wrestling / News

Gary Juster On Scrapped Plans For Live ROH TV Show, Company’s COVID-19 Protocols, Jonathan Gresham Winning Pure Title

December 11, 2020 | Posted by Blake Lovell
Ring of Honor ROH Logo Image Credit: ROH

Gary Juster, who currently serves as the Director of Operations for Ring of Honor, was a guest on the Wrestling Inc. Daily, where he discussed ROH’s scrapped plans for a live weekly television show, the company’s COVID-19 protocols, and much more. Here are some highlights:

On the scrapped plans for a live weekly TV show: “We had, fortunately from our corporate owners, been given the go-ahead, and you’ve seen now, create a new set to really upgrade our look. We had plans to do a live show, and we had a big plan for 2020. And then everything came to a screeching halt in early March when the pandemic took over. We were tentatively looking at that (a live weekly TV show) to start in July, and of course, like I said, everything got sidelined.”

On ROH’s protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic: “Well, it’s obviously very strange with no crowd. We put safety first. Our corporate parent and our company, it’s always been safety first in terms of the wrestlers the staff [and] the arena people. I think we test probably more than anybody. We create a very firm bubble when we do our tapings, and it’s worked for us. We’re under the auspices of the Maryland State Athletic Commission in the state of Maryland, and we have worked with them in terms of drawing up protocols to give kind of a maximum protection we can give considering what we do. And it’s been successful for us.”

On Jonathan Gresham winning the Pure Tournament: “First of all, Jon’s a great performer, and he’s a terrific technical wrestler, so it plays to my old school prejudices. The Verne Gagne days were the days where the amateur wrestlers were the ones that Vergne put on a pedestal, and actually, Verne was active in the amateur wrestling game up until his dementia set in. He couldn’t be himself, but he was always pushing it on TV. So Jon is a pure technical wrestler. So I thought that was great. Past that, I don’t get involved in talent [and] in booking. I leave that to Hunter and others. I learned at an early time in my promoter career to stay away from the booking side, and I have been pretty successful at doing that.”