Ogogo clears up the online situation involving himself and Jonathan Gresham.
Coming out of the 2021 Ring of Honor Final Battle pay-per-view, Jonathan Gresham was now the world champion of the company as they were planning to reboot in spring 2022 before being purchased by AEW President Tony Khan.
After Gresham won the title, Anthony Ogogo sarcastically sent his congratulations and said it reminded him of when Hornswoggle became champion. This led to online back and forth between Ogogo and IMPACT Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace, Gresham’s significant other.
While Ogogo was on Cultaholic’s Desert Island Graps show, he explained that he was having fun and actually wanted to get a match with Gresham at PROGRESS Wrestling. Ogogo dove into how some people take themselves too seriously, but added that he and Gresham hashed things in-person.
Fuck ‘em [Ogogo laughed]. If I did [get any flack regarding my comment about Jonathan Gresham], my favorite phrase, f*ck ‘em… So, life is short. We don’t get a long time in this life, we don’t get a long time on this earth. It’s about having a good time. I was a boxer for 18 years. I’ve had 21 surgeries in my life… My body aches every single day. I’m 78 percent blind in my left eye. Boxing is the most brutal sport in the world where you’re getting punched in the head. Nothing’s more serious than that, when you walk to the ring thinking, if I have a low left hand, if I make one mistake, I could get rendered unconscious, I could get beat in my brain. My wife could watch me become a vegetable… become not me now, right? So, when I get into wrestling, I wanna have fun but then you’re wrong, wrestling hurts, it’s hard and taking bumps suck and getting hit hard sucks. It’s a really, really, really hard industry. However, I lived 18 years of my life busting my ass. In boxing, I did everything right. I never cheated, never missed a day of training. I gave it my all, I still came out with a bad eye and a bashed up body with my dreams incomplete. At this chapter in my life, I just wanna have fun. I’ve been enjoying myself… I love wrestling, but I could make more money doing something else. I could have made a living, a better financial living… an easier living [Ogogo laughed]. It hurts taking bumps, it hurts getting suplexed into chairs… Easier ways to make money so I did this job because I wanted to do it. I don’t need to do this, I want to do this. The second this isn’t fun for me anymore, I’ll do something else, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. The second this isn’t fun for me anymore, I’ll do something else, I’ll make as much if not more money and I’ll take no bumps and my head’s not gonna get bashed up. So I do this to have fun. Now some people — I was not aware of this. Some people take themselves very seriously, which to me is hilarious. It’s so funny to me, people take themselves so seriously. So for me, I respect people but I love banter as well and there’s a difference there but when the banter — when people can’t take a joke and start getting funny and start getting personal and start saying things on social media that’s actually not true and trying to be spiteful, I can be spiteful. I can have fun, I can be spiteful so, yeah man, I’m very, very, very hard to offend. Don’t talk about my family, that’s it. You can’t hurt me, I’m bulletproof. I’m bulletproof so like, I have fun. Some people are bit more made out of glass than me, which is fine but I’m just here to have fun, have a giggle. I respect that man and what he’s done. I respect his ability, I respect his talents. I think he’s actually really, really, really good and I was poking him because I wanted to wrestle him at a PROGRESS show. I wanted to have some fun with him and make a little cool match. That’s what wrestling is all about; putting bums in seats, having a giggle, having a laugh, some great entertainment and having a punch-up at the end of it and everyone goes home happy, everyone wins. But it got blew out of proportion, like massively. But it wasn’t for a lack of respect, but when they kind of started saying things about me and about stuff which isn’t true, I felt I could play this game but I was never malicious. I was having fun, it was funny and if somebody’s small, I say he’s small and they get offended from me saying they’re small, but if you are small, I don’t understand it, and actually, by me saying you’re small and you’re still one of the best wrestlers in the world, that proves how good you are. It wasn’t a knock. It was silly high school banter but by doing that, I’m showing you how good you are. You’re still a world champion or at that world title level. You’re really, really, really good but listen, we had a chat… at the airport, we had a chat and we put everything aside. I think we did anyway, which is cool. See, somebody I’d love to wrestle though because there’s a needle there, there’s some friction that will never go away. So, I’m sure we’ll have a banger match. But yeah, we had a chat after that.
Not for me [the social media backlash is not hard to take]. If you think I’m a cunt and you don’t know me, f*ck you mate. I don’t give a f*ck… There are people on the roster that maybe, I don’t know, that were friends with him and thought what I was doing, I was being mean to him and if they don’t like me because of it, if you don’t like me without knowing me, f*ck you. I could not care less. Now if you know me… then you know I’m not being nasty or malicious in any situation. You know me, where it came from and there’s people on the roster who I’m really, really, really close to and they know me. If you don’t know me and you’re making a judgment, an assessment from a wrestling character where I’m a bad guy, mate, bruv, come on. Listen, you need to go and take a long, hard look in the mirror and those people, f*ck ‘em. They don’t mean nothing to me. F*ck ‘em.
Gresham was signed to AEW/ROH but it had been reported by Fightful Select that Gresham requested his release from the company. He last competed for the organization(s) at the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view where he lost to Claudio Castagnoli in the opening match.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Cultaholic’s Desert Island Graps with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
