On January 16th, ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham and Baron Black are presenting the debut show of their TERMINUS promotion. The full lineup for the show has been unveiled and the event is taking place at The Kroc Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
Baron Black hails from Atlanta and on top of his dates with All Elite Wrestling, he often competes in the state of Georgia. I caught up with Baron to promote the TERMINUS show and within the conversation, he spoke about the Championship Wrestling from Atlanta tapings that he was a part of in October 2021. CWFA is under the United Wrestling Network banner and Baron said there is going to be more of that branch coming in 2022.
Those [Championship Wrestling from Atlanta] tapings were good. If you have not seen Championship Wrestling from Atlanta, it’s on YouTube, go catch up on it, you know what I mean? It’s quite a few episodes but not too many so it’s something you could definitely binge watch, some great matches on there. I’ve had some great matches on there and yeah, we will be returning in 2022, date will be announced soon and as it stands right now, yours truly is number one in the power rankings which means Chris Dickinson, which means Chris Dickinson! When you come back, your ass is mine and that championship is mine so, heal up because I want all the gold.
The TERMINUS match card features Lee Moriarty, Kiera Hogan, Jordynne Grace, JDX, Fred Yehi, Alex Coughlin and Josh Alexander to name some of the competitors.
Baron shared that originally, he and Jonathan Gresham planned for this show to take place in November of 2021. They decided to bump it to January because of Gresham’s dates with ROH, NJPW and the independents along with Baron’s independent dates and his work with AEW.
Quite a few reasons [why we moved TERMINUS’ debut from November to January]. In November, everything wasn’t really lining up, the talent that we wanted to use, to contact, [Jonathan Gresham had] an appearance for New Japan STRONG which was running the same weekend and I also had to do work with AEW which was Full Gear week so, it wouldn’t have worked very well with both of us trying to do our own respective things that we do and then try to come back and do a show and then go right back on the road again. It was like it was not going to work so we decided to push it out of November, push it to January and it seems to have worked out very well that we did that.
Baron is getting his first shot at a world championship at TERMINUS when he takes on the ROH World Champion Bandido. He spoke about the match and although he has the mindset of treating it like he would any other match, he’s aware of the magnitude of it and that he’ll be in the spotlight.
I think the correct answer to that is I treat it [ROH World Title match against Bandido] just like any other professional wrestling match. But I understand what it is at stake. I think we all understand what is at stake. This could very [well] be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not everybody gets to challenge for a world championship. This will be my first time challenging, in my career, for a world championship. So you best believe, you best believe with all your being that this is going to be one of the most hellacious, aggressive, pinpoint accurate performances of Baron Black you will ever see, because becoming world champion is something people cannot take away from you. You keep that forever and to have it be the Ring of Honor World Championship, that makes it even more sweeter. So yes, to answer your question, it’s yes and yes. Yes, I treat it like every other match and yes, it’s more than every other match, because I have a chance to really walk out as a world champion. So, it’s pressure there and I know I have to be on point because Bandido is no joke, he is one of the best wrestlers in the world. He’s probably the top luchador in the world right now. But, I do know I have scouted a lot of lucha libre wrestlers, a lot of luchadors and I went to war with a luchador before named Rey Fenix so I think I got enough data that will help me in this match against Bandido.
Back in September of 2021, All Elite Wrestling announced the signing of 2015 NBA Draftee Satnam Singh, who is currently training at Cody Rhodes and QT Marshall’s Nightmare Factory school.
Satnam stands at 7’3 and he was the first Indian-born player to be drafted into the NBA. Baron is a member of Cody Rhodes’ Nightmare Family and is regularly present at the training facility. He often works with new trainees and has been the training partner for Satnam on several occasions. Baron believes that Satnam will surprise people when he makes his in-ring debut.
I’m at [the] Nightmare Factory regularly, on a very regular consistent basis so, I’ve interacted with him [Satnam Singh] a lot. I have been training partners with him a lot. He’s training there closely with the coaches so, he’s coming along very nicely. I think he’s gonna surprise a lot of people. He definitely has the ability and all the characteristics and all the tools needed to succeed as a professional wrestler and most importantly, he seems to have a passion and drive for wrestling which is a recipe for success with any athlete coming from any other sport because they already have that condition in them, they already have that passion for what they do so they already try to be the best at what they do and he has that and him being damn near 7’4, he’s gonna be a problem when it’s all said and done and it all comes together at the end so, I’m really looking forward to when he finally gets to debut because I think people will be pleasantly surprised at what he can do.
The Nightmare Family consists of talents that have trained at the Nightmare Factory. Black explained what it means to be welcomed into the group. He was brought in along with Fuego Del Sol, KiLynn King and Red Velvet.
He said that Cody is willing to put his name on the line and vouch for any of the wrestlers he’s added to the Nightmare Family. Baron feels that he owes a lot to Cody.
The most important thing that comes along with being part of the Nightmare Family is being a family. That’s the first and foremost [important] part of becoming Nightmare Family. You basically become part of an extended family related to the Nightmare Family and obviously Cody Rhodes. It’s a very, very humbling and appreciative type of feeling for somebody of that character and that caliber and that level in professional wrestling to really put their stamp of approval and name on you. Especially if it’s somebody that just got to know you over the last two years, you know what I’m saying? Especially with this case between me, Fuego [Del Sol], KiLynn [King] and [Red] Velvet. Obviously, we’re not direct products of being trained under Cody Rhodes but we obviously connected with him in a certain way to the point he’s like, ‘Yes, these four individuals is somebody I will vouch for, somebody I will put my name on, somebody that I feel very strongly about to the point that I’m going to put them a part of my extended family which is the Nightmare Family brand.’ So, I was just taken back by that. He has no… what’s the word?… Damn, I’m getting tongue tied just thinking about it.
