouls such as no throwing opponents over the top rope, no intentional low blows and no closed fist punching, this tells the viewer that Terminus is promoting a more “pure” based experience where two competitors will attempt to out wrestle each other rather than take shortcuts to win. The one free nut shot should appeal to 2018 Shinsuke Nakamura, right?

Time will tell how “strictly enforced” the rules will be or if Terminus have booked themselves into a restricted corner. But I’m personally intrigued. I am a fan of the gimmick on paper and if they can execute their planned approach on the night, this may be a very enjoyable pay-per-view experience. Hopefully, a lot of consideration has gone into how the rules will be implanted from a booking point of view and the promotion is not handcuffed from the offset.

That said, I’m gonna relax and not get too caught up with the rules.

The Terminus Commentary Team

The familiar voices of Lenny Leonard and soon-to-be Indie Hall of Famer, Dave Prazak will be providing our play-by-play needs, which will only be a massive plus for me. If any team can get the promotion, especially the rules over, it’s these guys.

Terminus All Roads Lead Here Card

To help accomplish Black and Gresham’s vision, they have assembled a bunch of talented individuals for their debut show. The red-hot Josh Alexander, the ever-promising Daniel Garcia and former Ring of Honor alumni such as Jay Lethal, Bandido and Mike Bennett, have all joined the project and are more than capable of providing pulling together for an entertaining show.

  • Liiza Hall vs. Janai Kai
  • Impact Digital Media Title Match: Jordynne Grace (c) vs. Kiera Hogan
  • Terminal Eliminator Four-Way Match: Invictus Khash vs. JDX vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Adam Priest
  • Bandido vs. Baron Black
  • Fred Yehi & Tracy Williams vs. Dante Caballero & Joe Keys
  • Mike Bennett vs. Moose
  • Jay Lethal vs. Lee Moriarty
  • ROH World Title Pure Rules Match: Jonathan Gresham (c) vs. Josh Alexander

My new year resolution was to watch more wrestling and I feel this is a great place to start outside of the more mainstream promotions. Terminus looks like a fun card on paper, with Gresham vs. Alexander the stand out match for me

Whether the directives work long-term is unknown, but it should make this card interesting for fans at the very least. I am more curious than excited but ultimately this card has the potential to be very enjoyable. I’m all for variety and this promotion can easily fill a niche in the independent wrestling scene.