Exclusive Insight Into Working Relationship Between ROH And GCW

On yesterday's episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily, Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman sat down with GCW owner Brett Lauderdale. It was recently announced that The Briscoes will be defending the GCW Tag Team Titles against Effy and AJ Gray in ROH. Lauderdale discussed what the current relationship is between GCW and ROH.

"Well, it's hard to say because who knows what ROH's future even holds at this point? Obviously, I've talked to Ring of Honor, and I met with people in their management," Lauderdale said. "Getting to do stuff with their talent, especially The Briscoes, it's a very involved process that requires multiple people approving and signing off, so that was a whole process, and certainly, we talked about lots of different possibilities and things that we could do or may do.

"To be honest, I was as surprised as everybody else last week when I saw the news about Ring of Honor, with the contract statuses and I guess their game plans going forward. I certainly was not privy to that, nor would I expect to be. We didn't have any elaborate plans. Everything was just kind of take it as we go and let's just see how this goes, and then maybe we can do that, and let's see how that goes and maybe we can do this. There was no intricate plans, other than let's see how this goes. It probably remains the same at this point because, again, I don't know what the future holds for them. Effy and AJ are there trying to get our titles back. That's all I know right this minute."

ROH announced last week that after Final Battle, they will be going on hiatus to "reimagine" the company to prepare for a return at SuperCard of Honor in April. As a result, talents were released from their contracts and are free to take outside bookings. An ROH talent who has done plenty of work for GCW as of late is former Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham, and Lauderdale talked about what it's been like to work with Gresham.

"Gresham, we've worked with several times. He's awesome," Lauderdale stated. "He's a pro's pro. He's most definitely one of the best wrestlers in the world. There are no holes in his game, and it's always a pleasure to have him. He's a very top level performer and professional. I hope to work with him more."

ROH World Champion Bandido has been announced for an upcoming GCW event. However, with so many top talents all of a sudden available, Lauderdale noted the issues that can come trying to choose who to book.

"It appears that way, and, of course, we've talked to a few," Lauderdale noted. "It's very tough right now because there's a lot of people that are really good performers and good people that are now available for bookings, and in a perfect world, you'd love to be able to find room for everybody, but it's not always that easy.

"We're just one company. We have a lot of shows, but also, we only have so many shows. I'm going to, hopefully, try to work with as many of these people as possible, but at the end of the day, we already have our own thing going here. I hope to get to work with as many of these people as possible, but it's just gonna be one of those things where it's just one day at a time, and let's see who's next and what's next and hopefully, everybody comes out okay on the other side here."

You can follow GCW on Twitter @GCWrestling_

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