The main event of the evening saw Gresham put the ROH Championship on the line against AEW's Santana of Proud and Powerful. Like the previous bout, this was contested under Pure Rules. Santana grabbed a mic before the match began and put over his opponent before asking if they wanted to wrestle or fight.
Gresham nodded and shook his hand as the ref called for the bell. They locked up and Santana tried to take the fight out to the floor. Gresham rolled right back in. Santana hit a back elbow and tried to do the same thing again, but the ROH champion was not having it.
Santana was finally able to send him out of the rope and hit a suicide dive that sent him into the first row. He hit Gresham with a massive chop that visibly knocked a bunch of sweat off of his chest.
The champ brought the fight back in the ring and started wrestling Santana down to the mat instead of allowing it to turn into a brawl as Santana wanted. He kept the New York native grounded with several different submissions.
Santana was issued a warning for using a closed fist as we reached the 15-minute mark. Over the next five minutes, both men came close to pinning the other several times.
As Gresham had Santana down for the pin, the ref screwed up the timing and allowed him to kick out. They reset and Gresham got the win. Gresham and Santana had some fun in the ring before shaking hands and hugging to end the show.
Grade: B+
Every other bout on the card had a 15-minute time limit, but this one was given a full hour since it was the lone title match of the night. Of course, the only used about 20 minutes.
Unlike some of the other contests that just felt like competitive fights, this match had a story to it. Santana wanted to fight with his fists, but Gresham made him work the ROH style. It was simple but effective.
It was nice to see Santana presented as a big singles star after spending so much time in AEW as a tag team specialist.
The finish being botched by the referee kind of killed the flow at the end, but it was a couple of seconds out of 20 minutes of great wrestling, so it's hard to be too upset about it.
Terminus has now put on two good shows in a row. Let's hope this promotion thrives so we can have more companies that can give wrestlers a decent way to make a living.
