More On Jonathan Gresham Allegedly Requesting ROH Release & How Tony Khan Communicates To Talent

As reported earlier today, Jonathan Gresham has reportedly requested his release from AEW & ROH, after a conversation with Tony Khan last night ended with Gresham cussing him out. Fightful Select has more details on the incident, as well as how Khan generally communicates with talent in AEW.

Gresham met with Khan and others at 4 PM ET, shortly before the Death Before Dishonor PPV. He was said to be heated and not happy with his booking and the direction of his character. While the plan was to keep the conversation private, by the time it was over, most of the locker room and staff could hear how it was going. Even security was able to hear the conversation.

In the week leading up to the show, Gresham talked to QT Marshall several times and that went well, as did his conversations with Sonjay Dutt. Gresham was mostly frustrated with creative, which ends with Tony Khan, as well as not getting any answers. He was told that creative decisions went through Khan, who couldn’t meet with him until a few hours before the PPV started.

The standard process in AEW these days is that talent speaks to one of the coaches, who then talks to Khan, particularly if the conversations are about booking. The coaches give Khan ideas either from themselves or talent, and then he decides whether or not to include them in the plans. Then then answers are given to the talent. Those involved are usually coaches, Christopher Daniels, QT Marshall, Pat Buck, Megha Parekh and Sonjay Dutt. Khan talks with Dutt and Parekh “at least ten times a day.” There have been situations, however, where Khan has tried to talk to talent directly, but that hasn’t happened as often since the residency at Daily’s Place.

Those in AEW believe that Gresham made up his mind before the meeting even began, and they hadn’t seen him that angry. It’s believed this was due to Gresham’s passion towards ROH, the brand and himself. There was said to be a “disconnect” between the ability to talk to people about creative and it being seen as “creative control.” Gresham had a vision about his own direction and how things should happen with him, and it was different from what Khan and ROH wanted. One note is that Gresham reportedly did not want to turn heel, but ROH thought there was a “bigger picture” for it. The finish of the match had at least been hinted to Gresham, but it’s unknown if he knew before yesterday.

As noted, several former AEW talents have had issues with a lack of communication, including Joey Janela and Marko Stunt. Janela added that he hadn’t talked to coaches before his exit while Stunt said he did email AEW in an official capacity.