No [it’s not ‘reasons’]. He has his reasons. That’s why we’re there, that’s why we’re under it but, it’s not mandatory for him to do anything like that. That’s all about his personal feelings towards the individuals at hand so, I really take that very highly. For somebody of his level to like, ‘Hey, this is a guy that I put my name on, this is one of my guys.’ You know what I’m saying? So, that really hits right here [the heart] a lot, you know what I’m saying? Because it speaks volumes about how somebody views your work and your work ethic because you know, everybody on Twitter knows, before he changed his Twitter, everybody on Twitter knows his thing was all about ‘do the work.’ That’s his moniker, that’s his hashtag, that’s his thing and if he’s gonna put [his] name on you, he feels like you have done the work and you continue to do the work and you have passion for this business and you are so driven that you can’t be denied, you become undeniable and I think that definitely defines me, Fuego, KiLynn and Red Velvet so, it’s a good thing. It’s a very, very humbling and good thing, and we owe everything to that guy. We really do.
The main event of Ring of Honor’s Final Battle event saw Jonathan Gresham defeat Jay Lethal to become ROH World Champion. Gresham is in possession of the original ROH World Title belt. Towards the conclusion of the match, the ROH locker room came to the ringside area for the final stretch and along for that was Baron Black and IMPACT Wrestling Digital Media Champion Jordynne Grace, who is Gresham’s significant other.
Baron shared that talents coming to the ringside area was not planned and it happened on the fly. He said one person made the first move and everyone else followed suit.
That was really just an organic moment, you know? Like someone wanted to go out, I know I was thinking about it [going to the ring for Gresham vs. Lethal at Final Battle] and then hey, somebody made the first move and then everybody else just followed. So, that was this really organic moment that happened at Final Battle. It was pretty cool so, I was like, ‘Yeah man, let’s just go out there and let’s see.’ Yeah, I was the first one that jumped in the ring [after Gresham won the title]. This man has really — he really fought, like literally for his life to get to that pinnacle and the amount of obstacles he had to overcome to become Ring of Honor World Champion, maybe one day in the book, he’ll put it out there. You know, that’s for his story to tell but he overcame a lot of obstacles, a lot of roadblocks to get to that point of becoming Ring of Honor World Champion so, I was over ecstatic for my friend. A little bit too over ecstatic to the point [that] I came in and rushed him and he fell to the ground, you know what I mean? He was breathing all heavy from having that crazy match with Jay Lethal so, yeah, he was definitely happy and I know that was a goal he always wanted to achieve even early on in our training careers when we was coming up training in Atlanta so, to see that actually happen and to see it unfold over the few years and somebody finally hit something of that significance, that big time goal they’ve been trying to get, it was just heartwarming. It was a very heartwarming situation, it really was. I don’t think y’all [have] ever seen him smile that much ever. I don’t think y’all [have] ever seen him smile that much.
Back in 2012, Baron Black had a singles match against Zenshi, who often competes for Major League Wrestling. Their match took place for Beyond Wrestling and a moment during their match went viral and was featured on shows like Tosh.0.
Zenshi attempted to go for a double moonsault and underrotated which led to him landing on his head. Baron was not aware of how Zenshi landed because he rolled towards the turnbuckle. Here’s his recount of the situation:
I was not expecting you to bring that up [Baron laughed]. Every time I try to get away from it boy, it keeps coming back. Like every four months, somebody — that clip goes viral, you know. Viral, viral. Yeah, it still goes around. It’ll just randomly pop up and everybody will see it for the first time again. It’s wild but, yeah, just real quick on it, a lot of people ask me where in the match — [I was turned] to the turnbuckle so I never actually seen how he [Zenshi] landed. All I did was roll back in and he was already down. But, considering that he wasn’t moving, I figured that he knocked the wind out of himself or something but I don’t know, so I just, you know, I just went ahead and go ahead and pinned him and then he told me what happened while I was pinning him so I was like, ‘Oh, okay. So I guess this is the end of this match,’ and then it wasn’t until I actually seen the video back later that I was like, ‘Oh, that looked pretty, pretty ruthless. That looked pretty ruthless’ so, even just Tosh.0 and seeing all that and everybody not knowing what I actually saw is just — we could go back and laugh at it now because he’s perfectly fine and healthy, but people was just dogging me out, you know what I mean? The memes were just coming left and right and this man said, ‘He’s gonna get this win by any means necessary.’ It was all types of stuff so I was like, ‘This is crazy’ but, yeah, that’s pretty much what happened.
Headlining TERMINUS is Gresham defending the ROH World Title in a Pure Rules match against former IMPACT World Champion Josh Alexander. Tickets for the event can be found at this link.
To keep up with Baron Black, his Twitter is @TheEmpBruh and his Instagram is @the_empbruh. Our full interview can be watched via the media player at the beginning of this article or on the Andrew Thompson Interviews YouTube channel.
