Steve Maclin is a big fan of Jonathan Gresham.
The current reigning IMPACT world champion spoke about Gresham during a recent interview on Fightful’s In The Weeds program, where he recalled a match he had with The Octopus that was contested under Pure Rules. Maclin remembers that showdown very vividly as he believes it showed him how Gresham is one of the best technical wrestlers in the world.
Pure technical genius, he is. One of the best in the world. Doesn’t get enough credit. I know people talk about it, but he needs to get more credit for how good he is. That was one of those matches going into that I was open-minded. ‘This is your realm, teach me how we can make these rules work and put into a story and how we can make this work to be pure awesomeness.’ For the 12 minutes we had in the match, I think we made the most of that story and telling that story, especially with the rules that go into it.
Maclin continues, stating that having the rules be so important in a wrestling match makes the story of the match better. The champ finishes by saying he was very proud of the match he and Gresham had.
That is one of those things in pro wrestling and tag wrestling, where, if you abide by the rules and make them mean something, it makes the story and the match so much better. That was one of those matches that I’m very proud to have. A lot of people have come to me and said, ‘I really enjoyed that match between you and Gresham, I would love to see it again.’ Maybe down the road that is somewhere we go. I would love to do another match like that because it pushed me to my limits on the technical side. I’m not the most technical wrestler in the world, but I know how to adapt to it and work with it. I’m very proud of that one.
Elsewhere in the interview, Maclin spoke about winning the IMPACT world title at the recent Rebellion pay-per-view and how he felt about his wife winning the Knockouts title on the same night. You can read about that here.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)