Jay Lethal has done it all in Ring of Honor.
He’s the third Grand Slam Champion in the promotion’s prestigious history; “The Franchise” has held the ROH World Championship, Pure Championship, amd the World Television Championship as a singles competitor. He has also held the company’s tag titles with Jonathan Gresham. With such an incredible career, it’s fair to wonder what’s next for the two-time ROH World Champion.
In a recent interview with WrestleZone, Lethal answered that question by stating that he has two goals left as an ROH Wrestler — he hopes to regain the world title, and he wants to help as many people as he possibly can. Lethal also pointed out Eli Isom as someone he paricularly wants to assist because he believes the young star is the future of the company.
“I constantly ask myself that, every day,” said Lethal. “Where do I go from here? And I think I’m in a place where I can only answer that in two ways. One, I would love to be the Ring of Honor World Champion again. And two, I just wanna help as many people as possible. I enjoy helping guys like Eli Isom, or anybody who comes to me with any questions they think that I can help them with. Oh man, I love that. So I mean, [the] only two things I can see myself doing, when I ask what is left, another Ring of Honor World Championship and helping as many people as I can along the way.”
Looking back on his legendary career, Lethal made it clear that if it ended tomorrow, he wouldn’t have any regrets. “The Franchise” stated that he doesn’t have any complaints because he’s proud of his accompishments.
“If I died tomorrow, I’d be a happy man,” said Lethal. “I don’t have a single negative, like I didn’t get to do this or I didn’t get to that, or I wish I did this or I wish I did that. Looking back on my career, if it had to be over tomorrow, I’d be extremely proud. I wouldn’t have a single doubt in my mind that I lived my best life in professional wrestling. Not a regret in the world.”
Lethal is still chasing another world title, but one of his closest allies, Gresham recently joined the mix by entering the World Championship Division. The former Pure Champion has quickly risen up the ranks over the last year, as many fans now consider him to be one of the best wrestlers in the world. Lethal emphasizd that he’s thrilled about this development because seeing Gresham win the title would warm his heart.
“Gresham, man I can only cross my fingers and hope, because I know how much it would mean to him, and he has worked so hard. I could only him to see the Ring of Honor World Championship on Gresham someday. Hopefully sooner than later, but he deserves it….Being one of my best friends, my fingers are crossed to hopefully see Gresham with the Ring of Honor World Championship someday.
“I can’t tell you how much it would warm my heart, man. Because like I said there’s a lot of guys who grind and they just, they’re so good. They’re so good, and they don’t get the opportunity to show it. And I’m glad because when Gresham first got into Ring of Honor, he could barely get matches. And oh man, there needs to be some kind of DVD or some kind of story to show what he was doing when he first got here. He could barely get on the shows. It’s crazy, and now he’s in the world title picture, and soon hopefully he will be the Ring of Honor World Champion.”
You can catch both Lethal and Gresham on this weekend’s episode of ROH Wrestling; alongside the rest of The Foundation, they’ll face Eli Isom, World Fampus CB, Taylor Rust and Joe Keys. The FITE premiere is Monday night at 7 p.m. EST.
The full interview is available here:
