Former ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham is launching ROUND 1, a new professional wrestling promotion built around his Modern Age Grappling style, with its first event set for Saturday, January 9, 2027.
Gresham announced the project Monday on X, framing M.A.G. as the style and ROUND 1 as the promotion. He called it “a new platform” and “a different approach,” created “in collaboration with 1FW & PRODUCE.”
“We’re creating a space for another expression of professional wrestling to exist,” Gresham wrote. “This is the beginning.”
A promotional video accompanied the announcement, showing a packed, intimate crowd with fans and family at ringside and a muscular wrestler wearing a gold medal cutting an impassioned promo before the clip closes on the ROUND 1 logo. No venue, opening card, or ticketing details have been announced.
Who’s Behind ROUND 1
Both partners already have ties to Gresham. 1FW (1 Fall Wrestling) is QT Marshall’s Georgia promotion, relaunched in 2025 and released weekly on TrillerTV+ and MyAEW. Gresham wrestled Jay Lethal, his former ROH World Tag Team Championship partner, at a 1FW taping in Atlanta on July 17.
PRODUCE is the New York wrestling series presented by Orange Crush, with Adam Abdalla as creative director. Gresham co-produced and headlined its debut, PRODUCE Volume 1: The Octopus, on June 29 at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, beating Fuminori Abe by referee’s decision in the main event. The show paired wrestling with live music, including a performance from Abel Ferrara.
Both companies stream through MyAEW, which added PRODUCE as its second independent promotion in June.
Modern Age Grappling, Take Two
ROUND 1 isn’t Gresham’s first promotion built on the concept. He co-founded Terminus, which billed itself as Modern Age Grappling, with Baron Black in 2022, then ran a standalone Modern Age Grappling show that May in Hampton, Georgia. He told Fightful at the time that the show was built entirely around his own vision.
Past MAG matches were scheduled for six five-minute rounds, with three rope breaks per wrestler and closed fists prohibited. Wins came by pinfall, submission, count-out, knockout, or referee stoppage. ROUND 1 has not yet confirmed its rule set.
The launch caps a comeback for Gresham, 38, who suffered two strokes in August 2025 and returned to the ring in early 2026. He has since worked for GCW, Maple Leaf Pro, 1FW, and PRODUCE.
