The hype for the first Terminus event had been building for quite some time and that momentum finally came to a head when Jonathan Gresham and Baron Black’s collaborative promotion made their official debut this past Sunday, January 16th. The card featured eight matches with talent from multiple different promotions, as well as two championship matches. Although I do see the promotion finding its footing as the months go on and they hold more events, the first event was quite underwhelming. Some of the matches fell flat, production was spotty at times and something just felt missing from the show in an overall sense. Nonetheless, let’s get into the results and review for Terminus!
Terminus: Modern Age Grappling Results and Review – 1/16/21
Lee Moriarty defeated Josh Woods (8:54)
A solid opening match between two of the rising stars in the world of technical wrestling. The match should have been a tone-setter for the rest of the card but didn’t live up to that because it was a bit short. The counter sequences were good and I definitely foresee both of these guys being a big part of the promotion going forward.
Match Grade: B-
Daniel Garcia defeated Adam Priest, JDX, and Invictus Khash (12:24)
Daniel Garcia was far away the best part of this match, and it was clear he was going to win from the start. Everybody in the bout held their fair share in terms of striking, specifically Adam Priest who’s a part of my local independent scene.
The bout was elimination style and took on the rules of an ROH four-way match — where only two people can be in the ring at the same time. These rules can be a bit of a bother at a time and they were in this match.
Garcia eliminated JDX with a low blow pin (that the referee didn’t catch, I believe?). Shortly after, Priest was eliminated by Garcia after taking a vicious clothesline. Garcia then put away Invictus Khash by unloading palm strikes onto his skull, causing the TKO. The match itself was average, but I vastly appreciate how strong Garcia looked here.
Match Grade: B-
Mike Bennett defeated Moose via DQ (6:38)
This wasn’t good in the slightest. There is going to have to be an adjustment to the rules because this just doesn’t work at all.
Within the first 30 seconds of the match, Moose sent Mike Bennett flying over the top rope — therefore giving him a ‘warning’. After that, the finish was very predictable and devalued any of the actual wrestling that was happening in the ring.
When Moose did the same thing only five minutes later, he was disqualified. Hopefully, these types of finishes don’t become a habit.
Match Grade: F
Diamante defeated Janai Kai (7:25)
The event continued to plummet with this match. Although Diamante was a last-second replacement, these two had virtually zero chemistry and it, unfortunately, showed in-ring.
Much of the offense didn’t look believable and both women seemed confused with each other at times. Janai Kai is one of the brighter spots in US women’s indie wrestling, but this match just was not good.
Match Grade: D-
Impact Digital Media Championship Match: Jordynne Grace (c) defeated Kiera Hogan (8:18)
If you give Jordynne Grace and Kiera Hogan eight minutes, they’re likely gonna make the most out of it. This was a matchup of pure strength from Grace and pure agility/speed from Hogan. The two have worked together plenty in the past, being involved in 31 other matches together according to Cagematch.
INSANE #Terminus pic.twitter.com/fh4R0uowUL
— NailsAndNY – Egomaniac (@NailsAndNY) January 17, 2022
I do wish it was awarded a few more minutes, but I enjoyed it for what it was.
Match Grade: B-
ROH World Championship Match: Bandido (c) defeated Baron Black (14:05)
This bout had a few bright spots here and there but was average in the overall sense of things. It was a lot slower of a match than I anticipated — and the crowd clearly expected more as well. Bandido pulled out his usual stunts but the match wasn’t paced well enough to make it work.
Baron Black impressed me here. I’ve seen very limited amounts of his work aside from his AEW Dark matches — which obviously aren’t the best display for the talent on the losing side of those matches.
If this match would have been paced differently, it would have been better.
Match Grade: C-
Dante Caballero & Joe Keys defeated Fred Yehi & Tracy Williams (14:26)
At this point in the show, it was frustrating because there hadn’t been an excellent match yet. In my opinion, the Pure Rules format just doesn’t work with tag team matches. More than any other match, you need a face/heel dynamic in tag bouts and that’s hard to portray with the Pure format.
Similar to the previous match, this just never got into that second gear. Fred Yehi and Tracy Williams had some fantastic sequences, but Joe Keys and Dante Caballero just didn’t impress. I’ll reiterate again that both Yehi and Williams turned in strong performances, but couldn’t quite carry the entire match.
Match Grade: C-
ROH Original World Title Match: Jonathan Gresham (c) & Josh Alexander – Double Pin (16:52)
This was great — and honestly, how could it not be?
Josh Alexander used his size advantage to overwhelm Jonathan Gresham as the match went on. When Gresham is fighting ‘against the odds’ per se, he’s at his absolute best. Alexander seemingly played more of a heel role as the match went on, which only added to that appeal. The mat wrestling was all super sleek, which complimented the rough fighting parts that the bout had.
.@TheJonGresham is so damn good! #TERMINUS pic.twitter.com/oRZgCeZFPJ
— 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐕𝐞𝐧 (@WrestlingCovers) January 17, 2022
My only issue was the finish. Non-finishes are such a dire issue in today’s wrestling landscape and for a brand new company to end their debut event with one… it leaves a sour taste. I understand the ‘real sports feel’ that they’re going for here, but it was done in better ways on other parts of the show.
Match Grade: B+
While Bandido and Gresham were having a staredown after the match, AEW’s Santana made an appearance. This was a genuine surprise and since he’s already been announced for the Terminus’ second event, I’m interested to see where this goes.
Terminus Results and Review Closing Thoughts
Terminus’ debut event gets a grade of a C-. There was good, there was bad and there was average. It definitely wasn’t a home run by any stretch, but it wasn’t bad enough to prevent me from giving it another chance and seeing the optimism for the future.
Positives:
- Gresham/Alexander
- Hogan/Grace
- Daniel Garcia’s presentation
- Fred Yehi
- Lee Moriarty
- Santana
Negatives:
- Production/Crowd Volume
- Flow/Match Order
- Kai/Diamante
- Bennett/Moose
- Specific Rules
How did you feel about the results of the first Terminus show? Sound off in the comments below.
The first Terminus event can be replayed here. Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world. Stay tuned for more Terminus results and review articles as the promotion grows.
